Mental antics at the ICA

Conceived by ex-fashion designer Helen Storey and put together with the help of scientists, Mental is a science-cum-art exhibition that aims to educate visitors by making them face awkward questions.

There are four sections. Two are essentially practical science experiments. On entry to the ICA's lower gallery you are greeted by a white-coated technician and presented with an irresistible invitation to don goggles, a white plastic apron and rubber gloves. BZ Reaction, the experiment you perform, involves squirting three chemicals into a Petri dish. They form patterns which are self-generating, unique and hence unpredictable, which is meant to demonstrate that science doesn't always have the answers and, more bizarrely, that genetic determinism is thus a flawed concept. I'm sure it is. Equally, I'm sure that this experiment doesn't prove anything of the sort.

Upstairs, First, Last, Everything, is a practical investigation into the effect of pheromones on sexual desire. A humanoid shape covered in white fur lies face down on a couch, bum in air. As you stroke the fur, small, fibre-optic cables light up and pheromones may or may not be released into the air. Questionnaires filled in afterwards will reveal if the pheromones had any effect on people's sexual states.

Whisper, meanwhile, is an iMac program that asks you to educate an artificial intelligence by answering questions such as, "What do you fear?" and "Which emotions govern your life?" This is unnerving and thought-provoking but the end is anti-climactic as you are told, "Thank you. I think I'm going to have to talk to some more people now." Finally, there are the Death Dresses: dresses-cum-art objects that symbolise mental or physical decline.

Storey has succeeded in creating something different from the art she describes as "Hoxton bollocks that pretentious people claim to understand". But the experiments are a little too lame to be convincing.