Project

Estrofem! Lab

marymaggic

Geeking, workshoplogy, and freak science on the microcolonization of estrogen biomolecules Estrofem! Lab is dedicated to the development of a mobile estrogen lab: a set of tools, protocols, and wetware for low-cost, participatory biohacking necessitated by its genesis project, Open Source Estrogen. Regarded sometimes as hobo science, freak science, and public amateurism, the Estrofem Lab and its workshopologies aim to detect and extract estrogen from bodies and environmental sources, providing the contextual framework for why we hack estrogen, and why we perform science as citizens and hacktivists. This ongoing artistic investigation has led to creation of yeast estrogen sensors (YES-HER yeast) containing human estrogen receptor for detection, vacuum pump solid phase extraction (SPE) using cigarette filters, and DIY column chromatography using broken glass bottles, smashed silica gel, and methanol.

Xenoestrogens come in many flavors: birth control pills, plasticizers, pesticides, the list goes on and on. Furthermore, estrogen is the most ancient of sex hormones, meaning the mutagenic effects of environmental xenoestrogens disrupt species across all vertebrate taxa. We are all collectively mutating, becoming alien and no longer fitting the binary norm. Can we mobilize biohacking and civic action to create new subjectivities on these ongoing anthropocentric toxicities? Do we want to be more alien than we already are?