Week7_AlexsaGimenez

The Brain and Art

It's interesting to continue learning more about the brain, I am a psychology major so I have already in my past classes have been taught about the brain and its different functions. I find it so interesting how in this week's lectures I learned more about the past of neuroscience studies. It's interesting how we have only been studying the brain for about a century. Phrenology, the belief that parts of the human brain would grow more than others based on a persons potential, studied by Franz Joseph Gall is especially interesting. Specifically how he gave lectures and they were very popular but the lectures were eventually banned because this study went against religion and what they believed in. Although in present time we are aware that this isn't true, this is one of the bigger ideas that began this interest in getting to know the brain better and its interesting to learn that the church rejected these ideas. It further makes me wonder what other ideas scientists had but were just silenced by the church. 



When reviewing the resources the one I found especially interesting was the performative installation of the Octopus Brainstorming by artist Victoria Vesna. It was interesting to read further into how she used the brain waves of two people demonstrating that as they showcase on octopuses props connected to their head lit red or green, and once their brainwave frequencies synchronized as they thought of inhabiting the bodies of other beings and communicating through energy waves their octopuses turned indigo. It's so interesting how this is a great example of how art and neuroscience have collided through an artist that understands both fields and brings them together beautifully. 




 Cristina Albu. CMA Journal - Simon Fraser University. (n.d.). https://www.sfu.ca/cmajournal/issues/issue-ten--enchantment--disenchantment--reenchantment/cristina-albu.html?fbclid=IwAR1twyrqbeKqNrJSUXSihLVGvX_D9ARndxDv3USnw2pTENE_iXHJtIo8v54 

Google. (n.d.-a). Art, mind, and brain. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=2BMDYRRF1WcC&dq=gardner%2B%22art%2Bmind%2Band%2Bbrain%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=DYaIMCGy4j&sig=8yrvOMWISopSrN_fNXsYqUPJCgw#v=onepage&q=gardner%20%22art%20mind%20and%20brain%22&f=false 

Google. (n.d.-b). Mind and nature. Google Books. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mind_and_Nature/Sz19AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 

Google. (n.d.-c). The embodied mind. Google Books. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Embodied_Mind/QY4RoH2z5DoC?hl=en&gbpv=0 

Newsroom. UCLA. (n.d.). https://newsroom.ucla.edu/ 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week3AlexsaGimenez

Image
 Robotics and Art This week I learned how society has used the advancements of robots and AI to help themselves in furthering their career. Such as, Sougwen Chung, she is an artist that uses AI and Robots in her artwork to help her further her the processes of her own human creativity. This artwork allows for the audience to think of these works in a deeper manner such as, about what is human and what is the machine. Further, this connects back to what Walter Benjamin, a German jewish philosopher stated back in his 1936 essay The Work of Art in the Ager of Mechanical Reproduction, stating how mechanical reproduction strips art of its "aura". What he means by this is that the use of machines takes away the arts unique presence in time and space which in turn will change the way in which the audience experiences the art itself. Connecting this back to Artist Sougwen Chung, she shows you in the same artwork what her human hand does and what a machine does to show those differenc...
Read more

Week6Alexsa_Gimenez

Image
When watching the videos, personally I do not think that life itself is a valid expressive medium. Such as Alba, the fluorescent rabbit, I agree with the animal rights activist, this is an abusive way of using animals for something that is not natural in the real world. This can lead to unwanted consequences within animals that are being used as an experiment. The use of transgenics, mutation, or selective breeding in art, as in the Fluorescent Rabbit seen above, confronts boundaries between nature and human intervention. It provokes reflection on authorship, ethics, and identity by making life itself a "medium", highlighting how art can manipulate biology to question what is natural, or beautiful in creation. When thinking of how to define and value artistic media and technologies, we do this by seeing their ability to express ideas, evoke emotion and challenge perception. In its time and even now, the Fluorescent Rabbit for example, can evoke interested or repelling emotion...
Read more

Week4_AlexsaGimenez

Image
  HUMAN GENOME PROJECT  In lecture this week I learned of the human genome project which goals were to identity all 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA and to be able to store this information in databases. When thinking of how helpful this project is in my everyday life I think of all medical advancements that have been made, such as learning which genes in the body can cause different health issues. Such as some may put you at higher risk of diabetes or cancer for example.             ART AND BODY I found it interesting seeing how artist showcase the human body throughout their art demonstrating how the pieces flow and we better understand then because of all our advancements of sketching out the human body. For example, the top image, the model has an ear necklace, it's very interesting to see how the artist connected back to our body.  THE TISSUE CULTURE AND ART PROJECT  When looking over this website I was fascinated with this ear that...
Read more