Art & Genomics
An educational course on science communication
Year of project: 2021
Core team: Diewertje Houtman (PhD student in social research & genomics) - Boy Vijlbrief (PhD student in medical ethics & genomics) - Mirte de Wit (designer)
Educational support: Almar Bok - Linda Litjens
Partners: Erasmus Medisch Centrum
Funded by: Impact at the Core
Media: Amazing Erasmus MC - Zorgvisie - Trends in Biotechnology
About Art & Genomics
Academics call for public engagement to inform governance and involve the public, but struggle with finding accessible ways to engage. Increasingly and around the world, public engagement efforts incorporate art and design to facilitate and stimulate public opinion formation on complex topics in an accessible and effective way. This is why I’ve been asked by Erasmus Medical Center to co-create a course that aims to educate and let students of scientific disciplines experience how they can use art and design to stimulate dialogue about complex research topics in society.
The course takes the context of genomics (although the topic is interchangeable): novel genomic technologies such as gene editing and sequencing raise ethical issues with a significant impact on society at large. In practical terms, students investigate, assess, and experience the way art and design can contribute to meaningful public engagement for novel genetic technologies.
Pilot
In September 2021, we conducted a pilot version of the course with students from the Genetics in Society minor taught at the Erasmus MC. The students came from various backgrounds such as biomedical sciences, medicine, bioethics and psychology, making it an interdisciplinary test group. In a span of four weeks we went on art safari, held art dialogues, did lots of prototyping and much more. Students had to come up with, create, build, test and eventually exhibit a self-made art/design piece that sparks debate about a complex genetic related subject of their choice. The ultimate goal is to inspire students to collaborate with designers and learn how to establish partnerships between scientists and artists.
During the last lesson of the course we organised an exhibition for everyone at Erasmus Medical Center to visit. Examples of exhibited art/design pieces were a new fashion clothing line with your personal DNA printed on it, a supermarket where you could buy new organs like a heart, lungs or kidney for the price of an apple and a genetically modified ‘beauty-banana’ that would alter your appearance.
What’s next?
Art & Genomics is likely to become a permanent part of the 2-year Genomics in Society research master at Erasmus Medical Center. In addition, we are in contact with other universities and organisations to offer the course.
Interested?
Are you interested in the course for your university, organisation, secondary school or elsewhere? Please don’t hesitate to reach out. Although this pilot course takes the context of genomics, it is interchangeable to other scientific and/or technological topics that raise ethical issues like artificial intelligence, the metaverse or braincomputers. Feel free to get in touch to discuss the possibilities.
Debating about GMOs
“Art and Genomics has given me the tools I need to think about, and communicate the societal impact of scientific research. The most important lesson that I’ve learned from A&G is that scientists should consider the potential social impact of their research and findings more often.”
Exhibition of the fashion clothing line with knitted DNA
Prototype of DNA-clothing in public spaces. Project and photo by Amber Kleijwegt.
Early sketches with feedback from target groups
Some of the works that we’ve discussed during the art dialogues
Evaluation with students
“Art and genomics has been quite a wonderful journey down the rabbit hole. I remember that I was panicking on the inside in the first lessons! ‘Help, I do not know what to do, I am not that creative.’ However, A&G nudged me to get out of my head. And as soon as I stopped overanalysing and started working with my hands and materials, designing went smoothly. I am still not very creative, but I am proud to say that I am able to design because I was willing to get out of my comfort zone, my mind.”