Tear Gun Collects Users Tears and Freezes Them as Ammunition

At Dutch Design Week, Taiwanese designer Yi-Fei Chen unveiled a concept that turns vulnerability into resistance.

Tear Gun is exactly what it sounds like: a device that collects tears, freezes them into tiny pellets, and fires them outward.

Less about harm, this absurdist art project feeling more about agency.

Raised in a culture where restraint and respect often mean holding back, Chen found herself studying in the Netherlands, where critique is direct and unapologetic.

In one tense exchange, she couldn’t find the words. She cried instead.

Rather than hide that moment, she transformed it. Tear Gun reframes tears not as weakness, but as stored emotion with force. It’s poetic and brilliant.

“Collects, congels, and shoots frozen tears.

Conceived as a result of self-awareness rather than a weapon, it uses the body’s vulnerabilities as an invigorating source of empowerment.“

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