The hybrid object I am imagining is a transformation of the sense of touch, more specifically the pain and its following physiological reaction. I have been looking into the dominatrix and BDSM lately which is very related to my thesis.
What is BDSM:
Bondage,
Domination,
Sadomasochism.
An Interview With A Dominatrix | Ministry Of
The fact that humans can conflate pleasure and pain or derive pleasure from pain is very interesting to me, so I did some research on what a dominatrix is actually doing and why some people are able to enjoy BDSM experience in different ways.
What does a dominatrix do? Professional dominatrixes describe their jobs as:
A dominatrix plays out a fetish scenario as the top. Someone who controls the situation or orchestrates it or is the puppet master within these confines of someone else's desires.
We're creating scenes for people to play our their fantasies.
Why do some people enjoy BDSM?
It is a psychological/fantasy release. For the dominant, the pleasure may come from the control and authority, and for the submissive, this could be a space to regret and give up their controls of their actions. From a few videos interviewing professional dominatrixes, one thing that is always brought up is the interaction with a dominatrix for some men can be a sort of escapism from toxic standards and expectations - being strong and manly. It is the appeal of being able to relinquish the controls, knowing someone else is taking care of you and at the same time you trust that person. It is also the sense of security that you know you will be ok, so to hand over your body and mind to that person.
It is a "subspace" that is brought on by the body releasing lots of adrenaline and endorphins.
As a submissive, the chemicals increase pain tolerance, creating a floating feeling when pain is introduced. For many, a subspace creates a drunk or high feeling — pain is gone, problems disappear, and your current state of mind is a dizzy of joyful feelings.
Since consent has to be given before every interaction, this actually offers a progressive and safer framework to explore a relationship.
These seem to have given me so many directions to explore in this topic, such as power/control, manipulation, the state of euphoria, consensus in a relationship, etc. In order to narrow the scope, I decided to focus on the pain-as-pleasure aspect. Because compared to others, that is the most relative one to my initial intention.
The physiology changes in your brain when in pain helps regulate your perception of pain, and this also happens when your brain is responding to extreme exercise which is called the runner's high. People often describe this mental state as euphoria - a sense of extreme joy and delight.