Art and the Brain

 

The symbiotic relationships between art and the brain begin with the obvious fact that neural mechanisms underlie the creation and appreciation of art.  The many functions performed by brain mechanisms provide a rich and largely unexplored territory for artistic exploration [1].  Complex interactions in the neural networks in our brain miraculously generate coherent behavior and cognition.  Neuroscientists tackle these phenomena with specialized techniques that limit the scope of exposition and are comprehensible to a trained minority.  Artists can perform an end run around these limitations by exploring the relationships between mind and brain with a larger palette of techniques and can communicate to a wide and receptive audience.

 

In the visual arts collages of images can communicate non-verbally by insinuating relationships between the associated images.   The collage “Awakening” [below] alludes to the emergence of consciousness from the brain by incorporating an escaping figure from the Flammarion woodcut.

 

The performing arts can explore the consequences of hacking the brain with unconventional experiments, as in the play “Brain Trust” [2].

 

1. Fetz EE, Artistic explorations of the brain, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6:1-4, 2012. [PDF]

2. Atkins R, Brain Trust. [PDF]

3. Fetz EE, Limericks. [PDF]

 

 

Movies

 

                                                         Glass Brain Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                 It's All Done with Neurons!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Covers, Collages, and Blueprints