Week 7 Neurosci + Art

This week the professor introduces many perspectives to connect Neuroscience with Art which I have never thought of before. I got to learn many new and interesting ideas such as how consciousness defines how we perceive and create art and how scientists are able to observe more from a more artsy display of human brains as the technology evolves.

This is an artwork created by Greg Dunn. It illustrates how numerous neurons are connected and linked to each other from a micro perspective. I believe that all the colors show that each neuron is independent and has its own information system.

here is another artwork by Greg Dunn. This is my favorite piece since it illustrates neuron system which is very modern and scientific by a very traditional type of art style. I like how he perceives neurons as roots with many branches. This illustration shows perfectly the relationship between neurons and human which is like roots to the tree.

One of the most impressive works that the professor mentioned was how the artist Suzanne Anker visualizes the brain through high technology simulation including the microscope, telescope, and MRI, and finally, display the brain as a butterfly.

fMRI Butterfly creates by Suzanne Anker in 2008. 

In addition to these, I was fascinated when the professor mentioned about dream. She asked that since we only remember 5% of the dreams we had, where did the rest of them go? And in dreams why is it possible to do things that are not possible in the reality? 

All those could be linked to a psychologic term called “sub-conscious". It is said that “the subconscious mind stores all of your previous life experiences, your beliefs, your memories, your skills, all situations you've been through and all images you've ever seen”. This reminds me of an article I had read before saying that all the people in your dreams actually exist since our brains are not able to imagine human faces from nowhere. Even though you may just walk pass someone, there is a possibility of that person being in your dream sometimes. It is really amazing to see how our brain is able to integrate all of our life experience and create some new stories when we sleep. To some extent, I believe that everyone has some sort of ability to do playwright and create arts that one might not even notice him/herself. This idea of unbelievable human potentials really amazes me.

Sources:

Frazetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. “Neuroculture”. Nov. 2009. Web. 20 May 2017.

Farouk Radwan, M. MSc. “What is the subconscious mind?” Unknown. Web. 20 May 2017.

The Neurocritic. “The Butterfly In The Brain”. 8 Jun. 2008. Web. 20 May 2017.

Dunn, Gregory. Greg A. Dunn Design. Web. 20 May 2017.

Frank, Priscilla. Huffington Post: Arts & Culture. “Neuroscience Art: Greg Dunn’s Neurons Painted in Japanese Sumi-e Style”. 23 May 2012. Web. 20 May 2017.