A L L W E E V E R W A N T E D (The baby loss project)
Interactive Digital Art/Video Game
"All We Ever Wanted" explores the complicated kind of grief that comes with losing a baby. This interactive digital art experience takes the player through a surreal journey based on the dreams, memories, and personal symbolism of women whose babies have died at, or shortly after birth.
When someone mourns their baby, a whole potential future and dream is being mourned too. The grief that accompanies stillbirth, fetal death, and miscarriage can be uniquely complicated, and often disenfranchising for mothers and families. When a baby dies before or shortly after its birth, its lack of social history and embodied identity often create an uneasy feeling for mothers, as if their child was left untethered from their reality, like a vague dream. The feeling is disturbingly surreal -- it is clear some huge loss has occurred, but with little physical evidence of the experience, and an often lack of recognition for outside society, it can feel as though maybe your precious child never really existed at all.
There is an uncanniness to these types of loss. There are no worn out shoes in the hall, no body of memories to draw from other than those within the womb and the dreams their mothers had for them. But the absence is a loud one. For many, the grief is the only seemingly tangible reminder of their loss.
Drawing from blog entries, and interviews from participating mothers, this project creates a digital art experience based on the dreams, stories, and symbols from participants to represent their personal grief narrative. Using the structure of an exploratory art video game, the game immerses the player into six scenes defined by a different aspect of a mothers’ grief. The player is allowed to explore the environments, piecing together fragments of these people’s stories, and emotions, forming a mosaic of experience with baby loss from across different time and place.
"All We Ever Wanted" explores the complicated kind of grief that comes with losing a baby. This interactive digital art experience takes the player through a surreal journey based on the dreams, memories, and personal symbolism of women whose babies have died at, or shortly after birth.
When someone mourns their baby, a whole potential future and dream is being mourned too. The grief that accompanies stillbirth, fetal death, and miscarriage can be uniquely complicated, and often disenfranchising for mothers and families. When a baby dies before or shortly after its birth, its lack of social history and embodied identity often create an uneasy feeling for mothers, as if their child was left untethered from their reality, like a vague dream. The feeling is disturbingly surreal -- it is clear some huge loss has occurred, but with little physical evidence of the experience, and an often lack of recognition for outside society, it can feel as though maybe your precious child never really existed at all.
There is an uncanniness to these types of loss. There are no worn out shoes in the hall, no body of memories to draw from other than those within the womb and the dreams their mothers had for them. But the absence is a loud one. For many, the grief is the only seemingly tangible reminder of their loss.
Drawing from blog entries, and interviews from participating mothers, this project creates a digital art experience based on the dreams, stories, and symbols from participants to represent their personal grief narrative. Using the structure of an exploratory art video game, the game immerses the player into six scenes defined by a different aspect of a mothers’ grief. The player is allowed to explore the environments, piecing together fragments of these people’s stories, and emotions, forming a mosaic of experience with baby loss from across different time and place.