Reprodutopia

Dream or nightmare?

For a long time the birds and the bees served us well to explain where our children come from. Yet radical developments in reproductive technology force us to rewrite this story. Artificial wombs, gene editing techniques and reprogramming adult cells into eggs or sperm cells are revolutionary ways for human beings to reproduce, and appear to be closer than any of us can imagine.

Reprodutopia is an exhibition disguised as a future clinic that presents thought-provoking visions of reproductive technologies by artists and designers. Some may be considered dark or uncanny, while others may be seen as hopeful dreams. Each project enriches the technology debate in a variety of ways, and helps us to decide which reproductive futures we actually want.

Part of the Reprodutopia project is an investigation into what an artificial womb could look like in the future. In fall 2018, a team led by designer Hendrik-Jan Grievink designed a proposal for an artificial womb, commissioned by Dr. Guid Oei, gynecologist at the Máxima Medical Centre in The Netherlands (as seen together on the left). The speculative model did not look like a futuristic aquarium or a ‘biobag’ but like a series of hanging organic spheres that mimic the conditions of an actual uterus.

On November 8th, 2019 the news was released that Dr. Guid Oei and his team received a grant of €2.9 mln to create a prototype of an artificial womb and the image of our model went all over the internet. Based on the reactions online, we feel now is exactly the right moment to debate our reproductive future.