Epigenetic Landscapes: Drawings As Metaphor
by Susan Merrill Squier /
2017 / English / PDF
20.5 MB Download
Devised in the 1940s by the biologist C. H. Waddington, the
epigenetic landscape is a metaphor for how gene regulation
modulates cellular development. As a scientific model, it fell
out of use in the late 1960s but returned at the beginning of the
twenty-first century with the advent of big-data genomic research
because of its utility among scientists across the life sciences
to think more creatively about and to discuss genetics. In
Devised in the 1940s by the biologist C. H. Waddington, the
epigenetic landscape is a metaphor for how gene regulation
modulates cellular development. As a scientific model, it fell
out of use in the late 1960s but returned at the beginning of the
twenty-first century with the advent of big-data genomic research
because of its utility among scientists across the life sciences
to think more creatively about and to discuss genetics. InEpigenetic Landscapes
Epigenetic Landscapes Susan Merrill Squier follows
the model’s cultural trail, from its first visualization by the
artist John Piper to its use beyond science. Squier examines
three cases in which the metaphor has been imaginatively deployed
to illustrate complex systems that link scientific and cultural
practices: graphic medicine, landscape architecture, and bioArt.
Challenging reductive understandings of epigenetics, Squier
boldly reclaims the broader significance of the epigenetic
landscape as a figure at the nexus of art, design, and science.
Susan Merrill Squier follows
the model’s cultural trail, from its first visualization by the
artist John Piper to its use beyond science. Squier examines
three cases in which the metaphor has been imaginatively deployed
to illustrate complex systems that link scientific and cultural
practices: graphic medicine, landscape architecture, and bioArt.
Challenging reductive understandings of epigenetics, Squier
boldly reclaims the broader significance of the epigenetic
landscape as a figure at the nexus of art, design, and science.
