I attended the virtual BioArts event hosted by Mary Maggic; topics of identity and its ties to industrial capitalism, as well as the body and gender to political realms were discussed in relation to environmental toxicity. Mary further described the heteronormative and patriarchal structures in which we are born into that attribute to these factors in BioArt. As a result of this, Mary termed the phrase “Estroworld” which represents the relationship we sustain with hormones based on the pharmaceutical industry and agriculture to which we are, for the most part, subjected to. In addition, the idea of “open source estrogen” revolves around the premise that hormone molecules are constantly among us, ready to be mutated and hacked.
According to Mary, there is a 3 step process to living in a growing queer world:
Toxicities - Living in an alien landscape colonized by hormones.
Semiosis - You are already hormones with these toxics in you.
Subjectivities - Do you want to be more alien than you already are?
Our goal is step 3. Relative to this, plastic in this day-and-age has become nature and we must be able to acknowledge this in order to progress.
These “toxicities” are derived from the petrochemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, and agricultural industry. In Mary’s research estrogen is a major component as it is highly conserved and serves as a receptor in organisms. She goes deeper into this through hormone hacking and biohacking; Mary contrived yeast biosensors where upon contact with xeno estrogens they turn yellow (which serves as a detection method). Extraction is done, as is column chromatography, where hormones are separated based on their chemical properties.
"Toxic Xeno Bodies"
Moreover, Mary connects elements of spirituality and the gender binary to the larger undertones of their research. In Mary’s Mandala projection, she describes a river used as a highway that connects to a spiritual kingdom in the north and south. This reference broadly relates to our polluted landscapes; the mandala is composed of trash to exemplify its connotational meaning: in this manner, order is created out of chaos. The artwork in its essence sustains queer elements and displays the entanglement of bodies as well. Mary views bodies as always queering and glitching through life.
"Mandala Projection"
Sources (6 Total):
(1 Screenshot + 2 Images from Event + 3 Sources)
Bodies. (2019, August 3). Toxicity is never consensual: Mary Maggic on Open source hormones. Logic Magazine. Retrieved May 13, 2022, from https://logicmag.io/bodies/mary-maggic-on-open-source-hormones/
Maggic, M. (2022). Mandala Projection. BioArts Talks @CBIS . Zoom. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
Maggic, M. (2022). Toxic Xeno Bodies. BioArts Talks @CBIS. Zoom. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
Maggic, M. (n.d.). Estroworld Now. Mary Maggic Official. Retrieved May 13, 2022, from https://maggic.ooo/Estroworld- Now#:~:text=join%20the%20colonization%20today,molecular%20residues%20are%20simply%20i nescapable.
Media Alliance Inc. (2022, April 22). We’re All Living in the Estroworld. The Sanctuary For Independent Media. Retrieved May 13, 2022, from https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/were-all-living-in-the-estroworld/
Attendance Screenshot:
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