Center for PostNatural History
{{Short description|Science museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox museum
| name = Center for PostNatural History
| logo = File:Center for PostNatural History logo.gif
| image = Front_of_Center_for_Postnatural_History.jpg
| imagesize = 300px
| caption = Front of the Museum in 2022
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| coordinates = {{coord|40.465357|-79.944669|display=inline}}
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| location = 4913 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15224
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| founder = Richard Pell
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| parking = On street
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| website = {{URL|postnatural.org}}
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The Center for PostNatural History is a storefront museum in Pittsburgh's Garfield neighborhood. In contrast to typical natural history museums, it is focused on the collection and exposition of organisms that have been intentionally and heritably altered by humans by means including selective breeding or genetic engineering,{{cite web | title =About | website = | publisher =Center for PostNatural History | date = | url =http://www.postnatural.org/About | accessdate = February 22, 2015}} 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.{{cite web | title =Center for PostNatural History | work =Pittsburgh Innovators | publisher =WQED | url =http://www.wqed.org/tv/pittsburghinnovators/content/center-post-natural-history | accessdate =February 22, 2015 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140815055140/http://wqed.org/tv/pittsburghinnovators/content/center-post-natural-history | archive-date =August 15, 2014 | url-status =dead }}
Exhibits
Displays have included GloFish (with fluorescence genes from sea coral), 'Biosteel' goats that grow spider silk proteins in their milk, transgenic 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 handset.{{cite news | last =Machosky | first =Michael | title = Center for Post-Natural History | newspaper =Pittsburgh Tribune Review | date =June 7, 2013 | url =http://triblive.com/aande/museums/4096270-74/bicycle-heaven-museum | accessdate = February 22, 2015}}{{cite news | last =Keates | first =Jonathon | title =No Transgenic Spider-Goats At The Smithsonian? Welcome To The First Post-Natural History Museum | newspaper =Forbes | date =March 19, 2014 | url =https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2014/03/19/no-transgenic-spider-goats-at-the-smithsonian-welcome-to-the-first-post-natural-history-museum/ | accessdate =February 22, 2015 }} A range of formats are used including photography, taxidermy and dioramas, and living exhibits.{{cite web | last =Mims | first =Christopher | title = New Center for PostNatural History is a museum of human influence on nature | publisher =Grist | date = 29 February 2012 | url =http://grist.org/list/new-center-for-postnatural-history-is-a-museum-of-human-influence-on-nature/ | accessdate = April 22, 2015 }} 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 Svalbard Global Seed Vault collected by researchers and artists Signe Lidén, Annesofie Norn, and Steve Rowell which was displayed at the Center in 2012;{{cite web | title =The Cold Coast Archive: Future Artifacts from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault | website = | publisher =Center for PostNatural History | date = | url =http://www.postnatural.org/Exhibits/The-Cold-Coast-Archive-Future-Artifacts-from-the-Svalbard-Global-Seed | accessdate = April 23, 2015}} 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;{{cite web | title =Atomic Age Rodents | website = | publisher =Center for PostNatural History | date = | url =http://www.postnatural.org/Exhibits/Atomic-Age-Rodents | accessdate = April 23, 2015}} and PostNatural Nature, produced in collaboration with the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin documenting different instances of the postnatural in everyday organisms.{{cite web | title =PostNatural Nature | website = | publisher =Center for PostNatural History | date = | url =http://www.postnatural.org/Exhibits/PostNatural-Nature | accessdate = April 23, 2015}}
Traveling exhibitions for museums and galleries are also produced. Locations displayed at include the Waag Society in Amsterdam and the Art Laboratory in Berlin.{{cite web | title =PostNatural Organisms of the European Union | website = | publisher =Center for PostNatural History | date = | url =http://www.postnatural.org/Exhibits/PostNatural-Organisms-of-the-European-Union | accessdate = April 23, 2015}}
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".{{cite conference | last=Davies | first=Gail | title=Baroque practices for a postnatural history | conference=The Baroque as Empirical Sensibility, 13th-15th June 2011 | date = 2011 | page=4 }}
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,{{cite web | title =Center for PostNatural History Online Store | website = | publisher =Square, Inc | date = | url =https://squareup.com/market/center-for-postnatural-history | accessdate = April 23, 2015}} 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.{{cite news | last =Barnes | first =Richard | title =Spider Goat - The Age of Disbelief | newspaper =National Geographic | date =March 2015 | url =http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/science-doubters/barnes-photography#/06-hall-of-postnatural-history-670.jpg | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20150207015029/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/science-doubters/barnes-photography#/06-hall-of-postnatural-history-670.jpg | url-status =dead | archive-date =February 7, 2015 | accessdate =February 22, 2015 }}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|postnatural.org}}
{{Pittsburgh}}
{{Carnegie Mellon}}
{{Museums in Pennsylvania}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Culture of Pittsburgh
Category:Museums in Pittsburgh
Category:Natural history museums in Pennsylvania