Felt Experiences, exploring non-heteronormative pleasure

We tend to sexualize everything around us, yet we find it hard to address sexuality in our research. At the same time, there is growing interest in considering the social, emotional, and bodily aspects of the human-computer experience. The subject of sex itself is an elephant in the room - present, but under-researched. In this pictorial, we present a project aimed at making sexual experience available for conversation in a design process. Our project explores how soma-aesthetics can con-tribute to designing objects that challenge standard heteronormative sex toys and attitudes towards pleasure. To do this, we combine a 1st person research approach with a 2nd perspective involving users in soma-design practices that encourage self-discovery towards non-genital sexual pleasure. We analyze the out-comes and argue for a broadening of HCI to include and encourage design for pleasure and pleasure activism.