Allegories of the Genome
Archive for genes
Review of GENOME: The Secret of How Life Works at the NY Hall of Science
I recently had the opportunity to visit the exhibit GENOME: The Secret of How Life Works at the New York Hall of Science. Because part of my strategy for interacting with the world and the designs of culturally-embedded objects is to make their implicit sets of meanings explicit, I paid close and careful attention to the dominant metaphors employed in this exhibit. I was particularly interested in how the metaphors did or did not support the mission of the exhibit’s main sponsor, Pfizer.
Here is a summary list of those metaphors:
>Genome: Cracking the code
>Secrets(“this is the secret of you”)
>Gene switches shown with electric light switches that, when switched on, revealed concepts with text
>recipes with secrets
>recipes made in a factory
DNA=zippers
DNA=stuff
double helix=ideal shape
genes=DNA
DNA is a copy cat
proteins=origami
choreography in cells
cutting and pasting
cellular “community”
cell “world”
junk dna was, interestingly, deemphasized and implicated in the process of recombination
genes on chromosomes are like pairs of shoes
“the frontier” of research presented as a techno/ambient soundtrack with digital visualizations
“staying ahead of the flood” (of information, I hope)
time traveling
Information about applied careers and technology was presented after watson, crick, and franklin. Topics included:
gene therapy
bioinformatics
counseling
chemistry
treatments
newborn testing
drugs
stem cells = supercells
heredity slot machine (with the phrasing, “genes allow“)
The Reality Checks! (irony that reality is presented in a theatre)
-genetic engineering
-swapping genes from different animals
-cloning
-stem cells
Organelle View
Organelle View is a collaborative project aimed at developing the role of visual media (versus verbal) in the exploration of bioinformatic semantic networks. In cooperation with the Kumar lab and in my role as creative director and project manager, I led the team through the proof-of-concept stages of development with a successful grant application and navigation through the complex task of translation among scientific, IT, and artistic goals. In this instance, A virtual reality model dynamically linked to a bioinformatic database and designed to increase the use of rich media in collaborative learning. Developed with support from GROCS, the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, IBM, and Apple Computer, Organelle View allows users to learn about organelles and protein localization in a yeast model cell.
As a result of the Organelle View project, team members Chris Landau and Jamie Cope went on to form N Formation Design. The project is now being taken further in affiliation with the Kumar Lab. An animated version demonstrating the cell cycle in in the works.
