Design Studio 03

The journey in Design Studio 03 evolves toward consolidation and continuity, transforming previous first-person explorations into a grounded, scalable, and critically relevant design path.

In this third term of Design Studio, we are invited to look back at the alternative presents we've been shaping, sometimes consciously, other times intuitively, through our interventions and personal drift. Reflecting on our paths allows us to recognize the ruptures we’ve already created within current systems, while also guiding us to intentionally design toward futures that are more aligned with our values.

In the first term, my exploration was expansive: I navigated across multiple areas such as digital fabrication's environmental impact, human-nature disconnection, psychedelic environmentalism, and sensory augmentation. I deliberately expanded my range of interests without committing to a fixed topic, allowing intuition and curiosity to lead the way.

During the second term, my focus crystallized around sweat: both as a physical phenomenon and as a speculative design material. Here, my way of drifting shifted toward a combination of accumulative and probing. Through successive interventions, I deepened my knowledge and engagement with sweat (accumulative drifting), building a layered understanding through material tests, field experiments, and personal experiences. At the same time, my methods remained probing: embracing unexpected directions, illogical experimentations, and artistic interpretations around bodily fluids, material reactivity, and perception hacking.

Multiscalar design diagram

Now, looking forward, I aim to consolidate this vision into a tangible intervention. My desired alternative present imagines sweat not as waste, but as a resourceful infrastructure of the body: a source of color, data, reaction, scent, and design potential. The installation I’m developing for MDEFest will act as a prototype of this reality: interactive, sensory, and emotionally provocative. To support this, I am designing a roadmap that includes finalizing one line of experimentation (e.g. pH-reactive textiles or crystallization), continuing weekly sweat collection, and maintaining deep documentation and critical reflection.

This stage of the curve is no longer just about sensing myself, it’s about activating a shift in perception for others, using the intimacy of bodily processes to spark larger conversations about materials, norms, and the way we relate to our own bodies.

Topic 1: Present continuities and emerging alternative presents

Present continuities

In the current cultural and material landscape, human sweat is primarily perceived as an uncomfortable or shameful byproduct: something to be hidden, deodorized, or eliminated. Bodily fluids are rarely considered valuable or meaningful within design, material research, or everyday practices.

Alternative present

Through my interventions, I have begun constructing an alternative present where sweat is revalued as a material of expression, experimentation, and potential resource. Instead of being erased, sweat becomes a starting point for design speculation, material exploration, and critical reflection on bodily processes. This shift challenges the stigma associated with human fluids, inviting new conversations around human-centered materiality, resourcefulness, and vulnerability.

Topic 2: Designing a pathway toward my desired alternative present

Present continuities

Despite growing interest in body-centered design and biodesign, sweat and bodily fluids remain peripheral, often ignored due to cultural discomfort, hygiene standards, and aesthetic biases.

Alternative present

I aim to create a present where human bodily outputs like sweat are embraced as valuable, expressive, and sustainable materials for future design. Sweat will no longer be hidden but harnessed, used for responsive garments, material experiments, olfactory artifacts, and critical reflections on the human body as a productive infrastructure. I seek to bridge emotional, sensory, and material perceptions of the body in a more open, curious, and resourceful way.

Next steps?

• A sharper conceptual framework linking sweat with broader critical themes (human extractivism, resourcefulness, stigma deconstruction).

• More refined material prototypes that effectively embody the conceptual narratives.

• Deeper engagement with external feedback (from artistic, scientific, or body-focused communities).

• Use Term III as an intensive prototyping phase, building and refining artifacts while maintaining a strong reflective documentation.