outerwoman

Co-researchers: Sebastian Bark, [M] Dudeck, Charlotta Ruth

1st online iteration: outerwoman.xyz

This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/V797]

outerwoman is an artistic research that explores and develops imaginaries around human procreation in the age of technologically assisted reproduction. Situated between phenomenological fieldwork, language art and performance, outerwoman aims at a critical revision of relationships and emotions. The project proposes experimentelles Ahnen (experimental foreshadowing), a conversation-based practice which invites to fathom alternative forms of family-un/making, non/fertile subjectivities, and co-creation.

Currently, millions of frozen embryos are being stored in labs around the world. Premature lambs are being brought to term in plastic bags. Mice are being bred in bioreactors without the use of eggs or sperm. Millions of people have come into being with the help of assisted reproduction. We mammals, cyborgs, gestatelings are in the midst of a revolution that profoundly affects our ‚human condition‘ (Hanna Arendt). The problem seems to be that we cannot fully grasp its implications.  Inspired by Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex as well as of other works of speculative fiction, the team of outerwoman uses the alienating idea of ectogenesis (the gestation of a being outside the human womb) as a fictocritical tool. From here/there we look back on pregnancy, birth and sexuality: Why do we procreate? What do we actually do when we procreate? What does pregnancy as a cultural technique consist of?  Which aspects do we want to keep? What needs to be abolished and/or transformed? We use our biographies and bodies as sites. We propose experimentelles Ahnen (experimental foreshadowing) to get a sense of the revolution to come. Midwives, biologists, neonatologists and experts from other fields are invited into the research apparatus to extend our knowledge and scrutinize our methods.

outerwoman, so far, has materialized in performances (Das Aufhebungsspiel/The Sublation Game, Vienna 2022/Millstatt 2023);  a podcast series (2022-ongoing); a series of workshops (2022-2024), as well as in artifacts, articles, songs, pamphlets and other forms. A publication is in development.