Paula Pin / BioTransLab
Paula Pin was a founding member of the Pechblenda laboratory and one of the initial developers of GynePunk in Barcelona. She has been involved in the biohacking Hacteria network since 2012 and has since initiated BioTransLab as a mobile lab working in the intersection between human health (focusing on women) and ecological concerns.
CONTRIBUTION
BioTransLab, 2012–ongoing
Paul Pin’s project BioTransLab is presented through posters, zines and the so-called HardGlam Kit, an open-source gynaecological kit for self-diagnosis, originally designed as part of the transfeminist GynePunk project. These materials will be activated during a workshop conducted by Pin.
BioTransLab is an activist education project and mobile lab that promotes self-knowledge and learning for women and trans women about their bodies. The HardGlam Kit is a portable lab containing DIY gynaecological tools for basic self-diagnosis. It was conceived in resistance to experiences of humiliation, discrimination and judgment in public gynaecology clinics. The HardGlam Kit infuses medical hardware with glamour, and consists of an open-source microscope, a 3D-printed speculum and a centrifuge.
The kit, its uses and politics will be explored during a workshop with
a group of participants in Bergen. Interested individuals from any background are invited to participate, and the workshop is designed to encourage learning and discussion about not only the political implications and limitations of the kit itself, but also as ways of learning to conduct basic self-care, free from the medical gaze of the clinic.
RELATED PLATFORMS
Exhibition