Richard Pell is an artist working at the intersections of science, engineering and culture. He is the founder of the Center for PostNatural History (CPNH), a public outreach centre dedicated to the intersection of culture, nature and biotechnology, which collects and exhibits genetically engineered life-forms.

The postnatural refers to the life forms that have been intentionally altered by humans through domestication, selective breeding and genetic engineering. Towards this end, the CPNH produces thematic multimedia exhibitions, printed works and maintains a collection of living, preserved and documented specimens of postnatural origin.

The Center for PostNatural History has been awarded a Rockefeller New Media fellowship, a Creative Capital fellowship, a Smithsonian research fellowship, and is currently in residence at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon.

Stories of emerging genetically engineered lifeforms attract a great deal of attention from the international media. These stories tend to dwell on the peculiar changes that have been made to familiar organisms: corn that makes its own insecticide; goats that produce spider-silk in their milk; or furry creatures that give off a green glow. However, often overlooked is the tinkering that is done at the smallest scale of life: the individual bacterial cells. Here we present just a small handful of genetically-engineered bacteria that are exemplars of the range of desires and anxieties that inspire humans to alter their living surroundings.

W: postnatural.org

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