strophem! Lab
Mary Tsang / USA
MIT Media Lab and Hackteria
The Estrophem! Lab is dedicated to the generation of DIY/DIWO estrogen hacking protocols, revealing the various entrenched ways that estrogen performs a molecular colonization on our bodies, societies, and ecosystems. Thanks to petrochemical, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries, xenoestrogens pervade our environments and cause endocrine disruption, which can be seen as a form of slow violence that queers our bodies and bodies of non-human species. How do we as citizens effectively respond? strophem! Lab contains low-cost, accessible protocols for the detection and extraction of estrogen, and examples include transgenic yeast biosensors, solid phase extraction with cigarette filters, and DIY column chromatography with smashed silica gel and methanol. Our present ecological toxicity is deeply entrenched in powerful capitalistic forces. DIY/DIWO biohacking can function as a tool for creating new entry points and subjectivities, combating traditional power structures responsible for the production of knowledge, of bodies, and of technoscience. From these xeno-forces arise xeno-solidarities, capable of collectively hacking the systems of hormonal control.