MY FIRST PREGNANCY
ERICA LARSEN-DOCKRAY
12/14/2011
My First Pregnancy is an interactive installation based on experiences, awakenings, and challenges of pregnancy depicted through my own experience and 40 weeks of research. This piece will invite the audience to investigate the daunting challenges of pregnancy on body, mind, and way of life in the spirit of funhouses, amusement rides, science exhibits, and other spectacles of entertainment and wonder. Pregnancy is so common yet so alien and with this piece I intend to shed light on the gravitas of changes taking place each day, week, month, and trimester.
The structure of the piece consists of two main areas, one is a "ride" and the other is a series of interactive stations. The ride is much like a dark ride where viewers are taken through spaces with living-breathing animatronics enveloped in projection as they re-enact content based around home videos of my fiancé and I talking about the many events and emotions we went through during my pregnancy. This includes clashes with anti-abortion clinics, searching for health insurance as a pre-existing condition, unemployment, co-habitation, anxieties about diet, weight, health, rushes to the emergency room, the inevitable labor and more.
The interactive "stations" are designed after displays in children's science museums and games or booths in amusement parks. The stations include magic mirrors where one sees the anatomical changes of pregnancy on their own body, video games challenging the player to know what is safe to eat during pregnancy eat before nausea takes hold, baby developmental stages as fruits and vegetables in jars of goo,and plush pregnant appendages to try on with simulated baby movement reacting to sound and touch. Sources for the stations include The Mayo Clinic Guide to Pregnancy, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Birthing from Within, Dr. Cecilia Hann of Valencia OBGYN Associates and prenatal courses.
My First Pregnancy is on schedule to be exhibited at The California Institute of the Arts in March/April 2012. The design of the project is focused on flexibility of the stations and possibly the ride to travel for public outreach education in the hopes that it can further the educational reach about pregnancy to clinics, universities, high schools, and more. It currently is supported by a Calarts Interdisciplinary Grant, Valencia OBGYN Associates, and more.
INFLUENCES
A major conceptual influence for this piece is Mary Kelly’s Post Partum Document, 1973-1978. Kelly documented in rigorous scientific detail her son’s first five years, the resulting records were then framed and presented in galleries. I feel this piece was a powerful testament to the amount of work put in as a mother and I want to pursue the prenatal experience with a similar approach. Although it’s common knowledge that women go through a lot in pregnancy, I want to elaborate on just how much physical change a woman has to endure. But physical changes are just a part of the transformation, which is why I am combining our own story to exemplify the external through religious, financial, political, and social forces. Other influences from Pop Art, Terry Gilliam, Tony Oursler, Gretchen Hogue, Pippilotti Rist, and Bjorn Melhaus inform the aesthetics and approach.
Following is the original full concept statement I presented in Fall 2010:
MY FIRST PREGNANCY
ERICA LARSEN
12/07/2010
My First Pregnancy is a triptych installation/performance based on experiences, awakenings, and challenges of pregnancy depicted through my own experience. This piece will invite the audience to follow along on my journey as I faced daunting challenges to my body, mind, and way of life in the spirit of funhouses, amusement rides, science exhibits, and other spectacles of entertainment and wonder. Pregnancy is so common yet so alien and with this piece I intend to shed light on the gravitas of changes taking place each day, week, month, and trimester.
The fundamental structure of the piece is based around home videos of my fiancé and I talking about the many events and emotions we went through during my pregnancy. This includes clashes with anti-abortion clinics, searching for health insurance as a pre-existing condition, unemployment, co-habitation, anxieties about diet, weight, health, rushes to the emergency room, and more.
Our conversations also drive visual interpretations through animation, video, performance, and interaction. Current developing elements include black spaces with synced multi-channel sound and projections with animated talking collages of pictures and documents from our excursions, pregnant belly appendages made of soft plush complete with animatronics moving fetus, “fun house” mirrors where one can see scientific representations of week to week changes in the pregnant body projected onto themselves, and live performance of the labor including a direct interpretation of my labor pain visuals. I am envisioning flashing lights, bright colors and carnival inspired graphics. Influence from Pop Art, Terry Gilliam, Tony Oursler, Gretchen Hogue, Pippilotti Rist, and Bjorn Melhaus inform the aesthetics and approach. Sources include The Mayo Clinic Guide to Pregnancy, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Birthing from Within, and prenatal courses.
A major conceptual influence for this piece is Mary Kelly’s Post Partum Document, 1973-1978. Kelly documented in rigorous scientific detail her son’s first five years, the resulting records were then framed and presented in galleries. I feel this piece was a powerful testament to the amount of work put in as a mother and I want to pursue the prenatal experience with a similar approach. Although it’s common knowledge that women go through a lot in pregnancy, I want to elaborate on just how much physical change a woman has to endure. But physical changes are just a part of the transformation, which is why I am combining our own story to exemplify the external through religious, financial, political, and social forces.
I plan to work trimester at a time through the piece. The first trimester serves as my testing ground for technical and construction production. I am reluctant to say it will be a prototype for the other two pieces because each part has such unique events I want them to be developed in an independent manner as well. As of now, I foresee each trimester exhibited individually throughout my remaining time at Calarts. Trimester one will take place early fall 2011, Trimester two in late fall 2011/early spring 2012 and the final Trimester at the end of Spring 2012.