Info Session: TOMORROW Friday Aug 27th 1 PM EST SciArt inspired by Neuroscience Convergence I & II course |
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We encourage all Neuroscience and Science Graduated Students from Quebec Universities to join us!! Ph.D. students of the RI-MUHC Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program (BRaIN), the Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN), and other science graduated students from McGill University, as well as Concordia University Fine Arts students across all disciplines, are welcomed to participate in the Fall-Winter 6 credits of: Special Topics Convergence I & II: Arts+Neuroscience+Society. |
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This interdisciplinary course invites students to creatively explore the intersection of arts, neuroscience, and society, and how these domains shape the understandings of ourselves and others. Concordia Fine Arts students team with McGill and RI-MUHC BRaIN Program students to create self-directed, collaborative projects which converge artistic and scientific research. |
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Work from past studentsThese works displayed here, result of the collaboration between a Concordia Fine Arts student and a McGill / RI-MUHC BRaIN Program student, have received several international awards or have been the cover of important scientific journals. You can visit our website to check the full exhibitions here. |
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BDL Featured in "The Journal of Neuroscience" cover This project explores the similarities between the process involved in artistic creativity and in scientific research. To what extent can we create alternative visual methods and when do these methods become protocols? The various installations were created from fluorescent miscroscopy images representing the visual system of the fruit fly brain, and more precisely, the synaptic connections formed by adhesion molecules. A fundamental element shared by the artistic and scientific representations is their sensitivity towards detail, which translates into a much deeper knowledge. It allows new methodologies to develop and to understand the limitations of materials that both the artist and the scientist are faced with. It is a process of rupture, progress and transition that allows for a full appreciation of all of the complexity of the subject. By Pamela Simard and Hunter Shaw |
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Art of Neuroscience 2019 honorable mention Starlight Gone portrays how loss can initiate a union that protects against future loss. We constructed metal wire sculptures that are to-scale replicas of astrocytes found in the human prefrontal cortex. The flame in the soma of the largest astrocyte structure grows larger as viewers approach it, indicating that the expression of depression is often the loss of human contact. The electroluminescent wire resembles the communication between the astrocytes, which has recently been shown to be decreased in depression. Each flicker of the LED flame in the large astrocyte symbolizes changes in gene expression, which will result in different messages being sent from the astrocyte to the cells around it. The layered soundscape resembles how human relationships relate to a more diverse sense of belonging. This piece is made to remind viewers that even their silent presence can aid the psychological well-being of their peers. By Elizabeth Parent & Liam O'Leary |
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Depression in Translation The stigma surrounding mental illness persists because the person suffering is often blamed for experiencing symptoms outside of their control. Our installation aims to visually represent the epigenetic and environmental factors that contribute to someone’s predisposition to depression and suicide such as early life adversity (ELA), and how these traumatic experiences epigenetically regulate how genes are transcribed and translated. Thereby, the work will illustrate the complex web of factors that lead to, and makeup, the nuanced etiology of depression and risk of suicide. Each garment is created to impose a sense of weight, tension, liberation and lightness. The dress that is revealed beneath the coat as well as the duality in the facial expression of the mask show the contrast between depression and resilience outcomes in people with the same risk genes but different experiences with early life adversity and epigenetic regulation. By Emery Vanderburgh, Amanda Brown e Indigo Danielson |
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What Lies Ahead Experiential Design Award 2021 This interactive poetic experience explores themes of artificial intelligence, language, human psychology, and artistic intent.Through a simple text-based interface, this piece creates a dialog between its participant and a text generating AI, a version of the GPT-2 language transformer model trained on the Guthenberg corpus, a collection of approximately 60000 pieces of English literature. Every response of the participant is mirrored by the AI, which tries to complete the text as if it was written by a single author. Responses gradually develop as they are being generated in real time by the AI; each atomic element which constitutes it cascades through all configurations considered by the algorithm, allowing the participant to catch a glimpse of the inner workings of its interlocutor. The asymmetry of this conversation makes it all the more interesting; collaborating with a writer that lacks intent fundamentally changes how the participant interprets the text and guides its evolution throughout the piece. Despite a lack of intent, meanings emerge — the human tendencies captured by the algorithm resurface, sometimes distorted, absurd, or familiar. By Simon Demeule & Pauline Palma |
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