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Rhetorical Uteri: A Comparative Visual Analysis of Next Nature Network's ‘First Artificial Womb for Humans’ and Ani Liu's

image of Rhetorical Uteri: A Comparative Visual Analysis of Next Nature Network's ‘First Artificial Womb for Humans’ and Ani Liu's The Surrogacy

Artificial wombs in science fiction are overwhelmingly cast in a negative light and involve either absent mothers or the absence of mothers, adding to the stigmatization of individuals who seek reproductive interventions and assistance. In this chapter I join the conversation on technology, politics, and reproduction through a feminist visual rhetorical comparative analysis using The Surrogacy (bodies are not machines), a womb sculpture created by research-based artist-mother and speculative technologist Ani Liu, as a lens for (re)looking at M'xima Medical Center's ‘first artificial womb for humans’, and drawing upon the rhetoric of science fiction in the West's pop cultural imaginary as my frame of reference for analysis.

Keywords: artificial wombs ; feminist rhetorics ; motherhood studies ; performance rhetorics ; performance studies ; reproductive justice ; science fiction rhetorics ; Visual analysis ; visual rhetoric ; women and gender studies

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Rhetorical Uteri: A Comparative Visual Analysis of Next Nature Network's ‘First Artificial Womb for Humans’ and Ani Liu's The Surrogacy
Intellect , 136 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835950166_10
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References

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References

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  2. Behar, Katherine (2016), Object-Oriented Feminism, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
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  3. Bhatia, Neera and Kendal, Evie (2019), ‘We may one day grow babies outside the womb, but there are many things to consider first’, The Conversation, November, https://theconversation.com/we-may-one-day-grow-babies-outside-the-womb-but-there-are-many-things-to-consider-first-125709. Accessed 1 December 2020.
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  12. Firestone, Shulamith ([1970] 2003), The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution, New York: Ferrar, Straus and Giroux.
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  13. Fleckenstein, Kristie (2007), ‘Testifying: Seeing and saying in world making’, in K. Fleckensteim, S. Hum and L. Calendrillo (eds), Ways of Seeing, Ways of Speaking, West Lafayette: Parlor Press, pp. 155–78.
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  14. Forlano, Laura (2017), ‘Posthumanism and design’, Journal of Design, Economics and Innovation, 3:1, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2017.08.001.
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  15. Geuze, Susanne (2022), ‘“Design helps us to talk about new technology”: Lisa Mandemaker as designer-in-residence at UT’, https://www.utwente.nl/en/news/2022/2/435024/design-helps-us-to-talk-about-new-technology. Accessed 1 July 2022.
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     [Google Scholar]
  19. Horn, Claire (2020), ‘The history of the incubator makes a sideshow of mothering’, Aeon, June, https://psyche.co/ideas/the-history-of-the-incubator-makes-a-sideshow-of-mothering. Accessed 1 January 2021.
  20. Hum, Sue (2007), ‘The racialized gaze: Authenticity and universality in Disney's Mulan’, in K. Fleckensteim, S. Hum and L. Calendrillo (eds), Ways of Seeing, Ways of Speaking, West Lafayette: Parlor Press, pp. 155–78.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Kaganskiy, Julia (2022), ‘Artist Ani Liu has some radical suggestion for what pregnancy could look like’, Artnet, July, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ani-liu-2153297. Accessed 1 September 2022.
  22. Kapsalis, Terri (2017), ‘Hysteria, witches, and the wandering uterus: A brief history’, Lithub, April, https://lithub.com/hysteria-witches-and-the-wandering-uterus-a-brief-history/. Accessed 1 November 2020.
  23. Kechacha, Rym (2020), ‘The pram and the portal: Motherhood as depicted in science fiction literature’, Den of Geek, February, https://www.denofgeek.com/books/motherhood-in-science-fiction/. Accessed 1 November 2022.153
  24. Lehmann-Haupt, Rachel (2021), ‘A womb with a view’, Neo.Life, April, https://neo.life/2021/04/a-womb-with-a-view/. Accessed 1 May 2021.
  25. Liu, Ani (2022), Review in Brooklyn Rail, April 2022, https://ani-liu.com/new-news/tag/2022. Accessed 4 December 2023.
  26. MacKay, Kathryn (2020), ‘The “tyranny of reproduction”: Could ectogenesis further women's liberation?’ Bioethics, 34:4, pp. 346–55.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Malatino, Hilary (2017), ‘Biohacking gender: Cyborgs, coloniality, and the pharmacopornographic era’, Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities, 22:2, https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2017.1322836.
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  28. Maradin, Nicholas Richard (2017), ‘Human by design: Bodily prosthetics and the rhetoric of science fiction cool’, Ph.D. dissertation, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh.
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  29. Next Nature Network (2017), ‘1999: Ectogenesis enters The Matrix’, https://nextnature.net/magazine/story/2017/1999-ectogenesis-the-matrix. Accessed 1 September 2020.
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  31. Next Nature Network (2018b), ‘What an artificial womb may look like in the future’, https://nextnature.net/story/2018/artificial-womb-design. Accessed 1 September 2020.
  32. Next Nature Network (2018c), ‘Towards a design brief for the artificial womb’, https://nextnature.net/story/2018/design-brief-for-artificial-womb. Accessed 1 September 2020.
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