Mired in mosaicism: the perils of genome trivialization

Excerpt

Some years ago, I had the chance to make an excursion from Bologna to Ravenna, experiencing at the suggestion of a close friend what was arguably one of the most astonishing collections of “mosaics”—in the artistic sense. Between the fifth and eigth centuries, Ravenna served first as the transitional stage for the Roman Empire eventually morphing into what became Byzantine Italy along the way to Constantinople—and as they say, the rest is history. Not so much for the elegance and beauty of artwork is Ravenna so impressionable to the serious or casual tourist as is the historical significance of how this art form became emblematic of the blending of cultures presaging a world poised to meld east and west in the grandest mosaic of all (http://​whc.​unesco.​org/​en/​list/​788). So much for the aesthetic side of mosaicism given the current level of discourse centered flatly in the middle of human ARTs past, present, and future! …