2026

This thesis presents a series of critical design practices about cockroaches that I have been working on for two years, including the thesis project. My thesis project, Bodily Refusal, introduces a set of apparatuses I designed that can turn the human body into a resource to support the survival of cockroaches. It is a refusal of anthropocentric logic, while at the same time, it is futile. I use a reflective first-person account and annotated portfolio to analyze the interconnections and emerging themes in my two years of practice: I see my speculation on alternative human-cockroach relationships gradually becoming radical. I further explore how the apparatuses reconfigured cyborg bodies; they also enacted quiet yet transgressive refusals. Through reflecting on my practice, I noticed I continually maintain a critical distance from cockroaches. This tension reveals that speculation with nonhumans is possible in tension and does not require physical or emotional proximity.