Exposition

Dissolving distances: Designing close-to-body experiences for remote settings (2023)

Nesli Hazal Oktay
open exposition

About this exposition

I aim to offer embodied intimacy for people who are close by heart but physically apart. Specifically, I explore designing close-to-body experiences at a distance through intimate bio-rings, rings made of natural ingredients. Intimate bio-rings are highly customizable, can be biodegraded, and start dissolving when exposed to humidity e.g.: rain, sweat etc. The idea of creating a non-lasting object to be worn on the body—that required care, that was ambiguous and tangible—was a result of a prior user study of cultural probing and embodied design ideation. I further experimented with intimate bio-rings by making the ring and wearing it in everyday life together with my father, whom I live far away from. In this paper, I showcase a user study with 3 pairs (6 participants) that made intimate bio-rings at their homes while self-reported and self-documented their personal experiences. They then further shared their meaning-makings with me through an interview. Overall, participants found intimate bio-rings to be supporting new understandings about intimacy at a distance. As a result, their experience of "distance" alters slightly or changes completely by i) embarking on a journey, ii) creating time and space to be together, and iii) carrying each other through a tangible object.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsdistances, intimacy, embodied design, user study
date31/08/2023
published21/12/2023
last modified21/12/2023
statuspublished
share statusprivate
affiliationEstonian Academy of Arts
copyrightNesli Hazal Oktay
licenseCC BY-NC-SA
languageBritish English
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2272473/2272474
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/hub.2272473
published inHUB - Journal of Research in Art, Design and Society
portal issue1. HUB Issue #1 / Autumn 2023 / Distance


Simple Media

id name copyright license
2272522 Dissolving Nesli Hazal Oktay CC BY-NC-SA
2272544 Workshop Nesli Hazal Oktay CC BY-NC-SA
2272597 Rings Nesli Hazal Oktay CC BY-NC-SA
2272620 Participant4 Nesli Hazal Oktay CC BY-NC-SA
2272631 Pair1 Nesli Hazal Oktay CC BY-NC-SA
2272664 Aegna Nesli Hazal Oktay CC BY-NC-SA
2433134 Online diary spreads_Page_01 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433136 Online diary spreads_Page_02 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433139 Online diary spreads_Page_03 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433146 Online diary spreads_Page_05 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433147 Online diary spreads_Page_06 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433152 Online diary spreads_Page_08 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433154 Online diary spreads_Page_09 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433157 Online diary spreads_Page_11 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433159 Online diary spreads_Page_12 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433161 Online diary spreads_Page_14 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433162 Online diary spreads_Page_15 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433180 Open call Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433294 Online diary spreads_Page_04 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433295 Online diary spreads_Page_07 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433296 Online diary spreads_Page_10 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433297 Online diary spreads_Page_13 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433298 Online diary spreads_Page_16 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved
2433299 Online diary spreads_Page_17 Nesli Hazal Oktay All rights reserved

Comments are only available for registered users.