Disco Stick

Nile Tan’s Disco Stick reimagines the joystick as a satirical critique of masculinity, control, and industrial design’s persistent phallic bias. Equipped with a vibration motor that can be activated, the object oscillates between tool and toy, pleasure and power, subversion and compliance. By exaggerating the physicality of control, Disco Stick exposes the gendered coding of design, questioning why so many objects of authority, from weapons to gaming interfaces, take on a distinctly phallic form. Through this playful yet pointed intervention, the work invites users to engage with and disrupt the normalized relationship between dominance, technology, and desire.