Costelloe-KuehnCommentMemo4-9RBM


 * __Memo 5__**:

Super interesting project. Title sounds great but could be more specific.

Do you know Rich Pell? He was (is?) a professor in the art dept. at RPI and his latest project is to assemble some kind of geneological database of transgenic animals. There's a ton of other bioart stuff that could be useful to your project.

Traweek's writing on "borderlands" also seems appropriate.

In addition to asking "what the ethical/legal/political boundaries of the human/animal are," I'd be interested in what these boundaries //do//. You do ask how they structure scientific practice, and the converse.

I'm curious to hear of GB's 'most active “post-human” community.' What forms do these communities take?

I wonder to what degree scientists create an "exceptional space" more often that most people assume. Even for more established disciplines than chimerical research. Maybe you could propose a number of factors that contribute to varying levels of exceptionality.

I like hope vs. horror, instead of in addition to risk vs. reward, benefit vs. burdens, ahhhhlitterations.

__**Memo 6:**__ You could probably pursue all three 'abouts' in a dissertation, and 2 and 3 almost need to go together. What is it about murky spaces that's enchanting to you? As for the third about, I went to a talk about male pregnancy and these folks made a fake documentary about the first male to give birth. As he was walking around new york city, nobody really seemed to think it was really that strange. His cab driver said something like "whatever floats your boat, man." Are people so "desensitized" to technoscientific developments that once would be considered "shocking?"

__**Memo 7:**__ wow, fascinating timeline.

there might not be any U.S. laws on "chimera research," but what other laws might surround the issue and affect it? There are 3 or 4 in your structuring a project memo.

funny that the first human to human blood transplant occurred so much later than the first lamb to human blood transplant...

__**Memo 8:**__ Where are "chimera researchers" usually trained? What is their disciplinary background? Who were the scientists that denied chimera researchers their funding in your previous example? Who are the key gatekeepers?

__**Memo 9:** Is__ this research expensive? What are the design valences? Is the "hope" component a strong one? What are researchers hopeful for?