Public defence in Contemporary Art, MA Rebecca Close

The title of the thesis: Post-Internet Queer Reproductive Work and the Fixed Capital of Fertility: The interface, the network and the viral as themes and modes of artistic response

Doctoral student: Rebecca Close
Opponent: Prof. Matthew Fuller, Goldsmiths College University of London, UK
Custos: Prof. Mira Kallio-Tavin, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Art and Media

This doctoral research focuses on the “online” dimension of assisted reproduction and addresses the Internet interface as a space of imagination and memory-making. It looks at the role of websites in conditioning notions of “personal reproductive choice” and situates this in a longer history of access to reproductive technologies since the 1970s. How have artists responded to the policies and politics of reproductive control? Broadly, the dissertation proposes a reclaiming of the interface, network and viral as themes and modes of artistic response to reproductive governance. 

The project focuses on aspects of fertility and the queer family that have remained at the margins of recent accounts, including the reproductive politics of networked media, housing, borders, the racial politics of digital reproductive tech, memory, bureaucracy, climate crisis, work and creative practice. It layers critical, historical, audio-visual and poetic gazes as an artistic research method that centres bodily feeling and political becomings.

Thesis available for public display 10 days prior to the defence at: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/doc_public/eonly/riiputus/

Contact information:

See also:

Doctoral theses in the School of Arts, Design and Architecture: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/54
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