The Corpus Callosum

DNA Sculpture is "Vile and Offensive"
DNA Sculpture exhibit at UC Berkeley playground turning heads, sparking complaints
PTA president asks school's parents to file complaints with the county

By Richard Vernon, P.O.E.
State of Protest
July 27, 2009

EAST BERKELEY - Think of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man . . . zoomed in to an ungodly scale.
 
The large, plastic and metallic sculpture parked outside UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science, is stoking the angry fires of parents of children who attend nearby Claremont Park Elementary School.

"My daughter suggested that it was funny," said John Copeland, whose 7-year-old daughter attends summer camp there. "She shouldn't be talking to me about this. Now I'm forced to explain genetics to her, and why the Bible doesn't say anything about it."

The genetically correct structure is part of an ongoing exhibit titled "DNA Sculpture," created by acclaimed artist Ashe Kutchya, which represents "genetic material from an enzyme," according to Lawrence Hall of Science's website.

It depicts a DNA double helix -- two congruent helices with the same axis, differing by a translation along the axis. The structure is larger than life, and elongated. Its genetic analogy to human life is subtle.

This is even weirder than people complaining about breastfeeding, or any other natural phenomenon. 

Although DNA Sculpture has been on display in various public parks and playgrounds, Jenny Garrotte, Claremont Park PTA president, said she found it distasteful and verging on obscene, and e-mailed parents Wednesday morning, asking them to file complaints with Pegro and with Alameda County Code Enforcement.

"Everybody is entitled to their own opinion regarding what art is," said Garrotte. "If this piece weren't visible to passersby and available for children to play on, I would not have a problem with it."

"Verging on obscene" !!!  Not only that, it is not in the Bible!!!  And you have to explain to kids why it is not in the Bible!!!  Try this: they didn't have x-ray crystallography back then.

Cars are not in the Bible.  Are they obscene?  (Well, some are obscene)  Really, how many kids asked about this?

Still, Terence Lythma, a teacher in the school's summer program, said he has not heard any of the children talking about the piece.

"It's the parents who have been talking about it," he said. "The children don't really make an issue of it."

So where's the vile and offensive part?  Saved the best for last:

"There are 1000 kids in the school that are going to be exposed to it," he said. "It's vile and offensive, and kids have no business seeing what God thought fit to hide from our eyes."

So I guess we should censor all images taken by Hubble, and remove all microscopes from schools.  Tell me, this is even more "hidden" (it took longer to figure out how to see it.)  Is it obscene?  Is it vile?


The worst part of all of this, is the fact that it is a disingenuously contrived argument; that is, it is a lie.  Kids do not care about the DNA.  To them, it is a toy: a colorful, visually appealing thing they can play on.  So to press some kind of pseudoreligous agenda, they make stuff up.  What would Jesus lie about?