I was commissioned to design and build an exhibit to present the common practice of splicing human genes into animals to research cures for human diseases.

A motorized lab rat, intended to represent animals genetically modified to develop human diseases, appears to be sick and sleeping, but squirms if people tap on the glass. Two-way mirrors are used to create infinite reflections of the rat cage, suggesting the scale of suffering engineered into these useful models of human disease. One of five exhibits in the Hall of Transgenetic Organisms at the Schenectady Museum, November 1, 2008 to January 31, 2009.

Flickr images here