Genetic Art

In “Culturing the Pleebland:The Idea of the “Public” In Genetic Art”, Lisa Lynch writes about art that was inspired by genetic technological advances. Artists saw this as an opportunity to create art to represent scientific advances in a way that made it understandable for the average man. Reading the scientific write-ups were deemed challenging and overwhelming whereas “images.. are more palatable and digestible” and concepts can “better communicate the nature and importance of their work to a public more often comfortable with images than with words” (Lynch, p. 9). So this was presented by artists and gallery operators as a way to help further information to the public to encourage more interaction with the growth of science.
However, one criticism of the show illustrated the differences in definition of “public” and how it affects who views the art, how they perceive it, and their response to it. Ultimately, “the larger public to which the exhibit was addressed was equipped to appreciate serious and topical art, [while] the gallery public was not prepared to do so” and panned the exhibit (Lynch, p. 10). By that evaluation, the show was a success since it was designed with the civic public in mind. It does show the differences in approach to art consumption and appreciation by the outside public and the inner exclusive circles of the art community.