Louisa is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in London. She has both a critical and analytical, research-based approach combined with a material-centred practice that blurs the lines between design and art. She graduated from the University of Exeter with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and worked as a professional for two years before enrolling onto the Design Products MA at the Royal College of Art.
Louisa Pattisson
My practice draws on my rigorous engineering background combined with a passion for art, aesthetics and an innate curiosity of human behaviour.
I am passionate about critically exploring the sociology surrounding the body, gender, beauty, intimacy, pleasure and sexuality. My work explores these topics through objects, wearables, fashion, furniture and the interaction of objects with the body.
My interest in these subjects has been heavily influenced by a love of art, as well as my own experiences in a female body. I question taboos and stigmas, and push people to examine our ways of thinking and our interactions with each other and our environments. I particularly enjoy exploring this through the lens of what people may view as bizarre or uncomfortable.
Warning: This section contains mature or explicit content.
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Part I: The Quantification of Eroticism in Design
Part II: A Framework for Erotic Design through Positive Objectification
Although the concept of eroticism is distinctly subjective, the human form, particularly the naked human body can and often is presented and contextualised as erotic. The female form is even more so, particularly in a world that has used the sexualised female body in marketing, design, and art as long as it has existed. Visual creative practices such as design and its interpretations are also subjective. Eroticism in design therefore compounds two layers of subjectivity.
I asked the question to what extent could eroticism in design be objectively viewed, and could it be quantifiable?
My aim in this work was to explore how the pursuit of an answer to ‘is eroticism in design quantifiable?’ could give us insight into sexual culture and the way sex and the body is represented and accepted in design. I conducted the investigation without the need to discover a finite answer, but to diligently explore a path to analyse and critically question the use of the body and sex in design.
The final proposal is a framework by which designers can use bodies in design through positive objectification to provide a more meaningful, positive and inclusive representation of sexual culture.
