"CAN THE SUBALTERN SPEAK?"

How could design be used as a method of interrogation for addressing larger cultural, social, or political issues? How could we explore the possibility of using emerging technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence in order to subvert the status quo? The project presented in this paper is inspired by the historical masks, known as Niqab, worn by the Bandari women from southern Iran. It has been said that these masks were developed during Portuguese colonial rule as a way to protect the wearer from the gaze of slave masters looking for pretty women. In this project two robotic masks seemingly begin to develop their own language to communicate with each other, blinking their eyelashes in rapid succession, using Morse code generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The project draws on a Facebook experiment where two AI bots began to develop their own language. It also draws on an incident when an American soldier used his eyes to blink the word “TORTURE” using Morse code during his captivity in Vietnam, and stories of women using code to report domestic abuse during the COVID-19 lockdown. Here the “wink” of the sexual predator is subverted into a language to protect women from the advances of a predator. Through the lens of the design methodology that is referred to as “critical making,” this project bridges AI, interactive design, and critical thinking. Moreover, while most feminist discourse takes a Eurocentric view, this project addresses feminism from a non-Western perspective.