LAUREN SCHROEDER

An art game created for gallery spaces that illustrates strength needed in becoming a mother.

In this collaboration with artist Jiabao Li, I built three Unity minigames that represent different experiences Jiabao had in becoming a mother. I enjoyed helping her to share her experiences through an interactive format, and learning more about Unity's HD lighting and rendering pipeline.

Overview by Jiabao Li

"I 3D-scanned my nine-month pregnant body and brought it into a character animator. It transformed my heavy, restricted physical form into a vessel for superhero moves. Suddenly, I can jump twenty meters and perform hurricane kicks, even while the physical me cannot bend down to put on my shoes.

Society often expects mothers to be superhuman: to give birth, recover instantly, work, nurture, and sacrifice without pause. This superhero mom lets me inhabit that fantasy in digital space. I feel relieved. In my super-pregnant body, I lift hospitals, kick insurance forms, and clone myself to multitask: take care of my baby, can’t slow down my career, be pretty and sexy, be positive, run a startup, make art, teach, and many more.

This is the training gym for the modern mother: a place where the pregnant body is finally granted the power to do it all."