For years 2021-2022, UNBORN0x9 is part of the ART4MED cooperation program which focuses on methodological framework advocating collaborations between artists/health/biomedical researchers. Aiming for border crossing knowledge sharing – across nation, race, gender, real, virtual, UNBORN0x9 launches a multi-interface Web Platform.
Concept & Interface design: Shu Lea Cheang
Programmation: Labomedia with Benjamin Cadon, Nicolas DerambureBabies.mp3: Atau Tanaka
ONLINE READING GROUPS
For the studies in three specific topics – ultrasound, ectogenesis, surrogacy, the online reading group invites for each topic a respective LEADER to guide a public reading session. Joined by the registered online readers and the general public, the online live event incorporates reading materials, co-writing pads, online chats & audio streaming in its multi-interface entries, aiming to to engage public debate on the designated subject matters.
Reading groups at Art Laboratory Berlin
In context of their new series PERMEABLE BODIES, Art Laboratory Berlin launches a series of online reading groups as fork-out project of UNBORN0x9 showing in the exhibition Matter of Flux. Initiated by Shu Lea Cheang and Ewen Chardronnet with Future Baby Production, UNBORN0x9 reflects on the techno-scientific developments in obstetrical medicine, its social, cultural, philosophical and prospective implications and to offer an artistic view of the science in the making. The online reading group aims to enable cross-border knowledge exchange – across nations, races, genders, real and virtual borders. For the studies in three specific topics – Ultrasound, Ectogenesis, Surrogacy, the online web platform incorporates reading materials, co-writing pads and online chats as multiple interface entries. Guided by a LEADER with 10 registered READERS, the online reading group aims for in-depth research/studies and motivates public debate on these topics of concern.
LEADERS:
Ectogenesis: Dr Elizabeth Chloe Romanis
Fellow in Residence | Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics and Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School | Harvard University | Cambridge MA Assistant Professor in Biolaw | Durham Law School | United Kingdom
From September 2022-June 2022, Chloe Romanis is on research leave undertaking a Fellowship-in-Residence at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics (Harvard Law) at Harvard University. Chloe Romanis is an Assistant Professor of Biolaw at Durham Law School in the UK. Chloe has a first class LLB (Hons) Law degree and a distinction LLM in Health Care Ethics and Law both from the University of Manchester, UK. She passed her Wellcome Trust-funded PhD in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Manchester with no corrections in September 2020. While undertaking her PhD she also studied Reproductive and Sexual Health Law as an International Graduate Student at the University of Toronto, Canada. In 2020, Chloe was awarded the University of Manchester Distinguished Achievement Medal for Postgraduate Researcher of the Year (FHUMS).
Chloe does research in healthcare law and bioethics with a particular interest in reproduction and the body (abortion, gestation, pregnancy and birth). Chloe has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles, both co-authored and sole authored, on reproduction and reproductive technologies in leading journals in law, ethics, and medicine. She is particularly known as a leading expert on artificial wombs/placentas – her PhD examined how artificial womb technology will impact on law defining the beginning of life and birth, the termination of pregnancy and experimental treatment in neonatal intensive care. Her work on the conceptual distinction between ectogenesis and neonatal intensive care is a key reference point on understanding what ectogenesis is. She is currently writing a book about ectogenesis and other technologies for Oxford University Press that will be published in 2024.
Elizabeth Chloe Romanis:
@ECRomanis
@DurhamLawSchool @DurhamCELLS @DurhamGLAD
@HarvardEthics @PetrieFlom
Dr Julie Roberts is a feminist, interdisciplinary scholar with interests in reproductive politics, experiences of maternity care and visual representations of pregnancy and birth. She is Senior Research Fellow at the Maternal Health and Wellbeing Research Group, School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK and author of ‘The Visualised Foetus: A Cultural and Political Analysis of Ultrasound Imagery’ (Ashgate 2012; reissued Routledge 2017).
FORKING ECHODATA
Derived from UNBORN0x9’s hacking of the inaudible ultrasonic waves, this interface makes the stethoscope scanned echodata available online for download. Any interested authors can contribute their sonic interpretation of the echodata and upload them to the collective soundscape. This archive of re-processed ultrasonic data are programmed for random retrieval prompted by the online public’s interaction via typing onto the keyboards. The sonic intervention accompanied by data glitches launches multi- channel virtual communication with the unborn.
The Web Platform was developed by Shu Lea Cheang, Nicolas Derambure and Benjamin Cadon (La Labomedia) in the context of Future baby Production’s research residency with « ART4MED: Art meets Health and Biomedical Research », a 2 years project (2021-2022) led by Art2M/Makery and co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.