The days and weeks following GF are always strange to me. Such a dense cluster of activity and insanity followed by.. quite. These events definitely deserve a nice follow-up discussion.
This year was the largest so far with around 50 attendees. It was a great mix of veterans and newcomers and I think everyone had a lot of fun. In the days preceding GF, I held the first body mod intensive. We spent two days going through all of the steps necessary to safely place a magnet or similar device. A lot of what we did is going to end up as part of the write-up. It was also fantastic for me to have a crew of people familiar with tasks such as processing and autoclaving tools. We did a lot of wetwork this time and it was awesome to have skilled assistance.
Speaking of procedures, the body mod artists Russ Fox and his wife Jesika attended. I wish I’d had the opportunity to see him at work but it wasn’t a work trip. I hope to make it up to Canada at some point and possibly get some work done. Russ ended up being the unofficial referee of the knife fights which was much appreciated by all. Another new participants was the magician Anastasia Syn. She gave a great presentation, did a shit load of decorating, violated this years no-meat rules several times, and was all around awesome to hang out with. I also got to meet a number of Grindhouse Wetware folk that I’ve interacted with many times but have never seen in meatspace, such as Lexi and Shawn. Shawn was busy giving haircuts much of the time. Both Shawn and Lexi ended up getting a few implants. We were also graced by Mixael from Four Thieves Vinegar, who initially came off kind of like a pacifistic biohacker hippy.. but ended up being totally savage during the knife fights. It was James Newman’s first Grindfest as well. I’ve seen him at tons of other events and I’m glad he finally made it down. James constructed and had implanted a humongous RFID device that has a range measured in feet rather than inches.
Friday night we held the first GF sit down dinner which was it’s own flavor of delightfully uncontrollable chaos. Much of the dinner was prepared by Jules and was super tasty as well as vegan. The drink of the night was strawberry honey mead; it sounds better then it was. Shawn apparently drinks mead often and told me it was totally acceptable, but as a non-drinker it really tasted more like a boozy liquid fart. We broke bread together, drank a lot of wine, and had great conversation. We definitely intend to make it an annual part of GF.
Saturday morning consisted of a series of presentations and discussions in the lab. We were joined by Luis, who demonstrated the coating of implants with a type of hydroxyapetite coating which he has successfully used on rats. Luis coated a sample of EL wire, but due to the high flexibility of the wire we decided to hold off implantation until a better time. It’s seems to be very promising. We heard from Tim of GHWW regarding some of the new tech being developed as well as an update from Rich Lee regarding his myostatin project. Bird did a series of sessions teaching people arduino and Cyberlass facilitated the annual community planning session. Jules prepared a rather impressive “Willy Wonka” room in which everything was edible.
Saturday culminated in the annual electric knife fights (EKF). This year, the EKF was organized tournament style. The new knives were pretty gnarly. Rather then a mere jolt.. these things had a big intimidating crackling arc when active. Much of the knife construction was a group endeavor, but Vince went out of his way in making these things both functional and beautiful. Vince then went on to kick everyone’s ass in the EKF tournament. To be honest though.. I think my favorite bout was between Berkley and Colton. Colton did end up winning, but not before Berkley kicked the shit out of him.
Sunday was a whole lot of procedures and break away sessions. I’m always impressed by the ability of the average grinder to operate on two hours of sleep per night for days on end.
Media stuff: This year, we had three different crews out. We had a crew from Gizmodo headed up by Kristen Brown, who a lot of us already know from other events she’s covered such as BdyHax. The Gizmodo article can be found here: I spent a weekend with Cyborgs.
We were also covered by a crew from the NY Times headed up by Alice Hines. The article hasn’t come out yet, but when it does I’ll update the page. To be honest, I’m a little apprehensive about this article. I never really got a good read about whether the article is going to be a critique or neutral. I guess we’ll see?
Finally, we got to hang out with Cosima Herter. Cosima was the science consultant for the show Orphan Black. She was there as part of some kind of documentary she’s working on. Of all the media folk I’ve dealt with I think Cosima is my favorite. It really felt more like she was one of us and a participant then an observer and I hope she can make it back next year.
As always, I have to extend a special thanks to Cyberlass. There is just no way we could pull this off without her guidance and help. Thanks to everyone who volunteered. Send me your favorite GF pics to publish here. There are tons of great pics and videos going around already and I’m going to be updating this with them when I’m able to. Thanks everyone for making it such a fun time.
Dates: April 13, 14, 15
Procedural Intensive on April 11, 12 by prior arrangement.
Location: 19445 Adalante Court, Tehachapi CA, 93561
Registration: RSVP and donate on the Grindfest Registration page
Grindfest 4 is going to be focused on collaboration and work. We’ll be building some simple circuits, examining some really cool products and techniques to coat them with, and of course discuss implantation techniques. I think we all had a blast last year and we learned something about our community: we apparently aren’t driven by competition. So this year, we focus on communion via consumption. Our focus is on food.
The sharing of a meal is probably the oldest of human traditions. Some form of feast accompanies nearly any major life event. We feast at the birth of a child. We feast at weddings. We feast to celebrate our gods and heroes. We even feast in remembrance of those who’ve passed. This feast as a ritual is almost universal among humans and like any good ritual, people have found ways to turn it into something hateful and perverse. The Talmud instructs adherents to recite a particular blessing when breaking bread. There are a number of fine points such as the number of loafs which should be broken for a particular meal and rules against breaking bread which one doesn’t own. One who fails to perform this properly was frowned upon. The Christians brought it to a whole new level with the Eucharist. Because they believed that bread and wine was converted into the literal flesh and blood of Jesus, they were terrified of someone abusing their magic crackers and grape juice. As silly as this sounds, entire villages of Jewish people were murdered due to such accusations.
Today, dietary preference seldom leads to murder but may instead be killing us all. Meat production is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations attributes 9% of human-caused carbon dioxide emision to animal agriculture. Ruminant animals are responsible for about 37% of methane emision and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions. Furthermore, this study didn’t account for the deforestation being driven primarily by the need for feed crops and pasture land. Despite all this data, those who choose a plant based diet are in many countries treated as pariah. Over 38% of Indians are vegetarian and the tradition has stood for thousands of years. Yet, we still hear people arguing that meat and dairy are essential to health. Many are convinced that consumption of meat is the only way to get enough protein. I’ve even heard that in some parts of the Midwest United States, vegetarians are still seen as shifty and some fear that in private they’re also stabbing and burning magic Jesus crackers. Fortunately, in our community people respect each others dietary preferences as readily as they accept each others gender identity and sexual preferences. This year’s Grind Fest will be primarily vegan, with a few glaring exceptions such as the consumption of insect proteins and the use of dairy in a presentation on fermentation.
Food’s a great topic. It affects everything from our moods to how long we live. And yet, it’s one we’re not even going to try to do justice. Lets face it. Grindfest is about grinding. The real reason this years theme is food is because it’s something we’d be doing anyways and does little to take away from the work that matters. My goal for this year has been and remains the Klaxon project. The Klaxon is a simple alarm circuit implant which can be set with magnet. Despite being the product of collaboration between AugLim, Grindhouse Wetware, and a number of other grinders such as ThomasEGI, the Klaxon design is simple almost to point of crude. It isn’t intended to be made into a product and it isn’t the most efficient of designs. No, the Klaxon is simplicity. It’s a design that nearly anyone, even those without any experience can assemble. The idea was to create an implant that with supervision/instruction/assistance could be assembled, coated in a biocompatible resin, and self-implanted within the three days of Grindfest. The device would be crude, but the process of building would facilitate both learning and discussion. Unfortunately, the Klaxon build isn’t looking entirely possible. We’re going to try, but this may end up being more of a dry run. Either way, I look forward to the experience.
They got out of the house alive, but they have cialis sildenafil https://unica-web.com/COMMITTEE/current-committee.html nowhere to live, nothing to eat, and no clothing to survive the winter weather. So, they did it together for each other. tadalafil tablet Spermac capsule is recommended for the treatment of untimely discharge). online viagra australia It’s the moral duty of the country to undertake free bus generic cialis online unica-web.com journeys to Canada to purchase low-cost drugs. And of course, there will be magnets, various RFID types, fireflies, and whatnot available for sale and implantation. It really is best if you message Cassox ahead of time so he can schedule you a time.
Day One 4/13 Events: Official start is 4pm. Feel free to show up early in the day to get set up, get cut, and lend a hand. Semi-formal dinner (Yes, tables), circuit building, knife fights. More TBA
Day Two 4/14 Events: Morning is dedicated to biocompatible coating tech. Afternoon is prep and practice for procedures. Hypno-Drum circle at night. More TBA
Day Three 4/15 Events: Procedure day. More TBA
Things to do and see:
Talk or Teach sessions – you should sign up for a timeslot and tell/show us something
Experiment stations – different things to try out on yourself or others
Working on projects (bring your supplies!)
Implants and Piercings – if you want an implant let Cassox know now and get on the schedule
Getting there:
If arriving by plane, LAX or Bakersfield are your best bets. You’ll still need a car/ride after that. For everyone needing a ride (which is everyone) carpooling is active, check out the biohack.me forum thread. On the forum you’ll find instructions regarding signing up for the Slack boards where an active ride share conversation is happening.
Drivers – It’s out in the middle of nowhere and Google maps doesn’t play nice.
Cyberlass’ Cheat:
Set the GPS to get you to the Save Mart grocery store: 841 Tucker Rd, Tehachapi, CA 93561
Once there, set the GPS for the AugLim Lab 19445 Adalante Court, Tehachapi CA 93561 and it will get you there the sane way.
Where to Stay:
At the Lab – There is a big living room with plenty of floor space available, so bring a sleeping bag and you’re set. Just make sure you like cats — they will sleep on you. It’s also nice and warm at night if anyone wants to bring a tent. There is a big kitchen, BBQ grill, five acres to roll around in like a puppy, and of course the work space.
In Town – The other option is one of the three hotels in town about 10 min away. You can probably find some people to go in on a room with.
Generally people crashed here, save their hotel monies and chip in on resources (like food or booze) and have a great time. One way or another we’ll make it work.
Things to Bring:
Bring all your hardware. There is one anemic RadioShack and a Home Depot. If you run out of something, you may be out of luck. Donations for supplies will be met with positive feedback.
When it’s all over be sure to share photos, videos and great stories. Also please let me know what you liked, what you hated, what you want, what you really really want…