MY MASTER THESIS: THE DIGITAL PREGNANCY / IT UNIVERSITY

ABSTRACT

This thesis challenges a legal boundary of 22+0 pregnancy weeks, which today is the limit that determines whether a woman is entitled to maternity leave, should she loose her child during pregnancy. This rigid boundary does not acknowledge the nuances - and does not take into account the complexity of what it means for the individual woman to be pregnant and then lose her foetus/child. Nor does it consider the context and the individual’s needs, but instead it allocates on the basis of a number, determining who gets assigned certain rights and privileges and who does not.

This thesis uses ‘research through design’ as a method, where the problem space is challenged via a speculative near future scenario; ‘Den Digitale Graviditet’. The year is 2022. An algorithmically based distribution key, in the form of an application - determining the rights of the pregnant woman, is a reality. This algorithm assesses the pregnant woman’s rights, in the event of a failed pregnancy, based on the extent and quality of her self-monitoring, self-effort and performativity.

In this way we speculate what it could look like if the public healthcare system would leave it even more up to the individual, to assume responsibility for her own - as well as the fetus’/ child’s welfare. Additionally it adds an extra layer; that the state - concurrent uses the most controversial and specific form of panoptic surveillance, which is the use of processed personal data, collected from the pregnant woman’s own use of digital technologies. The public healthcare system oversees the pregnant women in order to target the social benefits. ‘Den Digitale Graviditet’ seeks to look at the algorithms - that collect and control digital data, and thus contribute to certain ways of categorizing and grouping individuals, as a benefit for the pregnant women. Through this speculative near future scenario, a space for reflection and discussion is created - among ourselves and between different stakeholders. This way knowledge is produced.

Hence, this thesis questions whether there might be a more nuanced way - where one does not qualify grief on the basis of a rigid legal boundary, but where an assessment can be based on a woman’s actual needs. Meanwhile, ‘Den Digitale Graviditet’ raises a number of ethical and democratic dilemmas for in the debate on the increased digitalisation in the public healthcare system. Dilemmas in relation to; 1) the monitoring of individuals who encounter some form of invisible power; 2) the increasing social inequality, which technology - including algorithms, contribute to; 3) the transformation of health professional professions, as a result of the expansion of digital technologies, meaning that responsibility, to a greater extent, is being placed on the pregnant woman and on her self-monitoring performance.

READ THESIS HERE

SEE AND LISTEN TO ME TALK ABOUT MY MASTER THESIS HERE:

TRINE NIELSEN / ONLINE PORTFOLIO

HTML5, CSS, JQUERY/JAVASCRIPT - CODE WRITTEN FROM SCRATCH IN SUBLIME.

GIRLTALK / PROJECT FROM IT UNIVERSITY

HTML5, CSS, JQUERY/JAVASCRIPT - CODE WRITTEN FROM SCRATCH IN SUBLIME.

Concept, Art Direction, Illustration, Animation & User Experience Design

Link for interactive prototype : www.itu.dk/people/trini/GIRLTALK

The prototype is developed on a 15.6 inch Lenovo Y50-70 laptop (screen resolution: 1920 x 1080) and for following devices in Google Chrome Developer Tools: laptop 13.3 inch (screen resolution: 1280 x 800) and Iphone 6.

SKETCHING / WIREFRAMES

INTERACTION DESIGN / ITU

Concept, Art Direction, Illustration, Animation & User Experience Design

An app for teenagers called 'n a k e i t' – it’s a safe photo app inspired by Snapchat that embraces teenagers’ practice of sharing nude photos with others. The concept is about letting teenagers explore and share their nudity in a safe space. By making it safe, intimate pictures are prevented from being shared to others than the intended receiver.

DESIGNING INTERACTIVE ARTEFACTS / ITU

What happens inside your mind when you are not feeling comfortable in a specific situation and when you feel the need to block off from the world around you?

This light design - BLOCK OFF - aims to express and shine light on the uncontrollable feeling of chaos that arises inside your mind when you feel the need to block off the world - something that can happen when suffering from e.g. social anxiety.

The shape is kept simple but has a laser cutted symbolic pattern, which in a very detailed, but abstract way reflects the story behind this wearable light design.

Click here to see and read about the design process.