Meet Ece Tan, a speculative designer and researcher I met at the Central Saint Martins. As a trendwatcher & analist it is absolutely fascinating to follow the work of visionary designers and special the ones wha work in the speculative field of design. By presenting alternative narratives, designers like Ece Tan aim to critically engage viewers with possible future scenarios and to create catalysts for debate on the implications of the choices we make today.
In this project, she calls ‘Happy Cow’ she asks herself and us, the audience: “Can we give cows under our care the dignity of pleasure?”
Happy Cow proposes speculative sex toys for cows in order to make standard industrial farming practices more pleasurable for them. It is a design investigation into the arbitrariness of human empathy and the power imbalance between human and non-human species through the lens of commodified farm animals.
When there is a clash with human interests, we tend to disconnect from our impact on other species and the issues we create for them.
These sex toys make a commentary on known industrial farm practices that we regard as an unavoidable part of farming. By recontextualising these experiences and some of the common tools used in a dairy farm setting, the proposed toys aim to make farming procedures more pleasurable for cows whilst bringing their experiences to a level of human understanding.
This project uses design as a critical and provocative tool that questions our current anthropocentric practices and challenges the future of interspecies relations. It seeks to create catalysts for debate and empathy by offering the viewer a new perspective on ethical issues.
The collection of speculative cow sex toys includes “an artificial-insemination dildo,” a teat massager that can be attached to a milking machine pump, and a ribbed latex examination glove.
Ece Tan used silicone as a main material to hint at traditional sex toys.
A cow sex toy may certainly be a first for the agriculture industry, but certainly an interesting exploration of innovative thoughts in order to stimulate innovative thinking. The designs aren’t made for actual use, but to make people reflect on the invasive yet routine practices in the dairy industry, such as milking and artificial insemination, more pleasurable for the cows.