Constructed Desire: Using Design to Address Notions of Contemporary Sexuality in the Western World

This body of work presents a series of design propositions that seek to address notions of contemporary sexuality in the Western world, particularly in urban North America and Europe. Our evolved sex and love drives find themselves confronted with an ever-changing cultural landscape where sexual norms are enforced and underly- ing instincts are sometimes used for the advancement of agendas and financial gain. Critical theorists and designers translate and expose the existence and operations of ideology, patriarchy, and the unconscious. Using a ‘research through design’ approach and pulling from attitudes and methodologies found in the realm of ‘critical design’ I present a sequence of explorations that are meant to act as proposals, as vessels through which people can reach their own interpretations and opinions about the influence of media culture on how we think about sex, how we have it, and how we talk about it.