BLOOD CHILD is an interactive visual narrative about a "monster" created from menstrual blood. Through an infinite-loop journey, you will traverse the creature’s birth and unbirth, experiencing the interconnections of birth and death, the self and the other. BLOOD CHILD explores a somatic relationship with life, death, tenderness, and pain.

I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion.

These are the last words from the "monster" in Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

Frankenstein is well known as the mother of modern sci-fi, but what often gets overlooked is how Mary Shelley's own life experience – particularly her relationship with motherhood – gave birth to this masterpiece. She wrote the story at the age of 18, right after she lost her first-born baby. Throughout her life, she had multiple pregnancies, miscarriages, and children's deaths while also being an unlawful, unmarried mother when she was completing Frankenstein. Her own mother also passed away giving birth to her. This is how the "monster" was born. The novel is thus both a birth myth and a maternal horror.

Inspired by Frankenstein, BLOOD CHILD imagines a "monster" created from menstrual blood – the monthly shedding of the uterine lining, its tissues, and blood. While everyone is always one step closer to death, menstruation serves as a unique, somatic metaphor for the cycle of decay and renewal. It becomes an embodiment of both birth and death, intertwined with tenderness and pain.

The work is written and created by Mengna Da. She is a multi-media artist, researcher, and creative project manager. With a background in art history and cultural criticism, she makes interactive stories and experiences about pain and joy, body and embodiment, power and change. Learn more.

This project was developed during IMA Low Res 2024 at NYU. Big thanks to faculty Craig Protzel and Cy X for their teachings; residents Robi Abera and Kami Karras for technical support and Anastasia Dor for conceptual development; Brian Ho for technical consultation; and my brilliant Edamame cohort!

Special thanks to Chienn Tai for contributing sounds of her menstrual cramps.