The Center for PostNatural History is a storefront museum in Pittsburgh's

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neighborhood. In contrast to typical

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

s, it is focused on the collection and exposition of organisms that have been intentionally and heritably altered by humans by means including

selective breeding Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant m ...

or genetic engineering, a phenomenon referred to as the postnatural. The Center is "dedicated to the advancement of knowledge relating to the complex interplay between culture, nature, and biotechnology", whose mission is "to acquire, interpret, and provide access to a collection of living, preserved, and documented organisms of postnatural origin".

Origins

It was founded by Richard Pell, an associate professor of Electronic and Time-based Arts at Carnegie Mellon University.

Exhibits

Displays have included GloFish (with fluorescence genes from sea coral), 'Biosteel' goats that grow spider silk proteins in their milk,

transgenic A transgene is a gene that has been transferred naturally, or by any of a number of genetic engineering techniques, from one organism to another. The introduction of a transgene, in a process known as transgenesis, has the potential to change the ...

fruit flies and a Silkie chicken, bred through the continuation of a recessive gene for its fluffy, fur-like coat. Exhibits are narrated via wired telephone

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. A range of formats are used including photography, taxidermy and dioramas, and living exhibits. In addition, the Center has an extensive online archive detailing past and current exhibitions, specimens, archives, events and press releases. Details of past exhibitions include notably those of the Cold Coast Archive, a collection of artefacts and seeds from the

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collected by researchers and artists Signe Lidén, Annesofie Norn, and Steve Rowell which was displayed at the Center in 2012; Atomic Age Rodents, an archive of rodents from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History which had been used in some form or another in atomic testing in the early to mid-20th Century; and PostNatural Nature, produced in collaboration with the

Museum für Naturkunde The Natural History Museum (german: Museum für Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...

in Berlin documenting different instances of the postnatural in everyday organisms. Traveling exhibitions for museums and galleries are also produced. Locations displayed at include the Waag Society in Amsterdam and the Art Laboratory in Berlin.

Design

The Center employs a delicate and purposeful aesthetic to the display of their exhibits. It also intentionally uses neutral language so as to invite visitors to go beyond a reactionary impulse to stigma-blighted words, and instead consider the specimens and ideas on a deeper level. "The Center for Post Natural history does not offer a celebration of this technological harnessing of the immanence of life, nor is it a simple rejection. Instead it is a careful exploration of how lives might be lived together, asking what might be at stake for subjects, places, practices and politics". In addition, the Center also produces a range of other paraphernalia pertaining to their collections and other conceptions of the postnatural. These include books, T-shirts and postcards, and 3D archival prints which can be purchased on site.

Recent news

In 2015, the Center was featured by '' National Geographic'' in their March 2015 ''The Age of Disbelief'' issue.

References

External links

* {{authority control Culture of Pittsburgh Museums in Pittsburgh Natural history museums in Pennsylvania Carnegie Mellon University Science museums in Pennsylvania