Mouth as Provocation: Hacking Interfaces, shifting ableist promises in XR
The audience opened their mouths wide, puffed their cheeks, and extended their tongues to move and interact in XR (eXtended Reality) - embarrassed, uncomfortable and disgusted - reactions that many able-bodied individuals experience when encountering a disabled body. These are the tensions that were confronted in Crip Sensorama, an XR artwork exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival 2024 in Linz, Austria. By hacking AI algorithms, modifying multiple camera-based interfaces to work with otherwise incompatible XR headsets, the developed "mouth-tracking" device enabled the audience to encounter and embody disabled artist Christian Bayerlein mouth gestures - the one he used for his everyday interactions. Why?
Current XR technologies (an umbrella term for Virtual/Mixed Reality) predominantly rely on hand and head movements to explore virtual worlds, reinforcing an able-bodied design paradigm that HCI researchers Gerling and Spiel describe as a "corporeal standard". This ableist framework excludes individuals with limited sensorimotor abilities from full access to these devices. Addressing this exclusion, Christian and I hacked camera-based technology, enabling him to interact in XR using chin, jaw, and tongue movements—redefining the interface to center the mouth as an accessible and inclusive modality.
This presentation will delve into the artistic and technical processes behind Crip Sensorama, demonstrating how the mouth—a visceral organ often tied to intimacy and taboo—was hacked, modified, reversed and transformed into both a practical interface and an artistic provocation. By reimagining the bucca (mouth) as a tool for interaction, the work not only subverted technological ableism in XR but also brought audiences into intimate proximity with disability culture.
