THIS BEAUTIFUL MONSTER

  

“Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! --Great God!”

- Mary Shelley (“Frankenstein”) This Beautiful Monster How does a monstrous condition transform into something beautiful? Project Description In collaboration with the Arizona State University Tempe groundskeepers, Carlo Maley’s Evolution and Cancer Lab at Biodesign, and Athena Aktipis’ Cooperation and Conflict lab in the Department of Psychology, would like to create a cactus garden on the ASU campus that will exhibit crested, fasciated, and what some people call monstrose cacti. These cacti have somatic mutations in their stem cells causing uncontrolled growths—which are, by some definitions, cancer, yet these abnormal specimens are prized as beautiful and rare. This relationship between the horrific and the beautiful, the diseased and the cherished, exhibits our passion for manipulating life to our own aesthetic enjoyment despite what it might be doing for the health of the created. Crested cacti are so valued that they are now being created by grafting together different individual cacti. This direct relationship between the story of Frankenstein and this horticultural practice has long been recognized. The Coral Cactus, which is actually two succulents joined together, is sometimes referred to as a “Frankenplant”. This installation will explore concepts of language, cancer as a fact of life (all life), and the story of Frankenstein as seen through the practice of manipulating lifeforms for the satisfaction of the creator.

Promotional Plan The installation will be placed at a high foot traffic location on the ASU Tempe campus and will be accompanied by text to engage the viewers, engraved in stone. If possible, we would like our project to coincide with the International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer conference which we are hosting on the ASU campus from December 7-10, 2017. A variety of international scientific researchers will be participating as well as writer George Johnson, who is the author of nine books, including The Cancer Chronicles (2013), and writes for a number of publications, including The New York Times. We anticipate that a photograph of the installation would accompany a Johnson piece about the conference in the New York Times. Anticipated Outputs, Outcomes, and Audience This cactus garden will be created with the help of succulent and cactus experts who work on the Tempe campus gardens. We will choose a high traffic area near the ASU conference facilities in the MU and Student Pavilion. Students, faculty, staff and (conference) visitors will be the primary audience. We anticipate that this installation will be a catalyst for conversations. For the biologists, we anticipate a lively debate on what the word cancer actually means and whether somatic mutations in plants can truly be called cancer. For the literary audience, we envision a conversation about whether Frankenstein’s monster could ever have been seen as beautiful. For the artists amongst us, we hope that the garden of aesthetic plants will be a thing of beauty especially as seen through the lens of human manipulation. For the general public there are three main messages: (1) There can be beauty in the monstrous, (2) Cancer is a normal part of life... all life, and (3) Many creatures live with cancer but do not have to die from it. Humans need not either. In fact, that last point is an active area of research that ASU is leading. This opportunity to examine cancer within a non-human species will not only provide a window into nascent research for the general public, it will inevitably put a focus on the topic for scientific researchers, the artistic community, and the wider community of journalists, writers, and others who are interested in innovative ways to view the world. Why These Funds Are Necessary for the Project Without these funds we will not do this project. Funding Opportunities for Which This May Serve as Seed or Pilot This project will act as proof of concept for a larger exploration into cancer across species. During the next two years, we hope to create an exhibition that will be a collaboration with the Phoenix Zoo and the Desert Botanical

Gardens to explore how cancer manifests in species other than our own. Ongoing research in the Maley lab includes exploring cancer in sponges, whales, and elephants. Preliminary results indicate that we can learn much about our own cancers by looking at the cancers in other species.

Why Plants? Cancer has been defined by how it appears in animals – a tumor must break through the basement membrane of a tissue to be called a cancer. But plants don’t have basement membranes. When we ask how a phenomenon appears in different species, it helps us shed the distracting particulars and focus on the fundamental nature of that phenomenon. These cactuses have mutant cells causing them to grow out of control (and can no longer reproduce). However, this “cresting” doesn’t usually kill the cactus. Most plants can live with cancer, and many humans do too.