A photo illustration of Anastasia Synn that represents "the version of myself that I would love to see one day but we are not there yet."SEBASTIAN KONOPIX |
With Frank Sinatra crooning “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” over the loudspeakers, Synn pulled out a giant needle and twisted it deeper and deeper into her left forearm as the music played on. It was only after finishing her routine, capped off by loud applause from the crowd of biohackers, that Synn sat down for a fireside chat about her work as a “cyborg magician.”
Synn has 26 microchips and magnets implanted throughout her body. Unlike many biohackers who experiment purely out of personal interest, Synn does it for her magic career. These days, she’s doing less performing on stage and spending more time designing bodily implants for other magicians.
STAT sat down with Synn after her performance last weekend at “Biohack the Planet” to learn more about her bodily implants, her medical precautions, and what it’s like to go through airport security.
You’re often described in interviews as a cyborg. What does that mean to you?
To me, a cyborg is anyone that wants to add technology or anything that isn’t already in their body to their body to achieve a new sense or a new ability.
So you have a total of 26 bodily implants, including microchips and magnets, and you’re getting a 27th one this afternoon.
Yes, and a 28th tomorrow. [A few days after this interview, Synn said she hadn’t yet installed implants No. 27 and 28. But, she said, “I suspect by the end of the month I’ll probably be up to 35.”]
What do you use these implants to do?
I’m a magician, so I use them in my magic act. And I also use them in my day-to-day life — to unlock my door at home, or to let my cat speak. I know that sounds crazy, but my cat’s upgraded even, so I can scan him, and he will tell his story about how I found him behind a grocery store. I love my cat.
I can’t go into too much detail about how the implants are used in magic, but there’s multiple ways that they can be used and even more ways they can be designed to be used.
What’s an example?
The computer that I want to put my leg that we’re working on right now will actually have an NFC and a Wi-Fi and a Bluetooth. [NFC, or near field communication, is a technology that uses magnetic fields to connect two devices when they’re brought into close proximity with each other.]
It’ll be able to read something by NFC, transfer it to my phone with Wi-Fi, transfer it to my hairpiece with Bluetooth, and then vibrate the magnet in my ear so I can receive secret information that no one else can hear. And I’m not wearing any kind of a headset, so people can inspect my ears. The magnets are great for doing any kind of coin manipulations — or anything that I can put magnetic material in can be held by my magnets.
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