funded in part by the Provost's Academic Development Fund from Trinity College Dublin
Project also supported by the cavan arts office
new artwork award 2020
For my Rapid Residency I proposed to explore the monitoring of women’s fertility health through a tracker bracelet worn at night. My interest in fertility tracking known as a form of 'Femtech' comes from my PhD research into technology targeted at women. It tends to offer women life improvements however this message is masked by huge corporations benefitting from data collection by continuously making women feel inadequate. The ethics of such forms of data collection and health advice are questionable and in many cases damaging. This form of self-surveillance is looked at through ideas of post-feminism where being ‘in-control’, and ‘empowered’ are intertwined with constant monitoring.
The second strand to my research is the notion of cultural pride versus the reality of how women’s reproductive rights are controlled in Ireland. Although many gains in this area have been made my focus on this project is the 221plus women who had personal data withheld by doctors and government agencies resulting in deaths due to misdiagnosed smear tests.
For this project my aim was to use the data collected by the AVA fertility tracker bracelet to power a hydroponic system that would grow shamrocks. When I started the residency I knew little about programming data and little about hydroponic systems. Safe to say I only know slightly more, however what I have learned is what I don’t know, and that is so important for the work. By engaging with specialists in both programming (Kristina Kapanova) and hydroponics (Andrew Douglas of Urban Farms) I was faced with questioning what exactly it was I was aiming to create.
I purchased the AVA Women fertility tracker bracelet at the start of the residency. The bracelet claims to collect data 25 times per second, which amounts to over 3 million data points per night. The bracelet tracks heart rate variability, skin temperature, breathing rate, sleep, and resting pulse rate. You wear it at night and sync it to your phone in the morning via the AVA app where your data is then turned into a graph and the app informs you of your fertility status. The idea for linking the data to the system is that one or a combination of readings will trigger something to happen within the system, such as my temperature readings would control the light turning on and off.
Starting the residency was the perfect time to start using the bracelet however I soon discovered that I wasn’t going to be able to acquire those data points immediately, in fact I am unsure whether they will send me them at all (they will have to be requested under EU GDPR law). Also, since wearing the bracelet I have become interested in what the readings say and mean, which I suppose is to be expected. You can request a report at the end of each cycle which I assume is fairly similar to the daily readings, knowing this and wanting to get more data I plan to wait another month before I contact the company to get the data points readings. In this way the project will run further than the residency. Which makes the nature of the residency so refreshing; there is no obligation to have completed work.
The bracelet comes with restrictive parameters and a level of discrimination as only women with cycles 24-35 days are able to use it and it also excludes women with polycystic ovaries, recently postpartum or who are breastfeeding. This notion of ‘normal’ cycles lends itself to theories around notions of normal bodies where shame and otherness are associated with those who don’t fit into that notion.[1] It also lends itself to a culture where the notion of a ‘normal body’ is something that can be achieved by all, further encouraging self-policing and stigmatising bodies that fall out of that image[2]. The app also states it is not a form of contraception, which is hugely important in the ethics of Femtech. One of the reasons for my interest in these apps and trackers is the stories around the American app FEMM that I encountered in the Guardian in May 2019. FEMM states to be a “women’s health and education program…focuses on ovulation as a sign of health, and helps women to manage and care for their overall health and fertility.” However when the medical advisors and funders were investigated by Jessica Glenza of the Guardian US she revealed most of the funding comes from private donors including the Chiaroscuro Foundation most exclusively backed by Catholic Republican hedge-funder Sean Fieler and it’s medical team are not licensed to practice in the US (Glenza, 2019). It doesn’t take much investigation to see the organisations attached to FEMM are Catholic, anti-contraceptive groups such as ‘Holy See Mission UN’. The app encourages women to give information on their cycles it then calculates when they are most fertile and advises that if they wish to avoid pregnancy to “avoid genital contact” within those days and in some cases for the whole month.
The second strand to my research is the notion of cultural pride versus the reality of how women’s reproductive rights are controlled in Ireland. Although many gains in this area have been made my focus on this project is the 221plus women who had personal data withheld by doctors and government agencies resulting in deaths due to misdiagnosed smear tests.
For this project my aim was to use the data collected by the AVA fertility tracker bracelet to power a hydroponic system that would grow shamrocks. When I started the residency I knew little about programming data and little about hydroponic systems. Safe to say I only know slightly more, however what I have learned is what I don’t know, and that is so important for the work. By engaging with specialists in both programming (Kristina Kapanova) and hydroponics (Andrew Douglas of Urban Farms) I was faced with questioning what exactly it was I was aiming to create.
I purchased the AVA Women fertility tracker bracelet at the start of the residency. The bracelet claims to collect data 25 times per second, which amounts to over 3 million data points per night. The bracelet tracks heart rate variability, skin temperature, breathing rate, sleep, and resting pulse rate. You wear it at night and sync it to your phone in the morning via the AVA app where your data is then turned into a graph and the app informs you of your fertility status. The idea for linking the data to the system is that one or a combination of readings will trigger something to happen within the system, such as my temperature readings would control the light turning on and off.
Starting the residency was the perfect time to start using the bracelet however I soon discovered that I wasn’t going to be able to acquire those data points immediately, in fact I am unsure whether they will send me them at all (they will have to be requested under EU GDPR law). Also, since wearing the bracelet I have become interested in what the readings say and mean, which I suppose is to be expected. You can request a report at the end of each cycle which I assume is fairly similar to the daily readings, knowing this and wanting to get more data I plan to wait another month before I contact the company to get the data points readings. In this way the project will run further than the residency. Which makes the nature of the residency so refreshing; there is no obligation to have completed work.
The bracelet comes with restrictive parameters and a level of discrimination as only women with cycles 24-35 days are able to use it and it also excludes women with polycystic ovaries, recently postpartum or who are breastfeeding. This notion of ‘normal’ cycles lends itself to theories around notions of normal bodies where shame and otherness are associated with those who don’t fit into that notion.[1] It also lends itself to a culture where the notion of a ‘normal body’ is something that can be achieved by all, further encouraging self-policing and stigmatising bodies that fall out of that image[2]. The app also states it is not a form of contraception, which is hugely important in the ethics of Femtech. One of the reasons for my interest in these apps and trackers is the stories around the American app FEMM that I encountered in the Guardian in May 2019. FEMM states to be a “women’s health and education program…focuses on ovulation as a sign of health, and helps women to manage and care for their overall health and fertility.” However when the medical advisors and funders were investigated by Jessica Glenza of the Guardian US she revealed most of the funding comes from private donors including the Chiaroscuro Foundation most exclusively backed by Catholic Republican hedge-funder Sean Fieler and it’s medical team are not licensed to practice in the US (Glenza, 2019). It doesn’t take much investigation to see the organisations attached to FEMM are Catholic, anti-contraceptive groups such as ‘Holy See Mission UN’. The app encourages women to give information on their cycles it then calculates when they are most fertile and advises that if they wish to avoid pregnancy to “avoid genital contact” within those days and in some cases for the whole month.
Image from Twitter page of Dr. Jenn Conti, published with permission.
Evidence proves that women are more likely to get pregnant in those days of ovulation, however this science is based on notions of ‘healthy bodies’ and regular cycles and it also harks back to the preachings of the Catholic Church in Ireland where women followed the rhythm method, proving to be ineffective in many cases where it was common for women to give birth to over 10 babies.
Which brings me to discuss the ‘green’ part of the project. Having previously made work about reproductive rights in Ireland by using grass as a digital green screen and commenting on the notion of 'Mother Ireland' and fertile lands I have naturally expanded on and developed this element of my practice. Around the time of reading the Guardian article about FEMM I was also researching the Cervical Check scandal in Ireland. The story broke in 2018 when Vicky Phelan discovered she had not been notified of an inaccurate smear test from 2011, a result that had been held from her by clinicians and Cervical Check Ireland. Through a High Court case Phelan was compensated financially, although still facing a terminal illness.The government vowed to contact all 221 affected by these inaccurate test results.
This case struck me as unbelievable to have happened and also highlighted to me the power of information, how it was able to be withheld and ultimately demonstrated a total disregard for women’s reproductive health. The companies used in the testing of these smears were in the USA, this also struck me as something symbolic in Ireland’s history with the states. As someone who spent two St Patrick’s Days parading in New York as part of a marching band (’95 &’98) I am well aware of the patriotic pageantry that ensues. We see footage each year of the Taoiseach presenting a succulent pot of shamrocks to the President of the United States without a hint of irony or charade. This display of cultural pride and Paddywhackery in presenting the fertile land of ‘home’ whilst neglecting to care for the fertility of women living on the land screams of hypocrisy and ignorance. Bringing me to recall the 1930 ballad ‘Ireland, Mother Ireland’ whose lyrics include:
Oh, land of love and beauty
To you our hearts are wed
To you in lowly duty
We ever bow the head
Oh, perfect loving mother
Your exiled children all
Across the sund'ring seas to you
In fond devotion call
Somewhere within these threads of thought and enquiry falls the project I am working through. This residency has pushed me towards visualising what the work will look like and how exactly I can achieve it. I have learned about hydroponic systems and considered how they could work with a project like this. I have also come closer to knowing what I want the data to do for the work. I have spent the past few weeks researching and I have also explored the work through sculptural forms, drawing and photographs. Although there is not yet any solid outcomes from this time it has given me confidence in the idea and the opportunity to share these ideas with experts who I know are open to helping me in the future.
[1] As Jackie Stacey (1997) has critically noted, it results in a mis-appropriation of the notion of ‘responsibility’ and a mis-translation of the term into styles of self-management based on ‘prevention’ and the pursuit of ‘a healthy life-style’. This cultural obsession with health and with clean, functional bodies is the corollary of the fear of fatal diseases like cancer and AIDS and the monstrous imaginings they give rise to. The compulsive and consumeristic pursuit of ‘health’ entails social, cultural and bodily practices which are in open contradiction with one another. This is the normative force of contemporary bio-politics (Rose, 2001). From: Rosi Braidotti, The Ethics of Becoming Imperceptible. Published in Deleuze and Philosophy, ed. Constantin Boundas, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 2006, pp. 133-159.
[1] Many mommy bloggers praise Ava as well. The result is that much of the content about Ava centers on conventionally beautiful, non-disabled, young cisgender women who are either having babies, want to have babies, or are trying to understand their bodies better so they may someday have babies. Even fertility is fodder for Instagram sponcon. https://www.theringer.com/tech/2019/3/18/18267094/femtech-female-health-apps-menstruation-fertility-trackers-clue-glow-ava
[1] Many mommy bloggers praise Ava as well. The result is that much of the content about Ava centers on conventionally beautiful, non-disabled, young cisgender women who are either having babies, want to have babies, or are trying to understand their bodies better so they may someday have babies. Even fertility is fodder for Instagram sponcon. https://www.theringer.com/tech/2019/3/18/18267094/femtech-female-health-apps-menstruation-fertility-trackers-clue-glow-ava
