LGBT HISTORY MONTH - FELLATIO MODIFICATION PROJECT
With February being LGBT History Month, we thought it was the perfect time to look back through SGL’s short history and showcase some of the amazing work we’ve put on show that is related to the LGBT community.
As we still bask in the afterglow of the celebrations of Valentine’s Day, what else could we choose to showcase but the Fellatio Modification Project from practising dentist and new media artist Kuang-Yi Ku?
During our MOUTHY season back in 2016, Kuang-Yi brought his project from Taiwan to London to further explore the functions of the oral cavity (or mouth to me and you), which are commonly thought to be chewing, aesthetics and pronunciation. But what about the fourth function: sex?
A concept that was left unspoken and undiscussed in Kuang-Yi’s dentistry textbooks, the Fellatio Modification Project looked at how transforming your body could possibly enhance sensory pleasure during oral sex, in the context of male gay culture. Through workshops and talks, Kuang-Yi Ku discussed the interrelations between sex, technology and society in the pursuit of physical pleasure. The Project also raised questions about the intentions of changing and enhancing our bodies, and the extremes that some people would go to.
But don’t listen to us banging on about it, hear it straight from the horse’s mouth in Kuang-Yi’s recently released TEDx video (with bonus animal dating app development ideas)!
Over the next decade, it’s widely expected that STIs contracted through oral sex will overtake tobacco smoking as the biggest causes of mouth cancer, so King’s Dentistry students Anisha Gupta and Carly Billing extended the themes of Kuang-Yi’s project to include women and the wider LGBT community.
Whilst some sexual health organisations recommend the use of dental dams for cunnilingus and anilingus, there is still a lack of advice on how to use them safely and effectively, so the Cunnilingus/Anilingus Modification Project was born.
Anisha and Carly worked to conceptualise and design a prototype for a single-use, wearable device incorporating a dental dam-like barrier that can be used comfortably, conveniently and hands-free, whilst also promoting safe sex.
Anisha said of working on the project, “As attitudes towards sexuality and sex become more open and accepting, young people and those engaged in sexual activity with casual or multiple partners, it’s really important that they should be encouraged to embrace safer sexual health practices. The project allowed us to explore creative ways to redesign the prophylactic dental dam into a safe, accessible and pleasurable product, that anyone can use!”
The Fellatio Modification Project and the Cunnilingus/Anilingus Project were featured at the Oral Emporium on Guy's Campus from 1st-4th November 2016, which coincided with the start of Mouth Cancer Action Month, and not only allowed people to better understand the role our mouths play in sex, but also the link between oral sex and the rise in rates of oral cancer due to HPV (human papillomavirus).
February 16, 2018