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OS(W)I Protocols: Open Sx (Workers) Interconnections Protocols (2025)*
In 2018, a popular sugar dating site revealed that NYU had one of the highest number of student sx workers of all U.S. colleges. As sx work is an extremely under-researched topic in academia and often taboo to discuss, this project reveals the radical and multifaceted realities of sx work, specifically centering on college student sx workers, to dismantle societal stigmas and challenge ingrained stereotypes. The work explores how this form of labor offers financial stability and flexibility in a landscape where rising tuition costs and urban living expenses disproportionately burden students. Rooted in the artist’s own experiences as an international student juggling multiple jobs while struggling to navigate the financial pressures of living in an increasingly unaffordable city, the project confronts the intersection of economic precarity and systemic oppression, inviting viewers to consider how patriarchal structures and institutional inequities shape the choices available to young people today.
Structured through the metaphor of the OSI model—a framework for understanding the layers of communication—this piece unravels the hidden story of a single text message exchanged in the context of sugar dating. Each of the seven layers corresponds to a garment worn by a stripper, where QR codes lead the viewer deeper into the complexities of the message, from its sender to its abstracted digital transmission. By combining technology, storytelling, and performance, the project reveals the nuanced and often invisible labor of s*x work while challenging audiences to confront their biases. As the layers are stripped away, the work exposes both the humanity and the systemic injustices underlying these stories, aiming to shift perspectives and foster empathy for those navigating this stigmatized yet empowering space.
“Throughout her sex work career, Macy has always had a day job. She emphasizes that sex work is among the most “humanizing” forms of work, as she's able to set her hours and pay rates to align with her perception of the work’s value. The income allowed her to start seeing doctors and therapists at a time when she did not have health insurance.
“I’ve began to see [sex work] as a form of resistance to a lot of the really exploitative labor conditions that we live in,” Macy says.”
The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model is a conceptual framework that defines how networking systems communicate and send data from a sender to a recipient. The model is used to describe each component in data communication so that rules and standards can be established regarding applications and network infrastructure.
When the OSI Model was established, the seven layers were defined to follow standard principles: