Glossary With(In)Fertile Terms
Augmented Reality Matrices (36 scenes)
Work in progress, 2025
This exploratory piece is made up of 36 parts in total. The Glossary unfolds over time, rather than alphabetically, generating a discursive space around the evolution of infertile language. This is aligned with a ‘typical’ 28-day biological menstrual cycle, with its overlapping phases, across Menstruation, Follicular, Ovulation, and Luteal. This imaginary archive documents a collective telling of (in)fertile women’s words, constructed from a range of contributor responses. The fragmentary narrative uses strategies of script and story to intercept the performative narration of an authoritative rhetoric of infertility. It attempts to deconstruct hierarchies of knowledge across the medical and maternal and create space for an (In)fertile subjectivity that manifests within voices that are personal, vulnerable, and angry.
The piece exists only in augmented reality, made of a series of QR codes (matrices) that are interweaved throughout the space. This virtual trace speaks to (in)fertility’s invisibilities, as well as its silences, demanding the audience actively embody the work as viewer and reader, rather than passive spectator.
Content Warning: Some may find the content of these upsetting. Please use your own discretion.
Thanks to the following people for trusting me with their words:
Amy Adkin, Rebecca J Burman, Alexandra Carter, Amie Corry, Tessa Heck, Grace Jackson, Leigh Kellman Kolb, Lali Levanna, Melisah May, Kirstin McRae-Smith, Maureen Minard, Robyn Mosley, Nicole Narracott, Katherine Nolan, Joanna Peace, Holly Rankin Smith, Heather Michel Riddle, Hazel Simcox, Milou Stella, Nicky Teegan, Melanie Tomlinson, Morganne Van Voorhis.
Work in progress, 2025
This exploratory piece is made up of 36 parts in total. The Glossary unfolds over time, rather than alphabetically, generating a discursive space around the evolution of infertile language. This is aligned with a ‘typical’ 28-day biological menstrual cycle, with its overlapping phases, across Menstruation, Follicular, Ovulation, and Luteal. This imaginary archive documents a collective telling of (in)fertile women’s words, constructed from a range of contributor responses. The fragmentary narrative uses strategies of script and story to intercept the performative narration of an authoritative rhetoric of infertility. It attempts to deconstruct hierarchies of knowledge across the medical and maternal and create space for an (In)fertile subjectivity that manifests within voices that are personal, vulnerable, and angry.
The piece exists only in augmented reality, made of a series of QR codes (matrices) that are interweaved throughout the space. This virtual trace speaks to (in)fertility’s invisibilities, as well as its silences, demanding the audience actively embody the work as viewer and reader, rather than passive spectator.
Content Warning: Some may find the content of these upsetting. Please use your own discretion.
Thanks to the following people for trusting me with their words:
Amy Adkin, Rebecca J Burman, Alexandra Carter, Amie Corry, Tessa Heck, Grace Jackson, Leigh Kellman Kolb, Lali Levanna, Melisah May, Kirstin McRae-Smith, Maureen Minard, Robyn Mosley, Nicole Narracott, Katherine Nolan, Joanna Peace, Holly Rankin Smith, Heather Michel Riddle, Hazel Simcox, Milou Stella, Nicky Teegan, Melanie Tomlinson, Morganne Van Voorhis.
