An online passion survey, launched on Valentine’s Day 2002, in the context of recent genetic knowledge, visualises ideas that surround the nature (we are little more than the product of our genes) versus nurture (we are a product of our environment / culture) debate. 



This was my MFA project and was originally exhibited at the Hugh Lane Gallery in 2002.

The second installation of the Passion Survey was in the Zoology Genetics Dept at Trinity College Dublin and during the 2005 BA Festival of Science (above) through an invitation from geneticist Prof. Paula Murphy.

It was also exhibited at the Royal College of Surgeons by invitation of Dr. Brenda Moore-McCann and at Greyfriars Gallery in Waterford.

The typed email responses from all over the world, as ‘samples’, were placed in different sized petri dishes, depending on the size of the response. The dish also contained a blood coloured gel that simulated a medical specimen, the red, also the colour associated with passion.

Each ‘sample’ was placed with others on a wall, the end result created a wave of ideas that flowed across the exhibition space.

More details of the project can be read in life in the round article