WEEK 7: NEURO+ART

The topic of Neuroscience and Art for this week was extremely interesting to me, especially given the fact that I am a psychology major. As a psychology major, I study the brain and the different things that may affect it. At first, I did not quite understand how Neuroscience and art could be used simultaneously until Professor Vesna explained the concept of Brainbow.
Picture of Brainbow
This use of fluorescent proteins to distinguish between different neurons in the brain was beautiful to look at but also possessed a sensible use, such that scientists are able to track brain activity and observe these neurons more closely because they are more distinguishable. This was probably my favorite display of art and neuroscience throughout this week's material because it combines the functionality and creativity that can be displayed through the combination of art and science. 
Out of the material given to us this week, I found the lecture on Neurochemicals to be one of the more intriguing sources of information. I was unaware that both LSD and Cocaine
were heavily used as "cures" for psychological illnesses and was shocked to find out that some of the more famous individuals in history, like Sigmund
Freud for example, utilized it both as a source of medication and also abused the drug due to addictions that developed. Moreover, one of the main areas of interest for me was the use of LSD both for mind control experiments and the notion that it would help people who were psychologically ill. Moreover, the encouragement of its recreational use by scientists such as Aldous Leonard Huxley,
Depiction of the Recreational Use of Cocaine
and others, showed that these scientists had not yet discovered its full effects and capabilities yet. Moreover, I found the use of these drugs in the medical field and experimentation to be careless and detrimental. From Freud's use of cocaine to cure his patient named Irma and his justification of her overdose to the CIA's use of LSD to experiment with mind control in the MKUltra Project,
One of the Subjects from MKUltra
the misuse of these drugs was lightly brushed over by the people using them while they glorified their attempts and efforts at the time without taking responsibility for the tragedies that occurred—Irma's overdose by Freud and the countless suicides committed by victims of the MKUltra Project.  










Works Cited  

Vesna, Victoria. "Mind Intro." YouTube.com. 26 March 2012, Web. Retrieved 21 May 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF0Qt7L2-kM&feature=youtu.be.   

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience-prt1.mov." YouTube.com. 17 May 2012, Web. Retrieved 21 May 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXjNbKDkYI&feature=youtu.be.   

Vesna, Victoria."Neuroscience-prt2.mov." YouTube.com. 17 May 2012, Web. Retrieved 21 May 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFv4owX3MZo&feature=youtu.be.  

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience prt3." YouTube.com. 16 May 2012, Web. Retrieved 21 May https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5EX75xoBJ0&feature=youtu.be.   

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience-Mark Cohen.mov." YouTube.com. 12 May 2012, Web. Retrieved 21 May 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDq8uTROeXU&feature=youtu.be. 


Comments

  1. SZTMay 23, 2017 at 6:12 PM

    The author has brought up interesting points on how advancements in science are not always used for the betterment of the human condition. Sadly, this is quite common in which entrepreneurial individuals make use of anything new or unknown in a bid for fame and fortune. An interesting series on Discovery Channel that explores this field is called "Dark Matters: Twisted But True". The example of the illegal use of LSD is also explored in this documentary series along with many other buried truths.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Event 2: LASER

Image
On May 25, 2017, I attended an event known as LASER, a monthly rendezvous that has happened for the past few years in order to allow those who are involved in both the arts and sciences to present the research they have done on a particular topic or to give insight into a new project they are working on. Stefanie Volland Topics ranged from architecture presentations by Hans Barnard about ancient Egyptian civilizations and their artifacts to Stefanie's Volland's presentation on the eye, specifically focusing on the intricate make up of the photo receptors . Nonetheless, the presentation that I found to be the most intriguing was Behnaz Farahi's research on interactive technology and the human body. She mentioned a cape that was interactive with the body, such that when you breathe, it breathes with you.  Behnaz Farahi  This overall course focuses on the combination of science and art and I found it quite intriguing that she incorporated this into fashion t
Read more

Event 3: The Laboratory of Embodied Intelligences

Image
On Saturday, I attended a performance known as the Laboratory of Embodied Intelligences. In the introduction to the performance, Nina Waisman, one of the main choreographers of the piece, explained what the dancers were doing and what they were trying to convey. Microbes are small, living microorganisms that we were said to have evolved from. In Waisman's piece, dancers would mimic and portray the ways in which these unicellular organisms travel, communicate, and interact. At first, the performance was confusing because I did not fully understand what the dancers were doing. However, the farther we got into the performance, the more I began to understand it. This performance was especially amazing because the dancers never broke character—even when people walked past and through their performances. It consisted of them making fast and quick movements with abrupt stops to allow us to see how microbes transport themselves while other parts of the performance conveyed their m
Read more