Deeper. 3.00 min 2001

While three-dimensional ultrasounds were still in research and development stages in 2001, the images they produce were starting to make the News. TV News juxtaposed the images with happy parents greeted with first ‘portraits’ of their child. Expectant parents could purchase high-resolution video sequences of the foetus, as ‘foetal keepsake videos’. The diagnostic image was transposed to a recreational image. Viewing the high quality 3D ultrasound images, mothers report is an ‘incentive’ to endure pregnancy-related difficulties, reduced anxiety, and improved bonding between the mother and the foetus’. Beyond the purpose of ascertaining foetal well-being and promoting parental bonding, the technique changes the private, shared physical experience of the mother and feotus into a public exhibit. The advances in fetal imaging due to ultrasound impacted on society with its potential to underwrite anti-abortion arguments.

“Deeper”, created in 2001, a two and a half minute single channel video inspired by foetal imaging, conferred with the calmness I felt on first observing such images, the work sustains the intensity of the technique’s social repercussions. The postproduction techniques of “Deeper” emulated the aesthetic of an imaged foetus collected from the archives of the Royal Women’s Hospital