Light and Neuroscience

In this image we see individual synapes being activated by light. The experiment performed by researched from the University College London shows the use of light for activating parts of the brain in an experiemental context and the roll that beams of light play in this process.
What is interesting about the image from an artists point of view is the context of the image and possibility for alternative interpretation of the image which looks like a beautiful forrest. Also the image provides an interesting contrast to to my current art practice of projecting light onto the outside of the body. Here we the interior of the brain being "lit up". Very much part of the the trent toward direct stimulation of the brain. It is in fact an image showing  the brain of a mouse, the green colour is a type dye that has been introduced into the body of the mouse to show the reaction of the the brain to the laser.

Lumen

In Lumen we find a male figure caught in an array of lights. It is an image that attempts to explore the relationship between light and the human nervous system.  A Lumen is a unit of light.

Cochineal in Assisi

Robert J. Bliwise, Seeing Red explores the links between his experiences in Assisi and the work of Mark Rothco. I have joined both Bliwise in the exploration of this wonderful colour and as it happened I have completed the work during a residency in Assisi.

New Work - Neurological Expressionism

The Artistic Effect of Neurological Illness

Illnesses that affect the brain can have varied and surprising side effects. A small portion of autistic

children produce amazing artwork, for example Nadia (studied by Selfe in 1977) began drawing
extremely detailed pictures of horses at the age of 3.

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q=tbn:ANd9GcTQgeCP2TKrlWsbPhPd1H2NIzGbzXJSCNodJXVYQ5K2XoRQ_WNz

People suffering from epilepsy or migraines can suffer visual phenomena including spectral
appearances, patches of visual loss and mosaic visions which can result in inspired art such as that of
Ignatius Brennan who began drawing his migraine induced visions in art school, and Steven Wiltshire
a British autistic savant who is famous for his extremely detailed cityscapes

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?
q=tbn:ANd9GcTeiOKQJdH0GFoEd1TJn0ZCRHZv5EP7etK5UmRx75X0hX3hoxDN

Even as art can affect your senses and neurological state it seems that the reverse is true as well; an
altered neurological state can have a profound effect on artistic and creative abilities

Early Neurological Expressionism in Art
Artists have been trying to alter or affect our state of mind for many years. Escher has hurt our
brains and tricked our eyes with impossible pictures and Abstract Expressionism was born in New
York around the idea of expressing emotion through art, taking ideas from European surrealists who
had arrived in the US.

Synaesthesia is simply an internally induced form of the effect that artists have been trying to have
on their audience for all of time; creating a work that influences a combination of senses to give the
person viewing it an all round feeling of experiencing the piece of art.

So if Mondays really are blue to you, or Saturday afternoon smells of chocolate then you are not
alone; and you will make the life of artists worldwide easier by being receptive with more than one
sense to their creation.


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Jenny Flaire is a freelance art writer from England. She spent much of her youth in NYC where her parents regularly took her to the many galleries in the city starting a fire that has burned ever since.