Making Intimate Technologies TogetherShow others and affiliations
Number of Authors: 92025 (English)In: DIS '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference / [ed] Nuno Jardim Nunes; Valentina Nisi; Ian Oakley; Qian Yang; Clement Zheng, New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2025, p. 2818-2832Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Feminist research highlights the urgent need to challenge the oppressive design of commercial intimate technologies, particularly how the FemTech industry restricts access to intimate bodily knowledge through paywalls and proprietary systems. Yet, for decades, women and marginalized communities have turned to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) or ‘hacking’ practices to reclaim control over their own gynecology and intimate health, addressing gaps often ignored by medical research and healthcare. Inspired by visual themes from these movements, this pictorial critically explores how designers and HCI researchers might advance DIY approaches to intimate technologies. We exemplify this with reflections from a series of workshops on handmade intimate sensors, and draw out the joyful potential of collaborative making—building alliances, destigmatizing intimate health, and using craft to subvert gender stereotypes. We discuss matters of safety when making together and contribute to ongoing work on building feminist makerspaces.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2025. p. 2818-2832
Keywords [en]
DIY, feminist making, intimate care, intimate sensor, making, menstrual tracking, open source, research through design
National Category
Gender Studies Design
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-249799DOI: 10.1145/3715336.3735412ISI: 001555741000168Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105020670946ISBN: 979-8-4007-1485-6 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-249799DiVA, id: diva2:2015518
Conference
DIS '25: Designing Interactive Systems Conference Madeira Portugal July 5 - 9, 2025
2025-11-212025-11-212025-12-11Bibliographically approved