‘pose’ by Karolina Kruszewska

 

‘Pose’ is an educational sex set for the blind created by Polish designer Karolina Kruszewska in collaboration with sex educator Dr. Dagną Kocur. Developed as part of Kruszewska’s master’s thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, the project offers extensive knowledge about sex positions and identifying anatomical features to help guide the visually impaired in intimate acts. This information is released as 13 audio films on YouTube and 3D-printed figurines depicting the five basic sex positions.

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all images © Karolina Kruszewska

 

 

making sex-ed more accessible to those with disabilities 

 

‘Pose is a project dedicated primarily to individual users, sex educators, and organizations. The main goal of the project was to make knowledge available to the blind, hence the decision to record descriptions that everyone could listen to on YouTube. So far, in Poland, there is no product for sex education aimed at blind people. So, this is an innovative project in Europe, where this topic is surprisingly neglected. The descriptions were rewritten with sex educator Dagna Kocur. They are more detailed and pay attention to using the senses other than sight, so as not to exclude those with sensory disabilities,’ writes the designer.

 

The second goal was to describe the appearance of each 3D-printed figure. For this purpose, Kruszewska incorporated Braille reading, a tactile feature considered the closest way for blind people to ‘perceive’ the position depicted by the models.

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five 3D-printed figurines depicting basic sex positions

 

 

To help users optimize their ‘reading’ of each position, Kruszewska had to magnify/rescale certain anatomical parts. ‘The indentations and protrusions had to be larger, and some parts, e.g., feet or hands, were simplified so that a blind person could read the position in the best possible way. An additional advantage of the figurines is their beauty, not visual but tactile! They are smooth, hard, and rounded, making them more illustrative and beautiful,’ she explains.

 

The models come with a support base to stabilize them. Each base is printed with instructions in Braille and features a QR code that links to the audio description of the said position. While the youtube films work perfectly as standalone features, the designer encourages users to listen to the narrative while exploring the figurines. The complete set of films is available here.

 

Karolina Kruszewska collaborated with blind people and sex educators at every stage of the project, which was selected as the 2022 Top design winner for the European Product Design Award in the Education / Teaching Aids category.

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certain anatomical features were rescaled / magnified for optimal tactility

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a QR code that links to the audio description of each position 

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helping the blind identify anatomical features while engaging in sexual acts

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the designer launched 13 detailed audio films on YouTube
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including Braille reading on the base of each 3D-printed model

 

 

 

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project info:

 

name: Pose
design: Karolina Kruszewska

collaborator: Dr. Dagną Kocur

 

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: lea zeitoun | designboom