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.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?
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.

The Physical Effect of Art

The concept that art of all kinds can have a physical effect on our minds and bodies is not a new
one; musical notes evoke colours to some people and smells can bring music to your ears so it is no
surprise that pictures and light can affect your emotions and other senses.

The Synesthetic Experience

This is the process of uniting the messages from all your senses to create an impression of the world
around you. Everyone is constantly doing this within waking hours; combining sight, sound, touch,
taste and smell to identify and experience your surroundings.

Synaesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense creates sensation in
another; the most common kind, according to a study by Sean A. Day (last updated: 5 March 2005) is when
people see colours when they hear a day of the week:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3353/3226649099_bc4becc80d_t.jpg

Other people see colours when they read numbers and letters:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3348/3313102746_501fa2d3f3_t.jpg

Synaesthesia can affect almost any combination of senses, but the vast majority result in visual
stimulation in the form of seeing colours when you hear, smell or taste. 51% of people in Day’s study
had multiple forms of synaesthesia

Synaesthesia in Art

All kinds of art create synaesthesia in some way, but this is created by the artist rather than an
integral part of the viewers sensory perception. The most all round form of art in which stimulating
all of the senses is easiest is cinema for obvious reasons, although many may argue that a poem or
a single image can affect them in a far greater way than an entire film. Neurological expressionism
uses the idea of light and pictures from film to create a response with just one still image.

When you are immersing yourself in art of some kind you may find that isolating the senses most
affected by the medium you are experiencing can help focus and increase the effects you feel; close
your eyes to listen to music or poetry cover your ears to focus on a painting. This will also help
create the art induced synaesthesia intended by the artist; listening with your eyes shut leaves only
the visuals created by the music or poem thus increasing the all round experience

Creating Your own Experience

Why not try including senses that would not usually be involved when you are experiencing art
forms? Focus on the facial expressions of a singer and let the music wash over you, or take a deep
breath as you enjoy a beautiful view. This helps get all your senses involved in creating the effect
for you; Needless to say, however, it is probably best to avoid touching paintings, especially valuable ones as 
art gallery insurance companies tend to insist that they are wired to alarms.

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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.

It wasn't my fault 2012

Self - At Artists Wanted

In  It wasn't my Fault  the figure lurches towards the left avoiding something. Could there be some aspect of modern life that the figure is avoiding. Taxes superannuation or immigration? Has there been something on the television that has emotionally effected the figure? Does the figure require councelling?

Kiss R. Luke DuBois

Kiss by R. Luke DuBois provides digital gothic yet emotive view of the kiss based on two processes one is a collection of film sequences the other is the use of software applied by the computer to points in a rendering process designed by the artists. The 50 iconic embraces have been transformed into something quite different due to the graphic nature of the image, the use of negative spaces and the quality of the spider web like white lines constantly changing and moving during the kiss. Its almost as if the couples are being spun inside a web.


I would suggest this work raises interesting questions about subjectivity in a digital age with the software a complicit tool in the re-characterisation of the the image. For me the use of black and white lines relates this work to Neurological Expressionism. Transforming the idea of the Kiss and relating the work for me to "The Kiss" as a composition by Rodin and Munch. 

New Work from the Neurological Expressionism Series

                                                                               Attempting the Neurology of Seeing 2012

                                                                                 Colliding Thoughts 2012

                                                                                                 For the Love of Mona 2012

A Gritty Light - Aesthetics, Light, Neurology

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Neurologically - a self portrait from a world that is driven by it's senses

A figure at a Neurological moment of reckoning.

0.0023 a fragmented figure in time.

roses

Black Mountain White Mountain, an exhibition of paintings by Richard Baldwin will open at Strathnairn Gallery at 5:00 Saturday March 10th. http://www.strathnairn.asn.au/.  The exhibition looks at aspects of the relationship between landscape and technology. Or more specifically the relationship between landscape and data under Canberra's Black Mountain tower. The artist uses a grid to develop a background in many of the paintings with observational elements to the paintings.

Black Mountain White Mountain

The images may be purchased as either or unframed  framed art works and form part of the Black Mountain White Mountain works from 2011-12. Black Mountain White Mountain looks at our separation from the landscape due to technology. What distinguishes these landscape paintings is the lack of authentic experience that I have had in the Black Mountain area near my home, whilst developing the paintings. The paintings are the result of visual research in a range of media, observational drawing, digital imaging and of course painting. The idea that when we are in the landscape we bring to it all of our recent urban experiences and this experience affects how we look at the landscape. Formally I have approached this by introducing graphic devices such as cross- hatching and gridded grounds. To some extent the arguments contained in the paintings have been influenced by the relationship between data, systems, ecology and our understanding of what nature is. This understanding was initially developed from Freuds notion of the electrical function of the brain. Freuds initial observations were developed, into the notion of balance (systems) in nature, by early ecologists. These ideas are further explored in the documentary “All watched over by the machines of our loving grace” by Adam Curtis. The documentary goes on to illustrate our dependence on social change in society to form our understanding of landscape.

sex and death

Mona is the Tasmanian equivalent of the Museum of Modern Art. It's like a Krypt, dug out from an island in the Derwent River, a hole that contains a collection of Post - Modern artwork from the collection of  David Walsh.
One of the fascinating aspects of Mona has been the prospect of recording ones path through the museum and in fact the use of ipods to review the purpose, meaning, opinion and position of the art work. The path that I took is represented in the following link   http://mona.net.au/theo/ .
As a tour through a contemporary art gallery I felt that Mona provided an enigmatic space in which to view the artwork. The architecture of the basement provided a unique space for the artwork as you are very much aware of the fact that you are underground during the experience. Most of the work was displayed individually providing a great deal of contrast as one walk from one artwork to the next. Mona included a number of projections and the first artwork Encyclopedia by Charles Sandison was projected directly onto the sandstone wall with fascinating mini animations formulating and reformulating new word patterns.

Light, Movement and the Body

Mo Costandi makes the point in his recent article "Leaning to the Left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller", that the mind and body although we may have thought of them as separate entities are in fact intimitately linked as one. The mind controlls the body, so that our emotions and thoughts are "grounded in our bodily sensations and movements" . This studio based self portrait can be considered with these contemporary notions of the body moving through a pattern of light in space. So that in the context of Neurological Expressionism, light movement and space may in fact be able to produce new emotions and thoughts.

Mr Costandi [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy], goes on to remind us that movement can effect memory and that temperature can effect relationships and that our sense of touch can effect relationships. I was reminded of this recently when comparing shopping experiences. In the small town that I visited the people in the supermarket where much more likely to bump into each other. Physically touching and apologizing and beginning communication. Very different from the cold climate capital city where I live, in which a touch of trolleys is unusual.