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Hunter, WhiteFeather "The Witch in the Lab Coat--Doubling, Doubling, Toiling and Troubling the Narratives and Methodologies of Standard Scientific Res." PhD
, The University of Western Australia, 2024
Secondary Author(s): Molly McKinney
Keywords/Fields of Study : feminist witchcraft, biotechnology, bioart, menstruation, tissue culture, bioengineering, lab-grown meat, vaginal microbiome, bioethics, technofeminism, DIY, technofeminist witchcraft, deviant science
Abstract: The Witch in the Lab Coat intertwines artistic practice, feminist witchcraft, and biotechnologies towards doubling, doubling, toiling and troubling the narratives and methodologies of standard scientific research practices. This thesis presents a series of papers that provide details of different aspects of The Witch in the Lab Coat project, which arose from a desire to create conditions of empowerment for people who work to substantiate the lived experiences of the female reproductive body. The project provides a disruptive alternative to hegemonic bioscience cultures by positioning my own body as a primary (re)source: I collect and utilize matter related to menstruation—hormones and pheromones, vaginal microbiome data, serum, cells, and tissues—as a locus of relevant, personalized, and readily accessible biomaterial for laboratory and DIY experiments, and resultant creative outputs. This material self-reliance facilitates a provocative leakiness through and around institutional boundaries and standards of control, acting toward a witchy biopolitical ethos of feminist bodily autonomy. This includes disruption and reorientation of masculinist approaches within hegemonic biomedical science and technology cultures where research concerning nonhegemonic reproductive bodies is, or sometimes is deliberately not, produced. I have engaged with research questions such as: what does it mean to be the authority of one’s own body, particularly as a woman conditioned to self-doubt and minimization? How can feminist witchcraft be used to inform science, and science to inform witchcraft? How can I use menstrual blood, biotech protocols, and concepts and practices of ‘witchcraft’ to spell out challenges to conventional bioscientific paradigms and create art?
Department: UWA School of Design/ SymbioticA
, The University of Western Australia
Advisor(s): Ionat Zurr
