You can now buy these designs on our Teespring store until December 9th! (shipping just in time for Christmas)

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Fascinated by the problem of designing warnings for people 10,000 years in the future, New Hampshire Institute of Art's Type 1 class has joined forces with Bricobio and The Raycat Solution to help insert Raycats into the cultural vocabulary.  While Bricobio works towards genetically altering cats so they change color when in the presence of radioactive material, the NHIA Type 1 class is working to insert the idea that if a cat changes color, that space might be dangerous to others.  Learn more at http://www.theraycatsolution.com/.  All sales from these shirts go to help fund this project, which is an intersection of research, education and art.

In the 1980's, a curious project was proposed by two scientists : why not creating a breed of radioactive cats that would change colors when they are next to nuclear waste?

OFFICIAL SELECTION Pariscience 2015 - International Science Film Festival -- This film is on free access - if you like it or if you feel it should be seen, feel free to share it.

The Ray Cat Solution

Philosophers Françoise Bastide and Paolo Fabbri were part of the Human Interference Task Force, employed by the US Department of Energy and Bechtel Corp at the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in 1981. Their solution consisted of two steps:

  1. Engineer a cat that changes colour in response to radiation.

  2. Create a culture around this cat, such that if your cat changes colour, you should move someplace else.

This requires a combination of scientific work in biology as well as social sciences and art, and there are many questions to consider:

  • How do we actually engineer this cat?
  • What are some of the scientific challenges?
  • How do we create this culture?
  • What types of art are more effective?

and much more...