Gallery Entry
Maternal Blind Spots An AI investigation into the representation of pregnancy, embodiment and machine vision
By Noortje Stortelder · NL
Maternal Blind Spots is a visual art series created from my personal Pregnancy Archive: a visual and written record made during the period that I was pregnant. The archive contains photographs, writings, observations, fragments, research and reflections on pregnancy, birth and the changing relationship with the body. This human record became the starting point for a dialogue with artificial intelligence: what happens when a machine is asked to represent an experience that is deeply embodied, emotional and culturally complex? Through the AI-generated images of pregnancy, the work investigates the distance between lived experience and algorithmic representation. The generated images reveal recurring patterns, absences and distortions, exposing the limitations and biases within the datasets that shape AI's understanding of the human body. The work does not use AI as an autonomous creator, but as a lens through which human experience becomes visible. The tension between the personal archive and machine-generated imagery forms the core of the work: a dialogue between memory and prediction, embodiment and data, human vulnerability and technological systems. AI Generations is part of the larger project M(other)board (He)art, an artistic investigation into birth, loss, technology and the ways human experiences are preserved and represented in a digital age.