Mega magnetic poetry
In March 2008 Stemistry joined Life! in their stem cell dome in Durham and tried out their new Mega Magnetic Stemistry Poetry Boards.
The aim of our stall was to encourage members of the public to leave small poems, quotes and ideas on huge magnetic boards. We were trying to be like a huge oversized fridge that we hoped people would find eye-catching.
There was a large selection of individual words - words all associated with stem cell research/technolgy - and we got all sorts of responses from the public.
On the Mega Magnetic Poetry Board at Durham, March 2008:
- academics
- translate
- biology
- searching
- for
- a
- plan
- tuned
- controlled
- scheme
- hopeful
- family
- caring
- for
- amazing
- child
- the
- clouds
- are
- inevitable
- embryo
- is
- born
- one
- is
- bone
- two
- is
- spine
- translating
- a
- biological
- grey
- area
- thinking
- challenging
- sequinned
- hybrid
- woman
- may
- rekindle
- progress
- blastocyst
- is
- theatre
- technology
- the
- laws
- of
- science
- for
- progress
- will
- be
- perfection
- a
- walk
- can
- replicate
- a
- chosen
- leg
- short-sighted
- families
- will
- collude
- silent
- embryo
- hiding
- behind
- the
- arm
- of
- god
- the
- leap
- is
- improvising
- man
- bandaged
- desperate
- embryo
- blunt
- baby
- is
- the
- foetus
- cut
- open
- donate
- donate
- old
- women
- will
- consent
- stem
- cells
- are
- wrong
- are
- stem
- cells
- wrong
- ?
- laboratory
- bred
- family
- neccessary
- progress
- will
- be
- awkward
- explore
- responsible
- technology
- women
- are
- embryo
- cradles
- stem
- cell
- research
- the
- future
- of
- medicine
- ?
- once
- the
- devil
- is
- born
- heaven
- is
- expensive
- exquisite
- dilemmas
- will
- be
- managed
Photographs
The images in the series above were taken by Photographer Phyllis Christopher
Mega Magnetic Poetry
Durham 2008
In March 2008 Stemistry joined Life! in their stem cell dome in Durham and tried out their new Mega Magnetic Stemistry Poetry Boards.
The aim of our stall was to encourage members of the public to leave small poems, quotes and ideas on huge magnetic boards. We were trying to be like a huge oversized fridge that we hoped people would find eye-catching....
There was a large selection of individual words - words all associated with stem cell research/technolgy - and we got all sorts of responses from the public.
The Stemistry writers added words and phrases to the boards too and were on-hand to chat to people and tell them about the project.
We felt it was important to use a wide variety of words in our magnetic word-set as we wanted people to really think about their own feelings about stem cell research. We did not encourage them to be positive or negative about the subject but rather tried to get them to engage with the poetry boards as a means of contributing whatever they wanted. We did not censor what people said and all the quotes are taken directly from the boards.