Mary Maggic is an artist and researcher, re-defining the role of institutional science in the construction of political, ecological, and somatic fictions. Drawing upon the concept of public amateurism, Maggic’s practice revolves around workshopology and biohacking as critical sites of care and knowledge production that can move us beyond toxicity narratives and ecological ruins. These workshops frame the molecular semiosphere and its invisible process of co-mattering as the necessary starting point for embodying our porosity, alienation, and stickiness. With this participatory practice, Maggic constantly searches for new performative strategies for dissolving the boundaries between the personal and the planetary.

Before cross-contaminating with the global community of biohackers and bioartists, Maggic spent their summers in the tropical jungles of Costa Rica and Honduras for biodiversity and conservation research. After completing their Masters at MIT Media Lab (Design Fiction research group), their project “Open Source Estrogen” was awarded Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica ’17 in Hybrid Arts. In 2019, they completed a 10-month Fulbright residency in Yogyakarta, Indonesia investigating the relationship between Javanese mysticism and the plastic pollution crisis. Later, Maggic received the 2022 Knight Arts + Tech Fellowship for their continued dedication to public workshopology and site-specific world-making practices. Based in Vienna since 2017, they are a current member of the global network Hackteria: Open Source Biological Art and the Asian feminist collective Mai Ling.