Lively and Unstable Implosions: (Re)productive Objects as Experiments in Ad-Hoc Archives

This article is a collaborative piece, written between a group of geographers and artists. Together, we explore an “ad-hoc archive” of extraordinary and everyday objects associated with reproduction, broadly conceived. Some objects are directly or indirectly aimed at enhancing reproductive health or well-being, others at arresting or enhancing fertility, others still at expanding notions of reproduction beyond the genetic or biological. Objects are technological and “organic,” and drawn from the past, present or even the speculative futures of reproduction. Together, the piece intends to incite critical reflection on histories of design and manufacturing and inequities of access. It hopes also, through participatory use of objects, to start to harness the lively powers of these “implosions”, to shape and reshape what it means to be reproductive at particular places and times.<p></p>