Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

This week, we explored how neuroscience is connected to art. I think that one of the best people to show the connection between these two cultures is Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Santiago made beautiful pictures that are drawings of the cells. These drawings were a game changer, and he won a Nobel prize for it. The drawings are also still used in some textbooks today. They are so beautiful that even people who don't fully understand what they are would like to hang them up as art pieces.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal Drawing

Another example of art and neuroscience coming together is by Suzanne Anker and Giovanni Frazzetto. They took fMRI scans and overlaid butterflies on them. The butterflies are the same on each scan, but there are different ink blots that change the way the whole image looks. It is truly beautiful to look at. 

Suzanne Anker Artwork

Our guest speaker this week, Siddharth Ramakrishnan, spoke about how our mind's eye is able to visualize things, but it's different for every person. Sometimes, we are able to visualize things very clearly but other times it is more difficult. I really enjoyed hearing him speak and learning all about his work.


Siddharth Ramakrishnan brain drawing

This was a very interesting week, and I am so glad I got to learn about how neuroscience and art are interconnected. I would have never thought these two subjects would be related, but there is so much beauty within our brain. 

Sources/Refrences

Anker, Suzanne. “MRI Butterfly.” Suzanne Anker, lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/GkYzaSBVdkp1eMA6uOjmgQEXEVcKhCRxZSamU7lMB-SxO9RO_7X4BB5J7drIuD3fmvPtie0SmMllnvFxHMiphzUlqMFlV0wcUj9DI4GAy-oYJxFWkDJkJXR0.

“Brain Image.” Brain Mystic, static.wixstatic.com/media/06d4ee_ea033025b51e4a8387cd30fe90c0860c~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_728,h_448,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/brain4.webp.

Connie Blaszczyk | Center for Art. “3Q: The Interface between Art and Neuroscience.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, news.mit.edu/2019/3-questions-sarah-schwettmann-interface-between-art-and-neuroscience-0416.

Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. “Neuroculture.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, www.nature.com/articles/nrn2736.

Jiang, Kevin. “Butterflies of the Soul.” Butterflies of the Soul | Harvard Medical School, 30 Mar. 2018, hms.harvard.edu/news/butterflies-soul#:~:text=At%20least%20part%20of%20the,%E2%80%9Cbutterflies%20of%20the%20soul.%E2%80%9D.

Ramachandran, Vilayanur. “3 clues to understanding your brain.” TED, uploaded by TED2007, Mar.    2007, https://www.ted.com/talks/vs_ramachandran_3_clues_to_understanding_your_brain#t-1092702

Ramón y Cajal, Santiago. “Nervous System Illustration.” The Public Domain Review, the-public-domain-review.imgix.net/collections/illustrations-of-the-nervous-system-golgi-and-cajal/golgi-olfactory-top-thumb.jpg?

Tucker, Abigail. “How Does the Brain Process Art?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Nov. 2012, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-does-the-brain-process-art-80541420/.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 9: Space + Art

Image
This week, we learned about how space and art connect with one another. Space has always intrigued me, so I was very excited to learn more about it. Although excited, the concept of space is always hard to discuss because we just know so little about it. The fact that space goes on pretty much forever is mind-boggling. Pictures of space are pieces of art themselves. I love to see this artwork of galaxies, planets, and more. Technology has progressed so far that we are able to see things through telescopes that we have never seen before. For example, the image below shows the "spiral galaxy NGC 5643 in the constellation of Lupus (the Wolf)". It was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and is such a beautiful image.  NASA Galaxy Image Artists such as this weeks speaker, Richelle Gribble, travel around the world for their art. Gribble travels and explores different ecosystems for her artwork. She has lived in many interesting places around the globe, and her art reflects that.
View More »

Week 8: NanoTech + Art

Image
This week's topic was nanotechnology and how it relates to art. Even though I knew it existed, I was still surprised to learn just how small the matter is that nanotechnology is able to manipulate. Having the capabilities to do this sort of manipulation opens up a whole field for scientists and artists to explore. Nanotechnology is even becoming more common as the technology improves and we are able to do more and more. Nano Structures Artists use nanotechnology to create different colors for their artwork. One specific use of nanotech for color is the inventions of Vantablack and Black 3.0. Vantablack is touted as the worlds darkest black. It is able to absorb 99.96 % of light when its on an object. This makes objects almost look flat because there is no light reflection. Black 3.0 is more for consumers and is also extremely black. These two paint colors can be used as more than just art, and have scientific uses too.  Vantablack covers statue and looks like black hole Nanotechnol
View More »

Week 3: Robotics + Art

Image
For this week's blog post, I would like to talk about an invention of a machine that changed the world. This machine was the printing press. The printing press was created by Johannes Gutenberg. He mostly adapted existing technology to create this press. Once book making was mechanized, books were able to be mass produced and it was very profitable. This changed many sectors including religion. This is because the bible was able to be printed and distributed to more and more people.  First Printing Press Even though this was an amazing invention, there were people who realized that once something becomes mass produced, it is no longer special. Walter Benjamin actually discusses this in the article “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. In this article, he says that mechanization in general destroys the pure value of what art originally is. I understand his argument and agree that a handmade book is much more valuable than a mass produced one. However, I believe th
View More »