course
description

Medical violence it’s a practice imprinted for centuries which inherits abuse from its tools to its rituals. Medical violence is happening, and it's an unfortunate and continuous cycle. Can we imagine a "future of health" where temporal hierarchies can be subverted as they relate to health issues? How can we create open spaces to inform ourselves and practice prevention, treatment, and healing of our "health/illness" conditions? How can biohacking and DIY knowledge and practices provide strategies and speculative scenarios for effective disruptions?

From an independent research and practice perspective, we will delve into the effects and interconnections of health, technology, gender and difference, artivist/hacker influence and political experimentation. The objective is to re-visit, re-think, co-design and develop processes, tools and technologies of biological exploration, from a transhackfeminist perspective, while focusing on low-cost diagnosis for self-

management of health through tools and techniques, software & databases, and performative narratives.

In this course, we will explore ex-centric & THfeminist methodologies, inhabit together a place of interference, bodily exorcisms, situated technology, techno-scientific wizardry, self-management of nomadic laboratories, critical anatomical illustrations and more. Additionally, we will share comparative historical tools and digital platforms; create, look and find low-cost technologies, share transfeminist biohacking methods and develop depatriarchalized historical narratives to diagnosis and practices. Sharing tools, processes and experiences is vital and necessary to creating preventative resistance and action, practices that anticipate, project and execute changes in personal and collective history around genealogy, blood and memory.

course outline

Week 1: Introductions, meet and share + brief history of gynepunk

To start, we will share personal context and why our experience brings us here, as a glimpse of near future entanglements. Following this, a brief presentation of the history of gynepunk, open to questions and feedback to connect and set the first personal/collective environment, and possible mutations. (Have you heard of the project before? Do you want to create a future/present with it?).

Week 2: History of medical disciplines + how to build Critical anatomies

In the first half of the class we’ll take a brief look at the Annals of the infamous medical history: key events in OB/GYN, anatomy, proctology, urology, cosmetogynecology, genetics, neuroscience. We will discuss misoginoanatomy, trans-generational trauma, male hysteria. The context is mainstream medicine: racist, xenophobic, colonial, homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic, misogynist, and ableist status quo.

In the second half we will summon Body spells: GLAMS as recipes to transform and set out a different path of the historical references and parallel narratives. We will cook a very simple seed water based lubricant to restore the flow of body storytelling, as a non-gendered prostate acknowledgment.

Week 3: Transhackfeminist (THF) genealogies and tools + disruptive developments and material manifestations

In this class we’ll discuss the origins of how THF! becomes: events, practices and concept. Then we’ll visit and discuss key references and gynepunk inspirations in Art: sculpture / performance / graphics / music / poetry / hacking. And finally we’ll get into the “Cuir Biology” & “Cyborg Witches” ideas as narrative inspirations.

Week 4: Medical health self-defense: decoding diagnosis, strategies resources & healing justice

This week will focus on hacking health discourses: how to restore full responsibility of the assumption of one's disorders with 3Ds strategies: body DE-colonization, science DE-sacralization, civil DIS-obedience. We will share low cost techniques, an arsenal for visceral decolonization, as well as simple DIY self defense recipes: pepper spray & immunostimulant tonics. Finally we’ll stir up idea fermentation for our next session: planning a proposal for “direct action”.

Week 5: Direct action: visceral exorcisms and live movements

In this final week we’ll review some historical and contemporary examples of direct action organizations and to close the course we’ll create, share and set a collective “guerrilla desire” as direct strategy (speculative connections to disrupt reality based on medical experiences).

who is this program for?

For everyone that has experienced medical violence. For everyone that has felt uncomfortable in a medical office, for those for whom health and mainstream medicine has only come to mean suffering and disconnection. For health/medical students, health professionals, for all of “we” the potential “patients”, and all who wonder: Can this be different? Can we question the meaning of treatment and health systems? How we start and connect? For everyone that is open to discussing and sharing meaningfully in a transhackfeminist based project, come join us.

what tools does this program aim to teach?

In this course, we will share comparative historical tools and digital platforms; create, look and find low-cost technologies, share transhackfeminist biohacking methods and develop depatriarchalized history narratives to diagnosis and practices.

about live classes

Classes are 'live' meaning that you can directly interact with the instructor as well as with the other participants from around the world. Classes will also be recorded for playback in case you are unable to attend for any reason. That said, we kindly ask that you please only purchase a ticket if you plan to attend regularly. For specific questions, please email us and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

about tickets

Tickets for this class are currently available via Eventbrite. If you would like to avoid Eventbrite fees, please email us for direct payment options.

about VAT

For tax purposes, we need to include the 19% VAT on top of ticket price for people living within the EU. IF YOU LIVE IN THE EU AND HAVE A VAT NUMBER— IT IS VAT ZERO! WE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO HAVE AND PROVIDE THIS VAT TAX NUMBER. In order to utilise this feature at checkout, under Registration Type & Tax Receipt Information, select Business (which as a freelancer you technically are), then enter in your USt.ID. If you have any questions, feel free to email us.

about solidarity

We realise we're living in uncertain times. During this time, we are offering a limited number of pay-what-you-can solidarity tickets for this online class. These are reserved for women, POC, and LGBTQ+ who would otherwise be unable to attend. We are a small organisation with no outside funding and like many, we are also in survival mode and we ask you to consider this when making your donation. For more information, see the FAQ page here.

We kindly ask that all pay-what-you-can students register through Eventbrite. Due to reduced staffing, we’re unable to handle specific payment requests for these registrations.

meet the instructor