PUBLISHED ONNovember 26, 2024 7:12 AMByMelissa Teo Have you ever felt the strong urge to retaliate after someone had hurt you to the point of tears?
Taiwanese artist Yi Fei Chen has, and the incident inspired her to design a tool called the Tear Gun.
The device, created in 2016 and tweaked over the years, is able to collect her tears, freeze them and shoot them.
Fei Chen, who was raised in Taiwan and educated in the Netherlands, came up with the idea after she had had an argument with her mentor over an assignment, she told AsiaOne in an interview on Monday (Nov 25).
"I felt very frustrated and angry, and I just burst into tears in front of my mentor," Fei Chen recounted.
Spurred by the incident, she created the device with the intention of wanting to "shoot" her tears at her mentor — perhaps a representation of the strong emotions that the artist felt then.
"Even though I was crying, I still felt I couldn't just leave during the conversation," she shared.
Arguing back was not an option for her either. Growing up in Taiwan, Fei Chen, who declined to reveal her age, shared that she was taught to respect authority, and this meant that disagreeing with teachers was considered rude.
The tear device was Fei Chen's graduation project, and from the initial idea, it took her three months to create the first "working product".
The mechanics of the device is quite simple. After it collects her tears, it takes 20 seconds to freeze them and turn them into "bullets".
Carbon dioxide, contained in a high-pressure bottle, is used to help the process of freezing the tears. After the tear "bullets" are formed, they are shot out of the device using a spring mechanism.
Fei Chen shared that before proceeding with the project, she had to pitch the idea to the same teacher who inspired its creation — and he was actually very supportive.
"He was quite happy with the result even though it was something [created] against him," she said.
She has even done a demonstration, using the device to "shoot" the same teacher in front of an audience of around 20 students and teachers.
"Everyone wanted to see me shooting the teacher," she shared with a chuckle.
Fei Chen assured that the teacher had worn eye protection during this demonstration as a precaution and that the "bullets" were not able to cause much physical harm.
The Tear Gun later went on to be showcased at major events such as Dutch Design Week 2016 in the Netherlands, 100 Years of Dutch Design at Taiwan Design Museum in 2016, as well as in 2017 at Temporary Art Centre Eindhoven at Dutch Design Week.
Over the years, Fei Chen has gone on to refine the device. During the pandemic, she came up with a third version, which is bigger and has two gas bottles containing carbon dioxide.
While the Tear Gun seems like an invention that would be fun to have, you can't actually buy one.
Fei Chen noted that other than the one time she had used it during a demonstration with her teacher, she has not used it against another person since.
The artist also clarified in an Instagram Reel uploaded on Oct 9 that the tear gun is not about getting revenge.
"The tears are kind of a metaphor of yourself. You find a different angle, a different method to make yourself stronger or powerful. But in a way that keeps you who you are," she explained.
Though the device was first created eight years ago, it has gotten renewed attention recently on social media.
Fei Chen's invention and the story behind its creation appeared in a Facebook page called Enigma Elysium on Nov 6, garnering more than 31,000 likes and 2,700 comments.
Reactions have been mixed; some have praised Fei Chen for her innovative creation.
Others have also said that they need something like this in their lives.
However, the Tear Gun concept did receive some criticism, with one user saying that Fei Chen should have been "accountable" for her own actions.
Another pointed out that Fei Chen should have done her assignment properly and using the Tear Gun "to get revenge" seemed like "a lot of trouble".
And considering the device is a type of gun, we had to ask — has she ever gotten feedback or criticism that it might be promoting violence? Fei Chen told us that she hasn't.
Fei Chen is not just stopping at the Tear Gun — she has other creations in the pipeline that she is excited for.
One is Excuse Me, a chair that she describes as a "social escape tool".
On top of the chair is an inflated balloon that requires the user to "feed" it water.
When the user gets water, they have an excuse to leave the room.
If the user does not feed the balloon with enough water and continues sitting on it, it explodes, releasing thousands of styrofoam balls in the air.
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