Can machines solve pregnancy?

Central Saint Martins, London | DECEMBER 2017

Recent advances in extracorporeal wombs suggest machines may someday replace one of our most basic biological processes: pregnancy.

This technology is promising in terms of premature births, maternal deaths, and the physiological complications many women and babies experience during pregnancy and childbirth. It might also offer a sense of control over the unpredictable nature of pregnancy. What if a device could continuously monitor the biometrics, growth, and health of your unborn child, prompting nutritional and medical interventions when necessary? Could we optimize gestation through the use of machines?

STORK SACK speculates about the extremes of the quantified self movement—a future of mail-order wearable wombs, data-generated amniotic formula, and the competitive and surveilled future of pregnancy. The project aims to provoke questions about who will own pregnancy and the implications of trusting machines over our own bodies.