February 2021 – November 2021
View the gallery of transposed stories below
Four Trimester Project: contributions
XR Psychologists took stories about conception, pregnancy and birth and transformed them so that they read as if a new era is being conceived and nurtured, rather than a human baby.
The resulting stories may stir in the reader the possibility of articulating similarly intense emotions about the necessary scaleof change (hope, fear, loss, fragility, joy, possibility) that can often seem impossible to describe and totally overwhelming.
When we can process how we feel,
we can think more clearly about how to act.
Story 001: Fear
‘…I feel sad sometimes to miss out on the joys, tears and tantrums pioneers face in their day to day striving. I also know I could never risk gestating a new world….’
Story 002: Love
‘…My partner wept with thoughts of tenderness for the vulnerability of this unknown future that we were nurturing into being….’
Poem 003: Truth
‘…And by some strange magic
I managed to keep the vision
of a better future
safe for many years ….’
Poem 004: The Yetlands
‘…We are the predecessors
Of the yetborn….’
Story 005: Pregnant Pause
‘…A pregnant pause,
a warning to all,
as new futures gestate
in a last ditch play
to rebirth this beauteous globe,
theatre of our dreams.’
Story 006: Stoic Optimism
‘The emerging shift’s entrance to the world; screaming, vulnerable, fighting for life, with a rational need to survive, bringing with it a constant conversation now around saving the planet and stoically looking forward, have given me hope and desperation in equal measure….
May we all be equipped with stoic optimism as we move forward’
Poem 009: The Dance with Hope
‘Then, a few days pass And we tentatively pick up hope’s soft hand again…’
Story 007: Pernicious Master
‘…Investing in a new era for us and for future generationshas been one of the most important things in my life. Having the experience of conceiving, carrying, and nurturing a different set of values for living has affected every aspect of my life, my body and mind.’
Poem 010: Worship
‘…And those who’ve lost
Too much already.
We speak out and loudly
To rebirth the little time
We see remaining.’
Story 011: Trauma & Separation
‘….I was left, traumatised, isolated, paralysed by fear, on my own…, surrounded by day to day trivialities and others who, in their oblivion, still had their hope and joy intact.’
Story 012: New Era
‘….the fear and anguish for all the children and future generations, which I had been holding at bay, overcame me and the tears flowed.’
Poem 013: Transition
‘A sense of realism started to hit and our safe ‘denial and carry on as normal’ bubble had to be burst as we had to start accepting and believing it was actually happening.’
Story 014: Mouse like Hope
‘I learned a lot that day about what we can and cannot change’
Story 015: What we yearn for
‘…I’ve just started to believe a new era is possible and I’m weaning myself off all my dread. I’ve felt more sick this time round, physically drained and frequently nauseous.’
Story 016: The Clock is Ticking
‘Got a life to lead whilst trying to improve this one’.
Story 017: Infertile Landscapes
These pieces conceive of Maternal Space through the convergence of infertility in women and infertility in our ecological environment in the 21st century, drawing on the exploitation of the production of natural resources and the manipulation (albeit willingly) of the female body in relation to (re)production.
Story 018: It’s a lot
‘The hopes, the dreams, the possibilities, but also the disappointment and the loss – all at once.
It can feel like a lot
sometimes.’
Story 019: The Fragile Fluttering of Hope
‘…try as I might nature and time were against us now and optimism would not so easily take hold’.
Story 020: A Different Kind of Life
‘…despite the logistical challenges of life centred around different values, our new lifestyle quickly became more meaningful, richer and rewarding than life as a pair of carefree hedonists had been. Life had acquired a meaning we had not previously contemplated.’
Story 021: Coming soon (in transposition)
Coming soon
Story 022: …?
Could this be your story…?