The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Series on Genomics, Bioe) [Hardcover]

Suzanne Anker (Author), Dorothy Nelkin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0879696974 | ISBN-13: 978-0879696979 | Publication Date: December 1, 2003 | Edition: 1

The gene has become a cultural icon and an increasingly rich source of imagery and ideas for visual artists. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary painting and sculpture, The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age explores the moral and bioethical questions these works address. What does it mean to be human? What is "identity" in a society of genetically manipulated individuals? Questions like these are growing louder as genetic technology advances and the public examines the ethical consequences more widely. Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin, an artist and a social scientist, have written a thought-provoking and visually fascinating book for scientists, artists, students, and general readers intrigued by the anxiety and exhilaration of the genetic age.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age, authors Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin examine the intersections between art and science in the developing arena of genetic research and engineering. The book is clearly written, well documented, and lavishly illustrated. It will appeal to a wide audience, including artists, scientists, and the general public with an interest in the host of ethical and social questions raised by molecular science. Genome News Network The Molecular Gaze, published just months after the sad death of Dorothy Nelkin, is a work of art. Literally, in the sense of being about art (and more specifically, about art in the age of genetics), and figuratively, in the sense of being a visually elegant and aesthetically satisfying production. It is also timely: as Anker (an artist and art historian) and Nelkin (a sociologist of science) document, in the space of little more than a decade, the incorporation of molecular genetics into the visual arts-as icon, as motif, as subject, and even as technique-has emerged as a not so minor industry. BioEssays --Cold Spring Harbor

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 1 edition (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879696974
• ISBN-13: 978-0879696979
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,151,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An artistic journey through contemporary scientific ideas, February 23, 2004

By 

Giovanni Frazzetto (Heidelberg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Series on Genomics, Bioe) (Hardcover)

This is a very inspiring book. An excellent and complete overview of how genetic research is permeating popular culture, of how the gene has become a powerful and pervasive icon with a social meaning that goes beyond its biological properties.
This is an excellent volume for those who are interested in the regular shifts of boundaries between the domains of art and science. The authors explore the rise of an increasingly important new trend in contemporary art involving science by documenting the ideas and images that artists are using in association with the genetic view of life. They underline and provide insight into the social and cultural meaning of genetic research and of genetic essentialism through contemporary artists' interpretation of scientific process. In its well odered and relevantly different sections, Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin touch upon topics such as the sequencing of the genome and the reduction of humans to 'molecularl texts', the concept of identity, genetic engineering, the creation of transgenics and chimeras, assisted reproduction and cloning.
It is thorough work and well written, with the necessary historical references. A continuous, witty, appropriate and precise account of the questions, concepts, ideas and images fluctuating between the realm of science and that of art. I highly recommend it. A very good buy.
Giovanni Frazzetto (Molecular Biologist, Writer)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age, April 18, 2008

By 

Abigail A. Allan (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Series on Genomics, Bioe) (Hardcover)

Fantastic! Filled with images of artwork that actually relates to and is about science. (A lot of books and articles I have been reading for my thesis make broad gestures to famous paintings that have little to nothing to do with science.) As a biologist and an artists, this was the most informative, interesting and engaging book I have ever read.

Besides - lots and lots of tasty pictures. I wish i had more time to write a better review - but I'll just say that every art student, scientist, and most importantly gallery curators and art historians must have.

oh happy day, and actual interesting and beautiful to look at book about art and science. Not random "ideas" and babbling - but REAL SCIENCE and REAL ART.