Dr. Rich Pell

Biography

Richard Pell works at the intersections of science, engineering, and culture. He has worked with a variety of electronic media including documentary video, robotics, and bioart in museum exhibitions. Pell is the founder and director of the Center for PostNatural History (CPNH), an organization dedicated to the collection and exposition of life-forms that have been intentionally altered through domestication, selective breeding, and genetic engineering. CPNH operates a permanent museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and produces traveling exhibitions that have appeared in science and art museums across Europe and the United States, including a major exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London. CPNH has been featured in notable publications such as National Geographic, Nature Magazine, American Scientist, Popular Science, and The Guardian. He has received several accolades including the Rockefeller New Media fellowship, Creative Capital fellowship, and Smithsonian artist research fellowship. Pell is also a co-founder of the internationally acclaimed art engineering collective, Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA), which has exhibited works in venues such as ZKM, Ars Electronica, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Mass MoCA. In 2016, he was awarded Pittsburgh Artist of the Year.

Research Interests