Week 7 Neuroscience + Art

When we hear the term neuroscience we all think of the brain and that is because neuroscience is the study of the structure and functions of the nervous system and the brain, basically has to do with study how we think, our emotions, and how we perceive the world. In lecture we talked about how someone can be conscious or unconscious. Sigmund Freud said that while conscious you are aware of what is going on with cognitive response and perception of the world, he also said that to be unconscious is to be unaware and mainly occurs while sleeping were you can be reliving a memory or sensation. 

When thinking about neuroscience we don't necessarily think of art but for Dr. Greg Dunn he uses his knowledge of neuroscience, from when he studied at the University of Pennsylvania, to create beautiful paints of the brain and its neurons. Dr. Dunn has many different pieces of art that look like they are pictures of the brain cut in half, where he is able to add many colors highlighting how intricate the brain is. Dunn's artwork is an example of Freud's theory of consciousness, as Dunn is aware of his brain and its structure. Dunn paints about the brain showing that he is in a conscious show because he is able to perceive the brain as it truly is a masterpiece of our own bodies' work.

Throughout our lectures and listening about being conscious or unconscious and dreams, I couldn't help but think about Christopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception. This film is able about dreams and whether someone is conscious or unconscious, in other words aware of dreaming or unaware. Going back to Freud's theory of being aware when conscious or being unaware when unconscious, this movie is a perfect example because as the audience we are fighting to telling which character is dreaming and if they are who's dream are we in. Characters in this film are constantly battling to stay aware that they are in a dream and being conscious of what is going on in their dream or they can mess up the groups heist. 

Works Cited

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=greg+dunn+art&authuser=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwir_rmAxtv3AhUSQzABHUErBNEQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=768&bih=720&dpr=1.25#imgrc=oQtnQZB5FHNDQM.

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=neuroscience&authuser=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj2JGzyNv3AhVYczABHdd4DFgQ_AUoA3oECAMQBQ&biw=768&bih=663&dpr=1.25.

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=inception&authuser=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQ5vjLyNv3AhUSSzABHbpxD2AQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=768&bih=663&dpr=1.25#imgrc=TLq3nxfI4q0PQM.

Admin. “Difference Between Conscious and Unconscious.” Compare the Difference Between Similar Terms, Differencebetween.com, 22 Jan. 2015, www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-conscious-and-vs-unconscious/#:~:text=Conscious vs Unconscious&text=Conscious is to be aware,or performing something without realizing.

“Brain and Neuroscience Fine Art Paintings.” GREG DUNN NEURO ART, 17 Sept. 2021, www.gregadunn.com/.

“Inception.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 16 July 2010, www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/.

Lehrer, Jonah. “The Neuroscience of Inception.” Wired, Conde Nast, 26 July 2010, www.wired.com/2010/07/the-neuroscience-of-inception/.

MacIver, Malcolm. “Inception and the Neuroscience of Sleep.” Discover Magazine, Discover Magazine, 15 Oct. 2019, www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/inception-and-the-neuroscience-of-sleep.

Comments

  1. Ethan FlanaganMay 15, 2022 at 6:55 PM

    Hey Josh, I found your blog post this week to be very interesting. As you mentioned, it is important to understand that the nervous system and brain practically control everything that we do. I enjoyed reading your description of how the brain can be cut in half and used as a form of art work by Dr. Greg Dunn. Lastly, I liked how you mentioned the movie Inception because of how it connects to consciousness and dreams. This is certainly a movie I am interested in watching in the future.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

joshhahnDESMA9

Image
This week's topic focused on the hidden relationship between mathematics and art. I have taken a few art classes in my life and many math classes in my academic career, but I never realized that there was a connection between the two. At first glance of any type of artwork, you don't think about math but you either think how pretty the art piece is or question how the piece is even considered art.  A  main point in this week's lecture was the concept of the golden ratio. This concept of the golden ratio is, to me, the key relation between math and art. The golden ratio in simple terms is the ratio of a line segment but into two pieces of different lengths such that the ratio of the whole segment to that of the longer segment is equal to the ratio of the longer segment to the shorter segment. I know that sounds  like a lot but we see it everyday of our lives.  We can see it even on our own bodies, like our arms for example. Our bodies are perfect examples of the relat...
Read more

Event #1

Image
For my first event I attended an event hosted by artist Amy Myers on April 28. Her presentation looked at how she connects quantum mechanics to her art drawings. Myers' interesting in quantum mechanics came from her father who was a physicist and an aviator. Going into this presentation I had no idea what to expect or how to connect the topic of quantum mechanics to art, but as Amy Myers kept talking I was able to learn a lot.   This picture above is titled "Red Giant Between Sun and Earth" and took Amy Myers 10 months to complete. While talking about her art she said that her inspiration comes from reading books on quantum physics, where she can read of ideas and concepts to use as building blocks for ideas for her own artwork. These advanced books of science deal heavily with math in order to explain what phenomenon is happening at the molecular level. Myers' said that her main interest while drawing is complexity, as we can see in her art, they are all very complex...
Read more

joshhahnDESMA9

Image
After watching this week's lectures I could only think about two movies, The Iron Giant (1999) and Modern Times (1936) as mentioned in lecture. These two movies are my personal favorite movies that have to deal with machinery and robotic art.  The Iron Giant is a family adventure movie that shows the connection between art and robotic by having the Iron Giant character have human expressions. The entire body of the Iron Giant resembles nothing of a human but as we follow more of this giant's adventure with his human kid best friend, Hogarth, we can see through the art work that even a machine can show empathy towards a human or even sorrow. As talked about in lecture, robotic art during the first World War was shifted from the dreams of what the future could be to war and how machines can represent violence as used in fascist art. This fear of war can be seen in The Iron Giant when the giant's destruction mode is activated and wants to destroy everything in its way. The art...
Read more