Experimental Body Tech

Ling’s earlier work in this category treats the body itself as a site of technological experimentation, exploring how wearable devices and embedded prosthetics might reshape human movement, perception, and consciousness. It began at The Bartlett’s Interactive Architecture Lab, where speculative prosthetics research questioned the limits of human bearability to technology, producing 3D-printed devices, staged performances, and short films that interrogated the invasiveness of future wearable products. This research continued into later collaborations developed with Umbrellium and independent studios and choreographers, using e-textiles, machine learning, and custom electronics to explore gesture recognition and the relationship between human behaviour and artificially intelligent wearable systems. Across this body of work, the wearable device becomes less a tool than a companion or provocateur: something worn, trained, and negotiated with, rather than simply used.