The Open Source 3D Printed Speculum
Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A)
London, UK 2021
Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A)
London, UK 2021
It was a real honour to join a global team of makers, curators, activists and researchers invited to explore the digital material and histories of the Gynepunk Open Source 3D Printed Speculum at the V&A, and contextualise the museum’s acquisiton of this unique speculative design artefact for its permanent collection.
Who has the right to control the dissemination of medical knowledge? Who has the right to access the bodies of those who are underserved by society? How are power dynamics associated with ongoing barriers to healthcare access for society’s most marginalised? These are the kinds of questions that GynePunk and its founders including the TransHackFeminists ask, which we explored by producing a series of publications, teaching materials and artworks.
As project lead Anouska Samms explains: "Design does not exist in a vacuum. It can be argued that to understand the relationship between an object and its material fully, we need to consider the social and political questions entangled within an object’s inception. The stories surrounding [the Gynepunk’s] making are not only enmeshed within different disciplines, but also with complex emotions."
- Publication: Access, power geometries and cyborg witches: Unpacking the digital material of the GynePunk – and its omissions
- Teaching kit: What do you carry (with care)?
- V&A film: The Open Source Speculum (Content warning: This film may include triggering and sensitive material, such as content around racism, enslavement, colonial and contemporary medical violence and medical imagery of reproductive organs.)
Who has the right to control the dissemination of medical knowledge? Who has the right to access the bodies of those who are underserved by society? How are power dynamics associated with ongoing barriers to healthcare access for society’s most marginalised? These are the kinds of questions that GynePunk and its founders including the TransHackFeminists ask, which we explored by producing a series of publications, teaching materials and artworks.
As project lead Anouska Samms explains: "Design does not exist in a vacuum. It can be argued that to understand the relationship between an object and its material fully, we need to consider the social and political questions entangled within an object’s inception. The stories surrounding [the Gynepunk’s] making are not only enmeshed within different disciplines, but also with complex emotions."
- Publication: Access, power geometries and cyborg witches: Unpacking the digital material of the GynePunk – and its omissions
- Teaching kit: What do you carry (with care)?
- V&A film: The Open Source Speculum (Content warning: This film may include triggering and sensitive material, such as content around racism, enslavement, colonial and contemporary medical violence and medical imagery of reproductive organs.)
