Neuroscience + Art

“Neuroscientific knowledge is not solely constrained within laboratories, but readily captures the attention of the public at large” [1]. I wanted to start off with this extract from the article “Neuroculture” because it perfectly encapsulates the shared thesis that ideas, concepts and images in neuroscience widely circulate in culture and are portrayed in literature, film, artworks, the mass media and commercial products, therefore shaping social values and consumer practices. The writers of “Neuroculture", Frazzetta and Anker, are also responsible for the foundation go the Neuroculture Project [2]. The latter aims at examining how modern brain science has penetrated popular culture, eventually leading to Christopher Decharms affirmation that our generation will be the pioneers of inner space. In other words, the next frontier of research and voyage is already within us [3]. 

Since the arts go concurrently with the sciences, scientific researches constitute artworks by definition. Brainbow embodies precisely this: a scientific method that is intrinsically considered art. Brainbow is the process by which individual neurons in the brain can be distinguished from neighboring neurons using fluorescent proteins. The result is a colorful palette of neurons that has been a major contribution to the field of connectonics, aka the study of neural connections in the brain. 

Brainbow

Another example of the empirical collaboration between neuroscience and art is Victoria Vesna’s Octopus Brainstorming. In 2016, artist Victoria Vesna collaborated with scientist Mark S. Cohen on staging Octopus Brainstorming, a performative installation based on electroencephalography (EEG) technology. The work explores a long-lasting philosophical dilemma concerning humans’ ability to envision the experience of other sentient beings. Two participants wore octopus-shaped crowns with dangling arms while their brainwave rhythms were made visible to the audience through colored lights and sounds. When participants entered a meditative state, the visual and acoustic signals synchronized to indicate mental attunement [4]. 

Victoria Vesna's Octopus Brainstorming 

Finally, as the American rock band, The Amygdaloids, suggests in the lyrics of the song Fearing, art is a way of expressing and exposing the secret of neuroscience in order to escape the “full psychic assault” of our minds [5]. By rendering visible invisible phenomena, such as thought and consciousness, art is connected to neuroscience, in yet another example of the merging of the Two Cultures. 

The Amygdaloids

References 

[1] Frazzetta, Giovanni & Anker, Suzanne. “Neuroculture”, Macmillan Publishers, Volume 10, 815-819, 2009. 

[2] Vesna, Victoria. “Part 1.” Neuroscience and Art. Biotechnology and Art, May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA.

[3] Decharms, Christopher. “A look inside the brain in real time”, TedTalk, 03.33, 2008. 

[4] Albu, Cristina. “Planetary Re-Enchantment: Human-Animal Entanglements in Victoria Vesna’s Octopus Brainstorming”, Simon Fraser University, 2016. https://www.sfu.ca/cmajournal/issues/issue-ten--enchantment--disenchantment--reenchantment/cristina-albu.html?fbclid=IwAR1twyrqbeKqNrJSUXSihLVGvX_D9ARndxDv3USnw2pTENE_iXHJtIo8v54

[5] The Amygdaloids. Fearing, 2010.