#10 – Pink Chicken Project, Nonhuman Nonsense

Genetic Engineering and Society Center

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The Pink Chicken Project is an ambiguous proposal to use a recently invented biotechnology called “Gene Drive” to genetically modify the bones and feathers of all chickens in the world to the color pink. As scientists suggest chicken bones to be a primary identifier of our time (the Anthropocene), this intervention would modify the future fossil record, coloring the geological trace of humankind, pink!

Framed as an activist campaign/startup, this speculative suggestion reveals the intimate link between social and ecological justice, and allows us to think about the impact of novel biotechnologies from multiple ethical and political perspectives: why should we seek/avoid this future? How does the violence of entire-species genetic modification compare to the violence already inflicted on billions of chickens in factory farms? How can we have ethical relationships with other species in a shifting landscape of human-nonhuman power?

Links & Resources - Pink Chicken Project: https://pinkchickenproject.com, video https://vimeo.com/277923005

Nonhuman Nonsense (@non_non_sense) is a research-driven design and art studio creating near-future fabulations and experiments somewhere between utopia and dystopia. They seek to transmute our relationship to the non-human, by embracing the contradictory and the paradoxical – telling stories that open the public imaginary to futures that currently seem impossible. Founded by Leo Fidjeland and Linnea Våglund, it is based between Berlin and Stockholm.

GES Center -  Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

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