Our world is an alien landscape filled with toxicities. Petrochemical, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries all contribute to the permeation of endocrine disrupting molecules into our environment, queering both our bodies and the bodies of non-human species. This can be seen as a form of slow violence that is pervasive yet difficult to perceive. Without reinforcing a politics of purity, how can we as citizens effectively respond? In the Open Source Estrogen workshop, participants work in teams to construct a DIY solid phase extraction system, then perform detection using yeast-based biosensors for estrogenic compounds. Water samples will be collected from the following locales: the Buffalo water front, Scajaquada Creek, the Erie Canal and the Niagara River.

[source: Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center website, 2017-Mar-27]