Ken’s Body, Ken’s Choice

HANNAH NOVACK, M.Arch ’17 and PAUL RASMUSSEN, M.Arch ’17

Baby growing in the fridge

Ken’s Debut

What is more inherent: the body or the mind?

Ken is a product of patriarchal capitalism, presented with the “perfect” body. His corrupting sexuality is purposefully obscured. Ken is a human without any overt genitalia. Ken presents as cisgendered, but is, in fact, sexless. This has caused crippling anxiety for Ken. Ken has been able to overturn the “natural” condition of his body, and install a penis implant through the utilization of 3D technology. The Xenofeminist asserts that nature has been used to justify and perpetuate the patriarchy.  The natural state is by no means sacrosanct. Xenofeminism asserts that “if nature is unjust, change nature!”

This project explores the physical implementation of Xenofeminism’s extreme prophecies for technology in relation to the human body. While the objects of this project were at a human scale, we believe these same principles can also be deployed at architectural and urban scales. More broadly, the seminar challenges students to capture abstract concepts in corporeal, representative objects. These philosophical discussions are reframed through a finite, tangible lens, rooted in a physical reality.