Camille Snyder
MFA Design Research and Development, 2023

Project Description:
Sexual and reproductive experiences have a profound impact on relationships, careers, and the shape of our mutual futures, especially for individuals assigned female at birth (AFAB). This research endeavors to explore the transformative potential that emerges when AFAB individuals are granted agency to envision infinite potential futures. Through co-design and speculative design methods, participants created 24 future artifacts and narratives addressing contraception, sexual pleasure, and menstrual cycles. These artifacts, generated in collaborative focus groups, express participants' fears, hopes, dreams, and expectations of the future. The study also involved focus groups to determine how to share the artifacts, considering questions like who should be invited, how should the artifacts be presented, and what is our intention in sharing? The forthcoming co-designed exhibition will be shared in Columbus Ohio in Fall 2023. You can also view the artifacts here: https://go.osu.edu/sexual-reproductive-futures

The resulting qualitative data emphasizes the value of co-design and speculative design as complementary approaches in design research, while showcasing AFAB individuals' remarkable capacity to imagine diverse and impactful futures spanning generations. The study's conclusions call for further investigation into the synergistic potential of co-design and speculative design, deepening our understanding of imagination's role in shaping future possibilities, particularly regarding complex and sensitive topics like sexual and reproductive experiences

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Committee Members: 
Elizabeth Sanders, Will Nickley, David Staley

Keywords:
Co-design, speculative design, collaboration, sex, reproduction, futures, inclusive, sexual and reproductive futures