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[Music]
now I'm really really happy um to
announce uh Julian Julian is going to
talk about biohex spaces and is going to
share their knowledge on them with us so
please give a warm welcome M Applause to
Julian
hi okay
um oh that went faster than I thought oh
hi I'm going to talk about biohack
spaces this might be a little rushed
because originally I had much more time
in in mind when I uh when I applied for
the talk um I'm going to quickly tell
you who I am I'm going to give you a
very brief like 120 seconds uh history
of uh how the hacker space movement
start got got his traction uh 16 years
ago um and then I'm going to go into
biohack Labs especially in the Curious
Community Labs which I am a part of talk
a little about our projects and then I'm
tell going to tell you why this is all
uh important and very dear to my heart
who am I I'm Julian today I like to use
they and then pronouns I'm 42 but I
really don't have any answers for you um
I live in Hamburg and I'm part of the
Curious Community Labs which we founded
in
2020 um out of a group of people who had
been doing um DIY biology before and
I've also been part of the CCC for 20
years uh this year um history of hacker
spaces and I think this is sort of
important to know your roots in 2007 I
who of you has been went to the camp in
2007 or who of you has been around in
2007 in 2007 there was a a fairly a
fairly um uh there was an inflection
point because um there was a after the
camp of 2007 there was a tour of
European hacker spaces and a bunch of
American hackers most notably Dan
Kaminsky we all dearly miss him Nick far
Bri Pettis Mitch Alman and a couple of
others did a tour around European hacker
spaces and visited the seab basee metal
lab in Vienna entropia and CS uh the
chaos Computer Club in Cologne which was
sort of the biggest and most notable
hack spaces around at that time and um
Yol and um pulon did a talk about
hackspace Blueprints and out of that
came a whole explosion of hack spaces uh
after that NYC resistor was founded in
New York herois bridge in uh San
Francisco and just I don't know about 50
different hack spaces within the next 18
months so this entire um explosion of
hack spaces and everything that has
trickled down from there is sort of due
to the camp in 2007 somehow and due to
these people I would like to give a
shout out and also a shout out to the
original sort of European hack spaces
like cbas and metalab and Utopia C4 and
obviously don't forget the roots in the
US as well like Loft and others um the
world is very different today the whole
entire movement has changed hacker
spaces have changed but this is um
the the I think it's quite important to
know your roots and also understand that
small inflection points really can start
a movement and INSP Inspire others and
um and so on um I after about 17 years
in the uh hacker Community um in 2000 in
2020 started being very interested in
growing my own mushrooms and out of that
sort of started joining the biopunk
movement um which I'm going to quickly
sort of give you an overview of um what
I mean when I say that we very much
about DIY Grassroots biology and I
understand that Grassroots is a really
funny word here we are very diverse and
not entirely definable and just as you
can't really grasp what nature actually
is um there's people doing stuff with
DNA there's people growing mushrooms
there's people going foraging picking
stuff fermenting playing with yeasts
inventing new foods everything around
that um very diverse um there's all
sorts of projects all around Europe but
very few actual dedicated biohack spaces
we are curious about biology we're
curious about open source and sharing
and teaching and learning just as well
as the uh electronics and computer-based
hack scene um some of us focus more on
fungi others on microbiology and H
Hamburg we're very we're very sort of
fungi focused group but we also do a
couple of other things and we are sort
of separate from what someone might
understand as the sort of old school
biohacker um body modification kind of
scene people who
um people who work with their own body
and try to optimize and so it's not
really the same kind of people in any
sense um what we are more closely to is
sort of the solar Punk movement people
of thinking about autonom being
autonomous going off grid um these kind
of people and then obviously we are sort
of intertwined with the hack movement as
well um in Hamburg we founded the Cur
Community Labs we have 42 square meters
uh we have some extra areas it's all in
the orber halfen and hurg if you ever
come by please you know have have a look
at us if you live in Hamburg please come
visit and we have 23 members and those
numbers aren't made up neither the 42
nor the 23 um and we have a bunch of
gear standing around that we can use to
do our own DIY biology some is very new
some is sort of foraged from from uh
industry uh
you know from from companies throwing
out all old hardware and we give it a
new life we grow mushrooms with a FL
Hood which is a sterile workbench we
have a big massive autoclav we have grow
tents we have someone sponsored us some
DNA sequencing Hardware we got a big
ground to build the garden of the future
which has a massive weather station and
the and the greenhouse and we're
certainly not the only biohack space
around but it's sort of hard to grasp
and there's not really this sort of you
know website collecting everything like
there's on hackers spaces. org so you
know if you are part of your own biohack
space please you know contact me
afterwards I'm happy to network um
there's a bunch of people around Berlin
as well there's uh there's obviously
online there's a couple of groups and
and and people being interested in
different topics our lab looks a little
like this um there's also a bunch of
equipment standing around that and uh
stuff that you can't see cuz it's you
know sort of distributed and we have a
bunch of
projects um currently uh most prominent
is the St pilz or city mushrooms which
got sponsored by the city of hurg um we
do some mushroom lamps we build the
garden of the future as I just said we
go on foraging trips we do food
experiments and experiment with all
sorts of new ideas of ways of fermenting
things and growing yeasts and uh
inventing new ways
of doing things with uh combining melium
with uh grains and then we also have
people who built a little company
building AC acoustic absorbing melium
based composite mat materials and so on
and so on and so on so it's very diverse
and I really have to rush through there
a little um because I'm going to ENT the
project a little more in depth now um
the stut pilzer is basically idea of
taking a bucket that you can get at any
restaurant you like because they throw
them out filling it with cardboard with
uh coffee ground with uh different other
substrate straw and so on and so on and
we built this whole brochure that makes
it very accessible for people to grow
their own mushrooms and this looks like
come on this um which is um which is an
Rose oyster mushroom or pink oyster
mushroom um which you can then grow
yourself on your on your window sill and
uh and eat and it's very delicious um so
being sustainable about your own food is
sort of one part of what motivates us um
then we work with model novel melium
based materials most notably uh the
mushroom lamp which um MTI built um
which is a and I'll show you how this
stuff is made in a second but it's
basically it feels a little like uh
polystyrene it has sort of lightweight
but it's very firm and you can use it uh
it's it's 100% biodegradable and it it
is buil built out of straw and buckwheat
and uh and melium and then this becomes
a lump shade um we grow mushrooms we
have our own grow tent which looks about
a little like this and we do this in an
sterile work environment so you need a
you need a a Flo hood or some other way
of keeping your environment sterile this
pressure pulls pressured air through
through a heer filter
so and you know you disinfect obviously
but that that allows you to keep the
stuff uh clean the I don't know if
Sebastian is around no okay Sebastian
has the project with the building a
plantos scope which is a high-speed
photography
Plankton
um uh analyzing water and seeing what
lives in there and with Raspberry Pi and
some highspeed photography I think 8,000
pictures per second and then you can see
what flows through there and what is
actually in there and count um what is
in there we have group activities we go
out and forage mushrooms and prepare
them and uh also learn about them
understand how to identify them etc etc
we go out into nature which I know for
some might be scary but uh we actually
love to do this kind of
stuff and then uh I'm going to talk a
little about my own little project to
illustrate a little more what can be
done and also because I know the most
about what I do myself um so last year I
started building h last I started
playing the trumpet again which had been
a hobby when I was like a child and then
I stopped and then I you know started
playing again and I live in the middle
of the city so obviously my neighbors
are not too happy about this now you can
buy mutes and stick them in the trumpet
but they restrict the air flow and
that's sort of not really fun or you can
buy these things for about 500 Euros
which is sort of a barrel with some uh
sound installation and you play inside
and it's quieter and then nobody gets
Disturbed and it's quite nice but it's
also €500 and these things are made of
plastic and uh you know uh not not
entirely great um however I still bought
one because I needed one urgently and
then I thought well I think I can make
this myself so act one I got myself a
metal barrel and cut off the
top act two is that I uh 3D printed a
mold um that I could use to create the
waveform uh that reflects
sound act three is that I grew a bunch
of melium and the way you do this is you
take some you take some um carbohydrates
like Rye you sterilize it you inject
some uh liquid melium or spores in there
you let it grow under under good
conditions and then you mix it up with
some substrate for example in my case I
used uh rap seed uh straw and I used
buckwhat shells and I mixed them in a 2
to1 uh um
relation and mixed it all up with my
celium and then I used RI mushroom which
is a medicinal mushroom but it also has
incredible propagating properties like
this stuff grows like crazy and it's
it's very hard to get any molding or
rotting in there um so I used that and
then I shredded it all and uh ran it
through a clean Shredder and then I
placed it all together and placed it all
together and let it grow for about a
week and then I had this and then I took
out the mold and then I dried it and now
I can play my trumpet into this and it
is uh 100% compostable it uh is
completely DIY and uh it also keeps my
neighbor Neighbors from complaining so
that is uh what I built this winter um
so you can have a lot of fun and there's
a million of application s of growing
your own mushrooms of understanding
nature around you building your own food
working with different kinds of
components um also building tools
and um and software and Hardware to um
to help um you know to to make this even
more even easier and and and and create
less
um less uh what do you call it uh thr
you know don't have to throw that much
away for example or you know
understanding more about the strains
you're building a microscoping stuff C
you know organizing the different
samples etc etc so there's a bunch of
things to do and it's incredibly fun and
i' only I have only been at it for like
if you're honest like about two years so
there's a very very steep learning curve
in just doing your own stuff and uh and
and understanding a little more about
what surrounds you and that's why I
think think this is important um first
of all this planet is burning and this
is very urgent we need to find Solutions
and we need to be we need to find big
Solutions but also small ones and we
need to do this urgently and without the
sort of belief that capitalism can save
any of this we need to go we need to go
in there and do little quick projects to
iterate and to share our knowledge and
to become more resilient um we need to
learn to grow our own stuff and we need
to how we need to learn how to forage
and preserve food and make it delicious
and go out into nature and understand
what surrounds us um I think the idea
that we are somehow as humans separate
from nature is a deeply deeply
patriarchal colonialist extractivist
idea and this has to change we are not
in any way separated from nature we are
very much part of Nature and we need to
understand what surrounds us if we don't
if we still believe we can somehow Force
nature under our will we will go under
so
please decolonize decolonize yourself
please understand that the idea of
somehow Conquering the world is a really
really really Dreadful
one thank you and now you hackers um
people who are interested we need you
many projects that we do require
knowledge of computers and electronics
uh
require the understanding of physics and
mechanics and um there's so much to
discover and learn and share and there's
so much fun in this because at the end
often it's very delicious as well um and
or useful or anything and it you know
what we do usually uh is very very
sustainable doesn't require shipping
parts from the other PL part of the
planet and then throwing them out
because you you know did the wrong
solder um you can't as I said you can't
change the fundamental laws of nature
but if you really start listening nature
can start changing you and that is what
we need as a society so please join a
space start your own um talk to us uh
start doing some in your own hack space
is um we offer some support we offer
Network we are open for networking to
others
um you know you can just reach me you
can reach me after the talk you can go
to our website curious. bio you can
write to me you can talk to me um and I
rushed through all of this to have two
and a half minutes of questions thank
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
thank you so much Julian for sharing
your experiences and showing off this
great mold you grew so if you have any
questions there is a wonderful angel
with a microphone that is Mor that you
can go to and queue and ask maybe one or
two questions so please shoot hey um
curious if you're doing anything with
genetic engineering or trying to figure
out how to get approval to be allowed to
do that within the European Union uh no
uh we don't do it I know there's
projects who do do this kind of stuff um
it is obviously dangerous it also
requires a a [ __ ] ton of equipment that
we do not have um I have no idea about
the approval that's why we grow
mushrooms I mean there's also a huge you
know most of the stuff we do is patented
so you can't actually commercialize it
um but you're very much can do your open
source version of it and that's sort of
for now um I know there's some projects
but we
don't Hello um how resistant is this
material against like um like humidity
and this kind of humid hum hello ah
humidity uh not so good um fire quite
good um I don't know the exact
specifications but there's been a paper
on fire resistance and it sort of it
doesn't burn it just smolders so it's uh
it's decent um yeah you don't want to
put this stuff in in your basement or or
outside that's just not it's going to
draw water um and it needs to dry you
need a drying shamber CU it dyes at the
mycelium dyes at 70° so you need to get
it to 70° often dry it for a while to
get it really dry but once it's dry and
it's it's in your home it's
great and if it's a little mo moist in
your in your home it'll just absorb
moisture and then just let it go once it
once it stops being moist so you know
you almost answered my question already
but uh 70° that's Centigrade or yes yes
70° Centigrade what do you think uh is
the density is it more like Styrofoam
like very light or is it more like
cardboard it it's more like
polystyrene it depends on the on very
many factors you can tweak this you can
play around with the substrate
composition you can the longer you let
it grow the thick the denser becomes so
you have to stop it at a certain point
etc etc so it really depends on on what
you uh on what you um yeah tweak it up
and you can tweak it up and down yeah
there's yeah you can totally do
that um I was wondering if there's a way
to get more specific details on how to
make the audio
tunnel on yeah it's yeah there is okay
it's it's a 3D model I built basically
by asking around on the internet and and
figuring out and asking actually going
on YouTube seeing something similar
talking to the guy who made the tutorial
and asking if how he would did it and he
did a tutorial for me okay so it's all
accessible online yeah sort of I I'll
talk to you later thank
you we're done thank you very much I oh
oh a question yeah but we are we are
over
time um yeah I just have a question uh
to connect with people uh I'm looking
for experienced people who have um
experience in DIY hormone production for
HRT so if you want to find me later I'm
at uh art and play over there and I will
stay here a while and also post it on a
bulletin that is super important I know
there's a couple of projects around
there there's n none where we do but I
know this is a very very important thing
just because thank yeah thank
you hormone replacement therapy
replacement therapy often for Trans
people but Al for women and menopause
yeah okay I'll answer your question
after the talk thank you very much
[Music]
everybody