Physical Computing-“GOT MILK?”

“GOT MILK?”

Project Description

“Got Milk?” by Layal Alshaba, Alexandra Alfaro, Nghi Nhan, and Scott Fredley Our piece, “Got Milk?” was designed for the purpose of inspiring conversations among our audience regarding both how they feel about women breastfeeding in public and discussion surrounding ethics of the machines. What we mean by ethics of machine is that we wanted to ask our audience how it is they feel about machines committing an act that would historically only have been done by a woman. As machines evolve, we are starting to see them enter sectors with much debate surrounding their entrance (Pino , 2015). While we are not arguing whether or not machines have a place in health communities, we did want to ask our audience how it made them feel to witness a machine breastfeeding. The question “Will a robot take your job?” is a question that has been asked in the last decade increasingly so (Marcus, 2012), what our piece is asking instead is, “What if a robot took a job that you feel belongs only to a woman?”. We’ve seen discussions surrounding the discussion of robots taking over work jobs but what about the ‘job of a woman’?

“Got Milk?” was creating with inspiration from learning that “while the United States currently dominates the market in military robotics, nationals such as Japan and South Korea lead in the market for social robotics, such as elder-care robots” (Lin, 6). What this tells us about Western society is that robots are not generally accepted with open arms.

With influences as diverse as Them Fuckin’ Robots (1988) and Cybernetics (1948), we drew new insights from the meaning of how to sexualize a robot and how to best show the connection combining the machine and the human. This helped us as we were creating our design because we were able to find a way to emphasize the breast which was what we wanted our audience to zone in on. By exhibiting a light style of camp we exaggerated the breast and created a performance that while a bit ‘inappropriate and loud’ according to one of the viewers was successful in regards of the attention it received.

While we did step away from our robot during the performance and let it do our ‘dirty work’ for us, us the humans, ran into some trouble at location #3, the ARC at UW Bothell, because it was disturbing those around it. The location(s) we chose to exhibit our performance were purposely at multiple locations to help show the inconvenience women must go through when they need to change locations when they are breastfeeding.

The feedback we received from viewers was surprising to say the least, it was cited for being inappropriate, ‘too political’, ugly, and ‘something that would never happen because robots breastfeeding babies is really creepy’. We noticed a pattern in people of instead of taking a closer look actually walking a specific way to avoid interaction with our piece. A man who we sat the robot next to at one of our chosen locations chatted and asked questions about the piece but then asked us to keep him out of the footage because he didn’t want to be attached to a political statement. The audience’s reaction helped us the creators see the negative stigma associated with robots doing work that has otherwise been that of a human.

Although the feedback we received would be considered negative, we created our piece to question boundaries Western society places on both breastfeeding in public and machines. Our project was ultimately successful because we created reactions among our audience which was our goal. Yes, we might have disturbed some people but we didn’t shy away from it.

Process

To start our project, we as a group wrote a proposal in order to present our project and see if it's reasonable to invest our time in. 

Proposal

For our final project, our team will be creating a robot that breastfeeds in public. With our performance, our goal is to show the relationship between the sexual objectification of women and in turn, the reluctance women have to breastfeed as a result of it. The act of breastfeeding itself presents many opportunities for breastfeeding in public as it’s an activity that needs to happen throughout the day. With this being said, women are constantly inconvenienced, made felt guilty, and as if they are doing something perverse. The sexualized breasts creates a problem for women throughout the American culture in which “breasts are viewed primarily as sexual objects, although the sexual breast is not common historically or cross-culturally” (Dettwyler, 1995).

We also want to bring awareness to the issue of the sexualization of machines. As a group, we all had a common interest in commenting on the obsession of sexualizing robots. Taken from the readings, we wanted to use robots to do our ‘dirty work’, for lack of better terms. We envision a robot sitting on a bench in the outside area of the University of Washington, Bothell campus with a piece that resembles a woman’s breast. The breast would be producing a substance that resembles milk. Our target audience is university students, both male and female.

Our overarching goal with this project is to draw the connection between a) sexualization of machines and b) the sexualization of women’s body parts. By connecting the two we are able to draw the conclusion that both sexualize and therefore, objectify women. In the performance, Them Fuckin Robots Springer identifies as our contemporary fascination with the conjunction of technology and sexuality” (Dixon, 275).

With our performance, we want the audience to question their perspective on women breastfeeding in public. Women have the right to feel comfortable revealing their body parts in public without having to worry if they are ‘turning on’ men or making people feel uncomfortable. It was never a perverse or guilt-inducing act to begin with, it was only put into that perspective by people who have never breastfed themselves. “Breastfeeding women fear that the exposure of their breasts will be misread as a sexual invitation to male strangers and they fear potential consequences of that misreading.”(Zoller,316).

We asked ourselves the question, “beyond the issue of humanizing the experience, are there repercussions resulting from women breastfeeding less?”, and the answer was absolutely yes. Through our research, we discovered that more than likely, it’s women of color being affected more-so than middle to upper class white women. The breastfeeding taboo is affecting women of color more because they represent the population that have less time to spend at home with their newborn children. Not only that, but they consume media that persuades them into believing formula is better for their babies when in fact, numerous studies have shown that breastfeeding positively influences newborn’s development. What this tells us is they have less access to places that would allow breastfeeding or breast pumping due to jobs that offer less benefits which would include lack of lactation rooms, less or no maternity leave, and lacking the option to bring your children to work with you. 

component List

After making sure that our idea is solid and good to go. We started researching what we need to create this project. We listed many components we need, but we came across that most of them were expensive to get. After a long research, we came up with the below list: 

• Pump (http://amzn.com/B00JWJIC0K OR http://amzn.com/B00HR8MS7G)
• Tubing for pump (http://amzn.com/B0046ECL6M OR might have some from fishtank already)
• Arduino Pieces:

1. Battery (phone)
2.  Android Arduino adapter
3. Speaker
4.  Pump
5. Maybe LCD or LED

• Baby Doll
• Phone (for Speaker Use)
• RC car 
• Paper Mache (to make head and breasts)
• Paint (skin tones)
• Body to attach head and breasts 

CIRCULT DIAgRAM 

Moving forward, we started designing our project and creating some "DIAGRAM and SKETCH" 

SKETCH

Project Implementation

This is the phase where our visions and plans become reality! We started creating all parts of our project. This is from painting and soldering to coding . 

Code

Below is the video of the project from inside. It shows how milks runs and how it's connected. 

Audience Feedback

Based on the written feedback we received from 5 randomly selected individuals who observed our performance, we can say that we were really surprised by the type of feedback we received. We did notice some trends in the type of keywords being used such as: “disruptive”, “political”, “strong message”, “inappropriate”, and “unpleasant”. We asked the selected individuals to write about how the performance made them feel, describing emotions they felt when they saw/heard the performance. 5/5 of the individuals claimed feeling alarmed as soon as they heard the baby noise, this being the first thing that grabbed their attention. Because of the authentic baby cry, they actually thought a baby was nearby which they stated was unusual for a college campus, “I’ve never seen a baby in class so I was looking around wondering who would have possibly brought a baby to school” – Sandra Arnez

Based on the comments being made, we can assume that babies on campus are out of the ordinary and would stick out like sore thumb, hence the baby noise being the first thing they noticed. What this tells us about the UW Bothell community is that although, we claim to be an accepting and diverse campus, we lack a community that involves mothers attending college with their young children. With that being said, we move on to the next point of discussion in the feedback, the breasts. The paper mache breasts were a huge part of the aesthetics of our robot, we created and fitted them in a way that would make them stand out the most. The feedback we received was strongly worded, some individuals saying they wanted to part in being filmed because they didn’t want to be a part of such “a big political statement”. One of the goals of our project was to normalize breastfeeding in public, and based on the feedback we received, that is very much needed considering half of our feedback consisted of toning down the breast message or “at least covering it up because it’s unnecessary, you can send your message without being vulgar about it”. If anything, the feedback the ‘negative’ feedback we received reinstated our stance on the issue.

Most of the women actually asked to learn more about what our project was about and once they were informed, they stated: “I think it’s a good message to send though, women should feel comfortable breastfeeding in public”. Upon further discussion, we discovered that although they feel women should feel ok breastfeeding in public, they should still cover up.

An interesting piece of feedback we received was from the director of the ARC, Evan Carman. Right as we were about to begin our performance, he informed us we were not allowed and that we would have to leave. We resisted and even tried to state that we had a ‘right’ to be there since we paid ARC fees and this was a school project but ultimately he said it needed to be reviewed by the board before we were allowed due to fear of being inappropriate. We asked him if we would be allowed to breastfeed and he nervously laughed and said “well..yeah but this isn’t you breastfeeding, it’s a robot so in this situation, no”. People are so uncomfortable by conversation regarding breasts, he literally turned beet red just with the mention of the word ‘breast’.

Overall, I would say we were extremely successful in achieving our goals. Art is meant to disrupt, and that is exactly what our project did. Sure, it might have bothered some people and pushed them to feel uncomfortable but at least it got them thinking which is all we ever wanted.

Quotes pulled from written feedback:

Sandra Arnez –

“It’s really freaky looking and doesn’t look like a woman. It looks like someone breastfeeding but it doesn’t look like a female”

“I think it’s a good message to send though, women should feel comfortable breastfeeding in public”

**Our conversation with Sandra consisted of discussing the question our project was asking which was: “How would you feel if machines took over the job of breastfeeding, a job that has historically been that of a woman”. She felt that if it was as healthy as breastfeeding your kids was it wouldn’t be a problem although she would not use that type

Nahid Khaghani –

“I’m from Iran so it’s similar to the U.S that people don’t usually breastfeed in public.. women who do breastfeed in public cover up with a hijab so you cant see anything. I wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing someones breast, that’s private. I wouldn’t show mine and I’d want people to not show theirs. It’s not that hard to cover up”

Andrew Hoke –

“I don’t want to be in the footage. Seems like too much of a political statement. Breastfeeding in public isn’t a big deal, have you seen what most girls wear nowadays? They are practically walking around showing their boobs even without feeding babies”

Larry To-

“I heard the baby crying and put two and two together. Why is a machine feeding a baby? That could never happen – the breast milk comes from the mother only”

Jack Jacobs –

“That thing is freaky but now that I have more context it makes sense. I like the robotic aspect to it, I think it sends a mixed message."

Team Documentation 

Citations

Marcus, Gary. “Will a Robot Take Your Job?” The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 29 Dec.

2012. Web. 01 June 2016.

Pino, Maribel, Mélodie Boulay, François Jouen, and Anne-Sophie Rigaud. ““Are We

             Ready for Robots That Care for Us?” Attitudes and Opinions of Older Adults

             toward Socially Assistive Robots.” Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience Front. Aging

             Neurosci. 7 (2015): n. pag. Web

Samani, Hooman, Elham Saadatian, Natalie Pang, Doros Polydorou, Owen Noel

            Newton Fernando, Ryohei Nakatsu, and Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh. “Cultural Robotics: The Culture of

            Robotics and Robotics in Culture.” Int J Adv Robotic Sy

            International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems (2013): 5-20. Web.