BioShield Tear Collector

Bioshield is a project created by Rowan Willow and Amy Traylor, under advisement from Andrea Polli, technical direction from Carlos Gabaldon, and with help from Patricia Melton and Alivia Magaña. It is a work of design fiction based on research from Weizmann Institute of Science that shows female emotional tears have chemosignals that lower testosterone in men. Bioshield dreams up a satirical world where women can harvest their own chemosignals and use them as a deterrent against men, and brings up questions of rape culture, bodily autonomy, sadness as commodity, and consent in a future of biotechnology. It also reveals the how violence against women and other bodies manifests on an evolutionary scale. By 3D printing open source rings that hold centrifuges for tear collectors, Bioshield technology allows you to carry the physical manifestation of your trauma as a defense mechanism on your finger. While we're waiting on social and legislative change, sometimes all we have is our tears. Bioshield has shown at the regional Biodesign Challenge at the University of New Mexico Art Museum, the national Biodesign Challenge at Parsons New School, and at the Global Community BioSummit at MIT Media Lab. For more information, please visit bioshield.me. A 3D printable version of the ring and a copy of the poster shown at BioSummit are included as files at the bottom of this page. If you would like to order a premade ring, please contact rowanwillow.world@gmail.com.
Collected Tears, Collected Voices, Collective Action.
Press links:
https://news.unm.edu/news/unm-team-to-present-design-project-in-nyc
https://biodesignchallenge.org/university-of-new-mexico
https://www.krqe.com/news/unm-students-design-products-to-keep-men-away/