Intro to Transdisciplinary
This marks the beginning of my MA Immersive Media Transdisciplinary Project. Within this project my objective is to open conversation around the relationship between trans identity and fertility. This project comes from my personal experience as a trans person currently undergoing treatment in the Hewitts Fertility Centre at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. My personal experience is what will be driving my research and experimentation moving forward, with the work also being informed by others experience as well. This will lead to an exhibition format of sorts, whether that’s a solo or group show is currently undecided.
The themes that I am exploring first surfaced within my practice through writings that would likely be considered as a form of lyrical expression, rather than poetry, as it doesn’t really fit the traditions of this method. These writings depicted my experiences within the clinic for the first time and the dissociation that came along with it. I was alone in the clinic both literally and within my situation which led to my search for companionship through my star character. This shifted my character creation from a physical iteration to an imaginary friend, or desire for care within this clinical environment. Within the first piece of writing, I am expressing a fear of what was to come within the physical examination. This first one is more of a catharticism but will help to inform my future writing within this project.
Alongside this I have begun researching the idea of transdisciplinary in the hopes of forming my own definition of the methodology as well as learning to understand the difference between transdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. This will help me to identify where my project sits within the context of the brief, and how collaboration would positively or negatively impact my project.
Towards my research, I plan to have formal conversation, or interviews, with fellow trans+ individuals on the topic of fertility. This will include questions around fertility preservation, experience of the processes, feelings around infertility and biological children, family influences etc. From recent informal discussions I have had, I have been made aware of the struggles people face within the clinical process as well as family opinions and reactions to the topic. The use of fertility as an emotional weapon from parents is a trans experience I was already aware of, that directly influences this as a taboo topic within the trans+ community. The idea that changing gender and taking hormones will impede any ability to conceive isa common misconception. Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) does have an impact of natural fertility but not necessarily to the extent that people often believe or assume. This impact is often reversable within AFAB individuals but for AMAB it is more of an irreversible effect, hence the encouragement to undergo fertility preservation treatments. Through my research I have learnt recently that there are still many countries that require you to undergo complete sterilization in order to change your gender marker (Wright, 2023).
