NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism
Award winning new media narrative of speculative product design, emerging technologies, cognitive research, and transhumanism.
NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism (2017) is an award-winning transmedia art project merging speculative design, emerging technologies, cognitive research, transhumanism, and brain science. Created by and for women of color—and inspired by the absence of Black women in video games, product design, and tech—Hyphen-Labs imagined a multi-layered future that transcends the limits of the present, described by The New Yorker as “another plane of consciousness.”
The project introduced a suite of speculative products themed around protection, security, and visibility: RubyCam, earrings capable of recording police encounters; Hyperface, a textile designed to confuse facial recognition systems; and the Octavia Electrodes, transcranial stimulation devices braided seamlessly into hair extensions.
The VR experience forms the first chapter of this science-fiction universe, placing visitors inside a “neurocosmetology lab” run by the Neuronauts—Brooks and Naima, inventors of the Octavia Electrodes. Instead of receiving ordinary braids, participants are fitted with neuro-enhancing electrodes that transport them into a surreal digital temple where physical and virtual realities blur. After exiting VR, visitors are invited to contribute to ongoing neurological and cognitive research, bringing scientific inquiry directly into public space.
NSAF has been exhibited at Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival (Jury Honorable Mention), Ars Electronica (S+T+ARTS Prize Nominee), Vitra Museum, Gray Area Festival, Primer Speculative Futures Conference, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, No Commission / Art Basel, Stony Island Arts Bank & Rebuild Foundation, NEW INC Versions, and Refinery29’s 29Rooms, among others.
Project Team: Todd Bryant, Halime Maloof, Lajune McMillian, Michelle Cortese, Adam Harvey, [ab]screenwear, Memoire, Mert Çetinkaya, Dyane Harvey, Ludmila Leiva, Adam Sobolew, 2n, Mind Traveler Design
Support: Intel, Oregon Story Board, MIT, Current Museum, Somerset House, NEW INC
Press: Huffington Post, New Yorker, Wired, Indiewire, TechCrunch, The Verge, MIT-Open Doc Lab, Voices of VR, CoolHunting, Colorlines, Voices of America, Forbes, NPR, i-D Vice, The Root Video, The Root, Engadget, NBC, Vocativ, TrendHunter, Copywrite Magazine, FastCo, The Guardian, Mashable, Telegraph, Wired: Hyperface, Creators Project
