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“How is our concept of family shaped by the rapidly expanding technological possibilities, and shifting understandings of gender, sexuality, identity, and intelligence? What new issues arise with the expanding use of assistive reproductive technology, including in vitro fertilization, egg/sperm donation, surrogacy, egg/embryo freezing, DNA testing, and gene editing? These reproductive questions impact our lives but are rarely acknowledged publicly. As these tools become increasingly data-driven, how do our relationships to privacy, surveillance, networks, and family change?

This new artwork part of a larger project called Surrogate. It takes the form of an interactive performance that participants register for in advance. In the performance, the artist wears a fake pregnancy belly prosthetic under her clothes, embedded with custom electronics. She walks around the city speaking to her belly, describing what she sees around her as she moves.  The participant remotely joins the walk in the role of the baby, listening to her voice via an app on their phone. Through this app, they are also able to control the artist’s movement,s by triggering small internal kicks to the sides of her belly—directing when to turn. Together, they navigate the city, with the imagined baby as interface. This surreal interaction raises questions about intimacy, control, surveillance, and science fantasy in reproduction. It further destabilizes the uneasy interaction between a person with reproductive organs and the world.

Despite society’s emphasis on “information” and “transparency,” issues of reproduction are rarely discussed openly. The womb becomes a black box as topics of female sexuality and health are seen as shameful or trivial, and we collectively fail to grapple with the racist and ableist history of eugenics, contraception, and other technologies of reproductive control. At the same time, the medical-industrial birth complex aims to position itself as the sole keepers of the technical knowledge to deliver desired reproductive futures. This performance stands in acknowledge of all the queer, trans, nonbinary, two-spirit, BIPOC, women, people with reproductive organs, doulas, and midwives that have been the original biohackers.”

– Lauren Lee McCarthy

Womb Walk
Lauren Lee McCarthy

“How is our concept of family shaped by the rapidly expanding technological possibilities, and shifting understandings of gender, sexuality, identity, and intelligence? What new issues arise with the expanding use of assistive reproductive technology, including in vitro fertilization, egg/sperm donation, surrogacy, egg/embryo freezing, DNA testing, and gene editing? These reproductive questions impact our lives but are rarely acknowledged publicly. As these tools become increasingly data-driven, how do our relationships to privacy, surveillance, networks, and family change?

This new artwork part of a larger project called Surrogate. It takes the form of an interactive performance that participants register for in advance. In the performance, the artist wears a fake pregnancy belly prosthetic under her clothes, embedded with custom electronics. She walks around the city speaking to her belly, describing what she sees around her as she moves.  The participant remotely joins the walk in the role of the baby, listening to her voice via an app on their phone. Through this app, they are also able to control the artist’s movement,s by triggering small internal kicks to the sides of her belly—directing when to turn. Together, they navigate the city, with the imagined baby as interface. This surreal interaction raises questions about intimacy, control, surveillance, and science fantasy in reproduction. It further destabilizes the uneasy interaction between a person with reproductive organs and the world.

Despite society’s emphasis on “information” and “transparency,” issues of reproduction are rarely discussed openly. The womb becomes a black box as topics of female sexuality and health are seen as shameful or trivial, and we collectively fail to grapple with the racist and ableist history of eugenics, contraception, and other technologies of reproductive control. At the same time, the medical-industrial birth complex aims to position itself as the sole keepers of the technical knowledge to deliver desired reproductive futures. This performance stands in acknowledge of all the queer, trans, nonbinary, two-spirit, BIPOC, women, people with reproductive organs, doulas, and midwives that have been the original biohackers.”

– Lauren Lee McCarthy