ULTRASOUND99: Still 002

ULTRASOUND99 was created by Tristan Baia in order to explore the sociopolitical violence of assigning gender at – and before – birth. By utilising their own prenatal ultrasounds, and the glitch process of databending, the artist attempts to disrupt and critique the idea of gender assignment and prenatal imaging technology. Databending (a process where data of a particular media format is edited using software designed to edit another media format) produces vibrant, discordant glitches throughout the video. By glitching the ultrasound, form and data are distorted and corrupted, rendering it impossible to determine the foetus’ sex and defeating the purpose of the ultrasound – a digital, queer protest against the concept of prenatal gender assignment. The work is also an exploration in transformation, translation, and transition (both literally and conceptually) – sound becomes video in the initial ultrasound, which once again becomes sound, and then video again during the process of databending.