disgust. desire.

design
F2019
Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde + Teresa Marie Braun

disgust. desire. design is a collection of anthropological experiments created by sacra collective

on the nature of disgust and desire through the lens of design. The works seek to investigate

the roles our olfactory and gustatory perceptions play in generating feelings of desire and

disgust. Additionally, we seek to query what connections, if any, exist between desire and

disgust.

sacra collective is a performance duo (Teresa Braun and Ayodamola Okunseinde) that explores

the manifestation of “the sacred” in private and public spaces. sacra creates

techno-shamanistic, interactive rituals that facilitate transformation within participants by

challenging notions of self in a socio-political context, problematizing ideas of belonging, and

questioning belief systems.

We have always considered our work to be anthropological studies, but in this paper we would

like to more formally situate our work with respect to the senses, affects, and design. We are

investigating affect since the majority of our work relates to the senses, production of feelings,

and design because we take an artistic and participatory design approach in our work.

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os sacrum

In 2016 as part of , she took me back so tenderly, a Capital Fringe festival (Walker) performance

in Washington DC, sacra performed os sacrum, a ritual for cleansing fear.

● The Gathering - Five to eight people are ushered into a dark room by a facilitator, who is

alerted by a bell from within. They enter through the slit of a velvet curtain. They come

with offerings of fears/losses/hatred/wishes.

● Confession - The priests (Braun and Okunseinde) invite the participants to give their

offerings. The participants speak their offerings into a ceremonial staff wired with a

recording device.

● Ritual of the Mixing - Their offerings are gathered & combined. Their words entered are

analyzed by a computer algorithm to generate images (the act of mixing their whispers

into something we all hear). The product of this mixing is the change to a video image on

a table monitor.

● Liturgy - Mixed offerings are transformed by priests. The priests “read” and interpret the

screen to derive a prescription.

● Communion - Interpreted offerings are translated and manifested into edibles (herbs,

citrus, root vegetables) contained within a rice paper nugget. Each participant is fed by

hand their own specific Communal nugget.

● Benediction - Participants leave cleansed after consuming the edible, priests bless the

congregation as they depart.

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 sacra collective. [fig.1] os sacrum altar. [fig.2]

Preparation of Communion. [fig.3] Finished Communion [fig.4]

We highlight this work as an unanticipated example of how design anthropology might be

utilized as a means of generating information, questions, and alternate ways of knowing in

relation to the study of anthropology. os sacum was performed six times during the festival. We

did not initially expect participants to be open and vulnerable with their offerings, but as the

performances continued we realized we had created an authentic sacred space for participants

to feel safe enough to share their deepest fears. We subsequently retooled the performance to

enhance the sacredness of the space by owning the responsibility bestowed on us as priests of

the ritual. A community was formed where participants trusted the sometimes unpalatable

Communion we provided. We, in turn, gained heightened attention to the spoken Offerings.

Additionally and unexpectedly, our attention to our sanitary practice of cleaning surfaces and

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hands with isopropyl alcohol was elevated by the final performances which we retrospectively

attributed to a bond formation with our interlocutors.

Designers

We realized that our roles as creators of the ritual space facilitated trust and community thus

giving participants the liberty to share their fears. Furthermore, through the design of the ritual,

we were able to induce tears of catharsis, unsolicited thanks, and what seemed like genuine

expressions of being unburdened by specific fears after participants consumed the communion.

Though the study of design anthropology retroactively applied to os sacrum provides some

illuminating insights, the other projects discussed in this paper deal with similar challenges of

recording, storing, and retrieving elusive olfactory and gustatory perceptual information. They

involve elements of affects and emotions and an audience or community that is studied. We

endeavor to understand what can be learned when design anthropology is applied proactively to

questions of the senses and affects.

One might be excused to consider anthropology committed to describing and observing the

ways of people and cultures both currently and historically, whereas design is defined as an

engagement with the future. But to make such a stark bifurcation would not only be wrong but

miss what the two fields might offer to each other. Ingold's perspective of anthropology being an

open ended endeavor is required (Ingold, 2007)

Anthropology is comparative because it acknowledges that no way of being is the only

possible one, and that for every way we find, or resolve to take, alternative ways could

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 be taken that would lead in different directions. Thus even as we follow a particular way,

the question of ‘why this way rather than that?’ is always at the forefront of our minds.

And it is critical because we cannot be content with things as they are (Ingold).

Likewise, we take Dilnot's notion of design as a necessary act of affirmation and intervention in

history, culture, and society.

“Genuine design” is therefore a matter of the designer or designers deciding on their own

account what the important problems are… These problems, or these possibilities do not

arise arbitrarily; rather the designer, like the philosopher, intervenes when “in the

present”—which means in the historical situation—there are issues, discrepancies,

unused potentialities that appear as “signs” that a new (historical) possibility (problem)

has emerged. (Fry, 2015)

Viewing the synergy of anthropology and design from these perspectives we see possibilities of

new conceptual schema that lead to novel ways of regarding both fields. Examples include the

design of rituals that compel authentic discussions of affects of fear, a move away from

ethnography as the primary method of meaning production in anthropology, and the designer as

observer and participant thus disrupting Johannes Fabian's denial of coevalness and the

"schizochronic" tendencies prevalent in anthropology (Fabian, 1983. p37)

Ingold argues such synergy would be edifying. It would expose us to ways of doing and thinking

that lead us out from our comfort zone, and force us to attend to things in ways we had not done

before…. edification is a kind of reverse hermeneutics in which we think up new aims, words or

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disciplines and go on to interpret our familiar surroundings in terms of these new inventions... as

poets and artists often do.

Though there is contentious debate on perception, the hierarchy of the senses, and the nature

of qualia, for the sake of brevity, we will not address these issues in this paper. We will simply

put forth that though we discuss the olfactory and gustatory, we privilege no particular sense

over the other. But we do wish to eschew the place afforded sight and in association writing as

preeminent methods of anthropology. What are the limits of design anthropology from this

perspective? What questions are disturbed by this approach? What is the role of designed ritual

and performance in eliciting or dissecting feelings of desire and disgust? (Ingold, 2011)

Transformers

Agnes Heller's Five Approaches to the Phenomenon of Shame agrees with Darwin's assertion

that the affects of fear, shame, disgust, anger or rage, joy, and sadness are instinctual remnants

resulting from the demolition of instinct by the domestication of the self. Most affects that are

found among other mammals are empirically universal in the human species. They consist of

consummatory action or consummatory behavior, that is to say, they are a "reflective" response

to a stimulus. Furthermore:

Whenever affects are triggered by something absent, be it a future expectation or a past

memory, they are “impure.” Affects are impure when cognitive elements such as

assessment and interpretation of the situation inhere in the affect. In such cases, affects

are transformed into emotions. In the case of emotions, there are no generically

universal expressions, only idiosyncratic ones (Heller, 2003)

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She reserves shame as an affect/emotion that can occur only among the socialized and

domesticated since it is a social affect that has no natural trigger. Yet in numerous readings we

find moral, social and temporal construction of affects; fear (Virilio, 2012), rage (Rosaldo, 1989),

and disgust (Schweik, 2009).

With these cases we argue against the distinction between "pure" and "impure" affects as they

result in indistinguishable physiological responses. This is particularly the case with the olfactory

and gustatory sense as they are so intertwined and elusive to record or describe.

We don't have a good representation of an odor, it's always a little cloud… we are

terrible about verbalizing the olfactory. They can only be described with visual objects

(Wilson, 2019).

There's a molecule part of the odor of cheese called isovaleric acid, it's just a chemical. If

in a bottle labeled "cheese" you would say yes that's definitely Parmesan cheese. On the

other hand, that same chemical is an important part of the smell of dirty socks. If the

exact same bottle is labeled "dirty socks" you would say that's disgusting, vile, dirty

socks. So it's the same thing you have going up your nose but you are experiencing

disgust or pleasure, and we know that maybe because we have such a difficult time

verbalizing odors? They're very sensitive to context (Wilson, 2019).

One can thus be repelled in disgust or attracted by pleasure/joy (which we call desire) to the

same stimuli depending on social, temporal, or moral context. While the intensity of disgust or

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desire can vary among persons, they can be canalized or suppressed by other affect such as

anger, fear, or eroticism, and vice versa. Simple affects of disgust and desire (as with other

affects) are easily transformed into disgust or pleasure emotions through the social context,

imagination, and fantasy (Heller).

Osculator

"They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss and kiss and kiss in a way that brings down the

house every time." This was the description of the first kiss available commercially on film. In

this silent film clip, we see May Irwin and John Rice intimately seated. Rice aggressively leans

toward Irwin, attempting to initiate a kiss. Irwin begins speaking as if to divert his attention.

Maintaining a close distance, Rice verbally responds. The actors recompose themselves

(including a showy mustache twirl by Rice) and engage in a more formal kiss. Their

performance for the Edison Manufacturing Co. in 1896 caused such a stir that it was denounced

as shocking causing the Roman Catholic Church to call for censorship and moral reform (Library

of Congress).

Heise, William, Camera, May Irwin Kiss, 1896. [fig. 5]

In the twenty-second kiss, we see Darwin's observations ring true. As the sensation of disgust

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primarily arises in connection with the act of eating or tasting (and here kissing), it is natural that

its expression should consist chiefly in movements around the mouth. Since disgust generates

annoyance, it is generally accompanied by a frown, and gestures as if to push away or to guard

oneself against the offensive object (Darwin, 1872). This reaction of pushing or retreating away

from the offending object can be seen in Irwin’s reaction toward the start of the film.

Why does this clip make us ill at ease, elicit a response of "Eww", whereas a google search of

"Best Movie Kisses" generates millions of tantalizing results? The answer lies in two elements of

the construction of disgust in this situation.

One element is the ability of disgust to be transmitted visually. The same "movements round the

mouth", frown, or gestural motions that Darwin describes may be interpreted in the viewer's

mind as a disgust response, the viewer may be predisposed to embody the event or interpret

elements of the event as disgusting even if they have not been party to the offensive scenario.

Irwin's initial gestures of disgust, in addition to the kissers face-to-face talking literally transmit a

sense of disgust to the viewer.

In their paper, The Effects of Emotional Behaviour on Components of the Respiratory Cycle,

F.A. Boiten finds that emotionally loaded film stimuli show clear effects on respiration when the

films elicit amusement and disgust. That is to say, amusement or laughter induce a decrease in

inspiratory time and tidal volume, whereas disgust is linked to a prolongation of inspiratory

pauses (breath-holding). Thus the manner in which physiological response of disgust and affect

interact may be more nuanced than just causal (Boiten).

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Another colleague suggested the kiss seemed contrived and the kissers overly aware of the

camera. But surely not every Hollywood actor enjoys their on-screen kisses. We would like to

suggest the second element in the production of the disgust response in the instance of this film

is temporal. Both the diegetic time of the clip and social time play a part in the generation of the

disgust response. Rice’s aggressive behavior and Irwin’s palpable disgust is particularly potent

in light of the “me too” movement and the importance of consent within romantic relationships.

Simply put, behaviors from a different time or place may elicit a disgust responds in our time and

place. Again we can look to Darwin in his description of the "savage" of Tierra del Fuego

touching his food (Darwin, 1872. p257).

Through Fabian's notion of temporal displacement of the other (Fabian, 1983), we can argue the

placement of the native to a "savage" place and an element from that place touching Darwin's

food elicited a disgust response. Likewise, speaking into each other's mouths and

"manhandling" enhanced by the black and white nature and the uncanny silence of the film

suggests to us the kissers are from another time and space. The intrusive nature of their oral

practices and appearance in our time-space may too evoke disgust. Unlike contemporary films,

the diegetic time of the kiss, that is the time expressing the narrative is compressed to just the

kiss, it is not preceded by time for anticipation or desire, nor is it preceded by time for reflection.

We argue this performance cuts the ritual time that may allow the transformation of this act into

one of romance, or pleasure as is generally present in contemporary cinematic depictions of

osculation.

What is the role of time or performance in perceiving respiratory or osculatory acts as disgusting

or desirable? Can a ritual act of shared breathing transform what might be considered

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disgusting into something desirable or ecstatic as in the case with Hesychastic practices? (de

Abreu). What is the role of trust and familiarity in participating in such practices?

To investigate these questions we created Osculator, a system comprised of rituals via ceramic

vessels. Osculator asks us to reconsider our relationship to breath and the other. Participants,

including strangers, are asked to place their nose and mouth into the opening of the vessels.

They are asked to breathe in either a synchronized, alternating, or unstructured manner. A third

party may place ritual additives of orange peels, lavender, or mint into the openings of the

ceramic vessel to alter the odors emanating from participants mouths.

These rituals have inspired questions regarding the participant's response:

What is the initial response of strangers vs non-strangers to the request?

When and how are participants holding breath?

How long have they known each other?

Can one disregard disgust through ecstasy rituals?

What role does shame or fear of bad breath play in participation?

We don't seek to gain any definitive answers to the questions posed above but have found the

Osculator seems to transmit a disgust response to observers, perhaps due to the fact it is not

socially acceptable to breathe into another's face. However, participants seem to find the rituals

compelling.

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 Osculator I, glazed ceramic, 2019. [fig.6] Osculator I in use. [fig.7]

Osculator II, glazed ceramic, 2019. [fig.8] Osculator II in use. [fig.9]

Osculator III, glazed ceramic, 2019. [fig.10] Osculator III in use. [fig.11]

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Urolagnia

Take a quantity of urine (not less for one experiment than 50 or 60 pails full); let it lie

steeping in one or more tubs till it putrify and breed worms, as it will do in 14 or 15 days.

Then, in a large kettle, set some of it to boil on a strong fire and as it consumes and

evaporates, pour in more and so on, till, at last the whole quantity be reduced to a paste

and this may be done in two or three days if the fire be well tended, or else it may be

doing a fortnight or more (Emsley, 2000. p.20).

This was Hennig Brand's recipe for turning urine into the philosopher's stone. Instead, the

alchemist managed to transform the golden yellow putrified waste into an ethereal magical

substance that glowed for hours and days... phosphorus... "light-bearer"(Emsley).

People generally find urine, feces, vomit, sexual fluids, and worms disgusting. Some play a

direct role in the transmission of infectious disease. Since we are unable to see pathogens, a

disgust response to things associated with disease is evolutionarily sound. Avoiding people

whose appearance or behavior hints that they might have a disease is paramount. It is

particularly important to avoid substances they exude, especially if these look or smell infective.

People who behave unhygienically, are physically deformed, mentally ill, who appear unkempt,

or who cause contamination of the shared environment are subject to a special kind of disgust

that is mediated by society, politics, religion, causality, and the temporal (Curtis, 2013)..

...data suggests that we also have a kind of disgust that is reserved for objects that have

come into contact with things that are contaminated [this reaction, possibly unique to

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 humans, is not dependent on knowledge of a germ theory of disease, but rather stems

from our ability to remember a sequence of events](Curtis, 2013).

One can thus trace how cruelty, rudeness, politicians, immoral acts, etc. through these methods

and associations may become tinged with the patina of elemental disgust or disgust emotion.

Similarly, people and objects associated with disgust may, through mediation with societal

forces, politics, religion, time, and other effects, particularly ones related to pleasure and the

erotic (Wilson), diminish their disgust response. In short, even the value of the disgust object

does not elude commodity exchange as Arjun Appadurai might contend (Appadurai, 1986).

Retrospectively the true "magic" of Brand's process, was not in his discovery but rather his

social transformation. From ostracised social object of disgust, hauling pails of fetid urine, to an

august guest of the highest courts in Europe.

Andres Serrano's Madonna and Child and Andy Warhol's Oxidation, demonstrate similar disgust

object transformation to valued art commodities (expression of beauty and pleasure). Likewise,

the global fragrance industry, rakes in annually over USD 6.7 billion by transforming disgusting

foul elements such as animal feces, musk, urine, and ambergris into products to rouse our

pleasure and erotic tendencies (HuffPost).

These scents and tastes, combined with our own pheromones, play roles from warning us of

disease to aiding in mate selection (Verhaeghe). Exploring such arguments in art and design

projects, for example, Smell Dating (smell.dating), may provide additional anthropological

insight into the role disgust, scents, and taste with respect to pleasure and the erotic.

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 Serrano, Andres. Madonna and Warhol, Andy. Oxidation,
Child II, 1989–1989. [fig.12] 1977–78. [fig.13]

Like alchemists Brand, Serano, and Warhol, we entered our laboratory to test disgust, desire,

and transformation by making the two-part project, Urolagnia I and II, from the recipe below.

Sheet copper scraps. [fig.14]

Copper scraps in urine. [fig.15] Mixing of urine, herbs, and spices. [fig. 16]

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 Collect and scrub sheet copper scraps.

Collect urine (1 pint).

Submerge copper scraps in urine and cover.

Allow mixture to sit for four weeks.

Separate copper and urine.

Urolagnia I Urolagnia II

Form and solder copper scraps into rings. Boil urine.

Form and solder copper scraps necklace. Mix with herbs and spices.

Form and solder copper scraps bracelet. Filter the fragrance into perfume atomizer.

Wear jewelry on bare skin. Spray scent on skin as desired.

While the process of manifesting a design exemplifies the transformation of an idea into the

concept (idea + form), the works undergo further transformation when placed in contact with the

skin. Excretions from the skin such as body oils, calcium, potassium, and sodium form vividly

rich patinas on Urolagnia I. Urolagnia II combined with the wearer's scent results in a perfume

that is unique to each individual.

Whether or not these works are efficacious in eliciting desire (Yuhas) or are capable of imparting

the notion of disgust transformation to an audience has yet to be determined. Again, we don't

seek to give any definitive answers to the issue, but rather offer provocations. A question of how

marketing or advertising can move these products into truly commodified zones, akin to the

fragrance industry, could be a valued undertaking.

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Finished bracelet, necklace, and bracelet. [fig.17] Finished fragrance in perfume atomizer. [fig. 20]

Urolagnia I Bracelet worn on wrist. [fig.18] Urolagnia II fragrance use on wrist. [fig.21]

Patina formation on Urolagnia I Bracelet. [fig.19] Urolagnia II fragrance use on neck. [fig.22]

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Invitation

In this paper, we have begun to investigate relationships between disgust and desire. We noted

several contributions to the transformation of the disgust response from chemical processes to

temporal and social forces. We have demonstrated the role of design in providing imagination,

creativity, and alternate ways of seeing anthropologically. We are challenged by how to convey,

in a balanced manner, the theoretical and aesthetic description of these projects in writing

alone. An installation or exhibition could serve as not only a space to present the works, but

additional means of gathering anthropological data. Though we have tested these works on

ourselves, friends, and family, due to the nature of the work we have been challenged with

finding more participants.

We recognize there is still much to be said on the subject of this paper and we are expanding

our inquiries into disgust and desire with two additional projects, an installation Hematophagia,

and a short film Morgellons, that deal with blood and skin respectively. We invite the readers,

designers, anthropologists, academics and all to participate in our projects and to join us in our

continued work of unfolding the relationships between disgust, desire, and design.

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References:

● High resolution images of figures contained in this paper

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