PROJECT: Imagine that you have been hired by the Environmental Protection Agency or the Federal Food and Drug Administration to promote the use of maggots in healing wounds.

READ, TO LIFE!:Any three of the following chapters:

Visualization techniques range from straightforward use of the human body to technologically sophisticated tools:

  • Appropriated materials: human bodies to visualize a mental state (Gelitin), orchard, dirt, and fish to visualize food production (Harrisons), electronic devices to visualize consumerism (Yun), office and household objects to visualize climate conditions (Steiner & Lenzlinger)
  • Manual drawings to create two-dimensional representations of environmental disturbances (Beehive, Ji)
  • Manual drawings to create a video narrative of environmental disturbance (Zurkow) Fabricated objects to visualize water quality (Eke, Haacke), energy output (Starling), climate change (Strachan), weather conditions (Goldsworthy), biological and geological forms (Krajcberg)
  • Photographs, maps, and videos to visualize growth and decay (Lee, Gelitin, Merz), watershed conditions Harrisons), weather (Saraceno), disappearance (Lin), adaptability (Strachan)
  • High tech tools to visualize unobservable living entities (Haapoja, Kac), air quality (HeHe), energy consumption (Mandiberg), interspecies communication (Gracie)

The common therapeutic treatment for a serious wound is a strong dose of anti-biotic medication. But some doctors are revising a method that is more in tune with nature’s own healing properties. The emerging hygienic field of biotherapy is enlisting maggots because these insects savor rotting flesh. doctors employing these miniature monsters are revising a practice that was used in the American Civil War when it was common to treat soldiers by placing maggots on their wounds to facilitate healing. Maggot larvae not only feed on dead or infected tissue, leaving healthy tissue alone, they secrete chemicals that stimulate the production of healthy tissue as they munch. The disastrous environmental consequences associated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria3 could be greatly reduced if people overcome their squeamishness and perceive of maggots as a healthful, natural, and affordable therapy option.4

PROJECT: Imagine that you have been hired by the Environmental Protection Agency or the Federal Food and Drug Administration to promote the use of maggots in healing wounds. Your job is to visualize the benefits of maggots and the dangers associated with anti-bacteria medications. Utilize any of the techniques of visualization listed above, visualize the danger of anti-biotics and the healing power of maggots.

DISCUSSION: There are two primary treatments for healing wounds. One is to murder bacteria. The other is to feed maggots. Which do you recommend? Why?

3 see http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/com/pathology/sherman/home_pg.htm and usmo4.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?go=http:/ /medent.usyd.edu.au/projects/maggott.htm
4 see http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/com/pathology/sherman/home_pg.htm and usmo4.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?go=http:/ /medent.usyd.edu.au/projects/maggott.htm