THE WITCH IN THE LAB COAT 

2019-2023

The Witch in the Lab Coat is a genre-defining project that has shaped the emergence of witchcraft as a methodological framework within technoscience and bioart, while advancing experimental approaches to menstrual fluid as a biotechnological resource. 🩸

The project is a doctoral research-creation and scientific investigation exploring the intersection of feminist witchcraft and menstrual tissue engineering through the development of a body-based, performance-informed laboratory practice. Led by WhiteFeather, the work was conducted at SymbioticA International Centre of Excellence in Biological Art within the School of Human Sciences (Central Nervous System Repair Lab) at The University of Western Australia, with additional laboratory research undertaken in Montréal, Ottawa, and Berlin.

The project unfolded through multiple iterations across academic, artistic, and curatorial contexts. In 2023, it was featured in MATTER OF FLUX at Art Laboratory Berlin—an exhibition developed in collaboration with FEMeeting and presented alongside works by Shu Lea Cheang (with Ewen Chardronnet) and Lyndsey Walsh. In 2024, the project was exhibited in Arcanum Sanguinis: Occult Blood at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, framed within a broader exploration of occult knowledge systems and alchemy.

A core sub-project, Mooncalf, investigated the development of menstrual serum for tissue culture, alongside methods for isolating stem cells from menstrual blood, toward speculative applications such as lab-grown meat. Another sub-project, Cryo-binding, is a video performance in which the artist combines cryogenic methods and ritual practice to symbolically bind and immobilize the bureaucratic forces constraining this unprecedented research.

WhiteFeather’s early experiments with menstrual serum were spotlighted by Merck/Sigma-Aldrich for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (2021), contributing to a broader surge of interest in menstrual materiality. The project’s impact extends across feminist science studies, biodesign, menstrual justice, and performance-based research, and has been widely profiled through peer-reviewed publications, citations, interviews, and podcasts.

The Witch in the Lab Coat was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Doctoral Fellowship), the Australian Government, and The University of Western Australia, with additional support from Art Laboratory Berlin.

The full doctoral thesis, The Witch in the Lab Coat: Doubling, Doubling, Toiling and Troubling the Narratives and Methodologies of Standard Scientific Research Practices, is available through The University of Western Australia Research Repository.