Future (Now) Families

This project was funded through an Arts Council England ‘Interact’ award. The aim of the placement was to engage with PEALS Research Centre research activities and to interact with researchers to explore transdisciplinary design collaborations. With this in mind, I spent time at the Institute of Human Genetics to learn about the work carried out in their labs and to visit some of the research facilities, such as Functional Genetics, Human Developmental Biology Resource and the zebrafish facility. I also visited the Newcastle Fertility Centre to discuss different ways to ‘create families’ in the 21st Century. The Interact Placement provided me with the opportunity to establish a dialogue with Dr Simon Woods (Director of Learning, PEALS), Professor Erica Haimes (Executive Director, PEALS), Professor Alison Murdoch (Director, Fertility Centre at LIFE) and Professor Mary Herbert (Scientific Director, Fertility Centre at LIFE). The focus of our collaborative dialogue was an exploration of the issues surrounding assisted conception, surrogacy and new family forms, leading to a body of work and engagement activities in collaboration with PEALS and the Newcastle Fertility Centre. The core premise of the Future (Now) Families project was to contribute to the social, cultural and ethical debate surrounding assisted conception. More specifically, it engaged with experts and the wider public by using speculative products and photographic scenarios to generate a tangible way of thinking about, and promoting debate on, assisted conception, surrogacy and new family forms. The aim was not only to provide commentary on the issues raised by scientific and social development but also to identify design opportunities in unfolding scientific and social events, and to use these opportunities to stimulate a deeper intellectual and emotional engagement with evolving possibilities in science and social policy. The project also served as a platform for opening up a transdisciplinary dialogue between designers, bioethicists, social scientists and life scientists. The main areas where the Future (Now) Families design research investigation focused upon was the social relationships that are emerging between the various “actors” in the field. These include gamete donors, recipients, surrogates, commissioning parents and children who are growing up or could grow up in families with other “parents”. In addition, there are progenitors - who do not have a social connection to their biological children. The research was centred on these social relationships and used hypothetical products to reflect on this new scientific and social landscape. The hypothetical products explored the relationship between biological and social connections, and suggested new reflective social exchanges between surrogate mothers, egg donors, sperm donors, commissioning parents and children. During my successful Interact Placement with PEALS, I was able to utilise the extensive PEALS research network to make contact with scientific and clinical research groups thus laying the foundation for the Future (Now) Families transdisciplinary approach. In addition, I made a contribution to a range of PEALS activities including running a workshop with students from the MSc in Medical Genetics, an interdisciplinary seminar at the Culture Lab and attended conferences and meetings with the PEALS team. The collaboration for the Future (Now) Families project resulted in the design and production of educational dolls designed to explain to young children their biological and social origins.