Welcome to my creative space. I am Dila, here I share the things I make and explore. I hope you will find something inspiring.
Design Space
4. Squeaky/Pain
Designer & Model: Dila Demir
Photograph by Kadri Tiganik
Extended [Textile] Soma: Somaesthetics of Bodily Discomforts is the title of my doctoral research through which I explore how movement-based interactive textile wearables as soma extensions may facilitate somaesthetic awareness of musculoskeletal chronic pain through mediating explicated interactions of it. I define bodily discomforts as chronic bodily conditions that disrupts the everyday flow of the bodies such as migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, chronic pain, etc. In my research, I specifically focus on musculoskeletal chronic pain as a bodily discomfort. On the other hand, I call movement-based interactive textiles that externalize the pain experience as soma extensions. Through soma extensions I mediate unhabitual interactions of pain as a way to reconnect with our diseased bodies, to find new ways of living and being with pain which is the somaesthetic awareness of pain. To scrutinize the main research question of this doctoral project, I conducted three creative case studies through which I examine different aspects of the main inquiry developing better understanding on the ways to explicate implicit bodily experiences and promoting somaesthetics of discomfort.
Squeaky/Pain is the first case study of my Ph.D. research which examines how chronic pain experience may inform the designing of soma extensions. To scrutinize this research question, I conducted first- and second-person exploration to cultivate the lived experiences of pain. The study started with a first-person inquiry where I explored my pain that resulted in the first prototype of the soma extension. Following that I tested the first iteration with three people who experience similiar chronic pain with me and according to their reflections I designed the second iteration. As a result, Squeaky/Pain is a soma extension that mediates sound-motion interaction mimicking the agony and relief of pain through sound. It uses squeaky wood sound to represent agony and atmospheric pleasant sound to represent relief. This study showed how pain can be used as a design material and how externalized interactions of pain can facilitate somaesthetic awareness. On the other hand, the study revealed that the bodily engagements of the soma extension needs to be enhanced for better somaesthetic interactions. Hence, I explore how to improve bodily engagements of the soma extensions in my second case study Caring Companion.