Master John: Peripheral safety and feedback system for practitioners of BDSM Position paper for CHI 2006 workshop Sexual Interactions:Why we should talk about Sex in HCI

Chris Noessel Cooper San Francisco, CA 415.810.7127 chrisnoessel@{hotmail.com, gmail.com}

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Master John is a design for a graduate I undertook the Master John project while at school project for practitioners of BDSM, a graduate studies at Interaction Design set of sexual practices involving giving Institute Ivrea (IDII). In the workshop with psychological or physical control to another Hitachi Design Center Milan, students were person. The design for the system involves a challenged to design an interactive mobile sensor cuff for one participant and a communications device for an individual feedback cuff for another participant. The they knew personally. I chose an individual I system provides two useful functions: knew whom I had recently learned was 1. A variable-strength, peripheral, involved in high-risk BDSM. haptic signal, which communicates levels of excitement. Understanding Context: About BDSM 2. A scene-interrupting signal, which BDSM is an acronym that stands for: warns of potential physical danger. Bondage, the giving of physical control; Domination, the giving of psychological This project is submitted to the workshop as control; Sadism, the giving of intense an example of the intersection of interaction physical sensation; and Masochism, the design and sexual practice. receiving of intense physical sensation.

Though this was a short project, pursuing The aesthetic roots of BDSM [1] the design goals and building prototypes Being a largely marginalized set of sexual revealed many domain-particular and practices, BDSM is a difficult thing to trace universal design questions: How can historically. The commonly accepted theory computer technology fit into BDSM within the community is that BDSM philosophy? Through what channels should emerged from World War II soldiers, who output signals be delivered? How best to sexualized the intense emotions of their present health data to discourage even wartime experiences and associated them riskier “edge play”? with the severe utilitarian aesthetics and the psychological domination required of the Keywords: BDSM, biofeedback, sex, military. Upon returning back home to the affective computing, peripheral computing, States, soldiers found a similar aesthetic in wearable computing, augmented reality the motorcycle community, specifically the Harley-Davidson community. BDSM’s aesthetics thereby emerged as a hybrid of mid-century motorcycle and military look- and-feel. The system comes in two parts: an upper Modern practice arm cuff for the sub with biosensors; and a BDSM is practiced differently by every forearm cuff to receive and process the person who participates. There are, however, signals for the master, with actuators to certain recognized commonalities on which deliver the output. I based my designs. The sub cuff The dom, or dominant, assumes control and The upper cuff for the sub—standard attire responsibility of the scene (see below). A for BDSM—is augmented with biometric master is someone who exclusively assumes sensors and powered with rechargeable this Dominant role. The title of the project batteries. This places the sensors on a broad, comes from this term. mostly unmoving point of contact that

enables accurate reading. [3] The sub, or submissive, grants the dom control and responsibility. The sensors, embedded in the harness and

based on BodyMedia’s SenseWear armband In the negotiation, which occurs before and technology, monitor the following data. outside of the scene, the sub and the dom • Galvanic skin response, which discuss what they expect from the scene and correlates to emotional intensity their personal boundaries. The safeword (see below) is often defined in the negotiation. • Heart rate • Blood oxygen levels The scene is when the BDSM takes place, • Temperature where the negotiation plays out. This is what most people think of when they hear the The data is wirelessly broadcast from the term BDSM. harness and picked up by the cuff.

The safeword is the safety catch for the The dom cuff scene. If either participant feels that the The forearm cuff worn by the dom picks up scene is getting out of hand or too much for the broadcast signals, with a hidden antenna him/her to handle, by speaking the safeword, coiled around the arm. The electronics are he/she signals to the other that they wish the powered by rechargeable batteries. scene and its fantasy to stop immediately. It signals that they want to take back control The cuff receives the biometric information and responsibility for themselves. Notably, and software watches for trends in the data. any verbal communication other than the It serves two types of feedback to the safeword can be considered part of the master: A peripheral signal for monitoring scene. the sub—called “feelback”—and a interrupting signal for warnings—called Design of the system safeword. The kink is BDSM, not medical, so all technology should agree with leather “Feelback” aesthetics and be incorporated into existing The cuff is outfitted with four small, gear to minimize the social weight of the variable-speed pager vibrators along its device [2], which is quite high even given length. Their strength of vibration correlates the limited size of the forum. Further, to the galvanic skin response data from the positive signals passed to the users must be sub cuff. The dom registers this low-fidelity peripheral. Negative or warning signals haptic signal in the periphery of his/her should, of course, be intrusive. attention.

Why is feelback useful? conceivable that the dom never tell the sub In the context of a scene a sub may, in that it is there, putting the cuff on the sub as service of the fantasy, be speaking counter part of the scene. This placebo approach to his/her actual feelings, e.g. “No! No! gives the responsibility of safety to the Stop!” How is the dom able to tell if the sub individual who would ordinarily assume it, is actually enjoying themselves? Galvanic while honoring the intentions of the sub. skin response is tied to emotional excitement. In most contexts, corollary data How should output signals be delivered? is needed to determine if the excitement is The form and channel of the three types of positive, e.g. pleasure, or negative, e.g. fear. signals are determined by their use. They are In the BDSM context, however, intensity designed to be eyes-free and hands-free as itself is the desired effect, and so this signal this is most appropriate to mobile needs simply to be passed on. interfaces.[4] Since the Master John system is passive input and output, there is no call Safeword for interaction design for the input. The safeword function has two levels: warning and alert. The feelback signal is only useful for the dom, so it should be private. Personal audio To warn the dom of dangerous trends, the and visual equipment would be invasive or continuous vibration in the cuff is staggered, restrictive to the scene, so haptic output is i.e. if it is vibrating slowly, the dom will feel the remaining choice. This should be true for a few high-speed jerks. This cues the dom to all sex-related, personal-output actuators. pay attention to the scene and resolve any Placement and form factor become the main issues. The cuff also has three small dials at design problems. In the case of BDSM, the base, near the elbow. These low-fidelity cuffs are already part of accepted aesthetics, dials display heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and so are a natural choice. and temperature in red, yellow, and green ranges. After alerts, the dom can glance at The safeword warning signal is delivered the dials to tell exactly what the system haptically to the dom so that, if the detects as critical to get the scene back under dangerous trend is spotted and addressed, control. the dom can address it without stressing the sub and compounding the problem. To To alert of critical biometric statuses, the disambiguate the safeword warning signal speaker on the cuff emits a loud alarm to from the smooth feelback signal, it is given break the scene for immediate attention. a contrasting, staggered quality. The warning remedy signals are dials. Though these dials are foreign to common BDSM Issues raised by the project aesthetics, keeping them small and The design of this system raises some issues controlling their design to be similar to specific to the BDSM domain and a few motorcycle dials, they should not interfere issues for general interaction design. greatly. Additionally, their placement on the inside of the forearm means they are mostly How can computer technology fit into out of sight until the dom needs to reference BDSM domain-specific philosophy? them, as he or she would a watch. Care was The mere presence of a safety system might taken not to place the dials exactly where seem to lessen the meaning of a sub’s “gift one would read a watch, to avoid real-world of control”, i.e. complete trust, to the dom. associations that might spoil the fantasy of How to encourage adoption of such a the scene. system? Little can be done about this objection for purists, as the system is The safeword alert signal should be predicated on safety. However, it is omnidirectional and unavoidable so it is detectable by everyone who could help, and this means sound. Furthermore, being in a separate channel than the feelback signal REFERENCES should prevent adaptation/habituation.[5] 1 The BDSM History Project Does more information encourage riskier http://www.backdrop.net/bdsm-history/ “edge play”? This is entirely possible. It is unsound to 2 Toney A., Mulley B, Thomas B, Piekarski W delete the warning dials, as some indication 92003) Social weight: designing to minimise the social consequences arising from technology use of the nature of the problem is imperative to by the mobile professional. Personal Ubiquitous a quick remedy. But to discourage using Computing 7: 309–320. these signals to get closer to the edge, the biometric data is kept in low resolution. 3 Kasabach C. et.al. (2001) Why The Upper Arm? Factors Contributing to the Design of an One question the author has been unable Accurate and Comfortable, Wearable Body satisfactorily answer follows. Will users of Monitor the system come to rely on such a system, http://www.bodymedia.com/pdf/Wearability_wh such that augmentation becomes a itepaper.pdf replacement for personal responsibility? A 4 Lumsden J, Brewster S (2003) A Paradigm Shift: Alternative Interaction Techniques for Use long-term field study would answer the with Mobile & Wearable Devices. The 13th basic yes or no question (though I fear the Annual IBM Centers for Advanced Studies answer is yes), though such research could Conference (CASCON'2003). Markham, not address the more serious issue of what Ontario, Canada. October 5-9, 2003 can be done about it in the design. 5 Kohn A, Movshon JA (2003) Neuronal adaptation to visual motion in area MT of the Conclusion macaque. Neuron, 39, 681-691. Between the utility of the feelback mechanism and the reassurance of the safeword function, Master John is meant to positively augment BDSM practice. As an example of interaction design for sex, it is hoped to provide an elegant example of aesthetic fit and peripheral augmentation that truly enhances the users’ primary activity.