Week 7 | Neuroscience + Art

    This week's lecture on the integration between neuroscience and art was one worth noting, as neuroscience has been a topic that the general public's also interested in. Neuroscience can been as a way to many to understand their individuality, while art is a way to interpret and understand the potential unknown (Anker). 


    One of this week's material that helped me further understand and appreciate the combination of neuroscience and art was the guest lecture with Daniel Jay. Dr. Jay has more than thirty years of experiences within the arts and sciences, and showed examples that were unique to the general public, but were elements common to scientists and artists (Jay). One of the most influential ones in my opinion was Jay's use of elements within the periodic table with the same first letter to create art, as well as elements from various concepts (e.g. iron and magnetic fields art, art made from elements made from gunpowder), and much more. 

Daniel Jay's Magnetic Fields Artwork

 It was quite surprising for me to find out that neuroscience and art feels more related than any other science field. This was seen particularly through the Neurochemical lecture, where various examples of scientists, professors, and even students tried out different types of drugs. In the lecture, one example that showed the idea of art and science being together was when Albert Hofmann purposefully ingested LSD to show the effects of the drug (Vesna). Within this experiment, Hofmann experienced what he called was surreal and way different than the everyday scheme. Since LSD alters the mindset, visuals, and even sense of time, studies have shown that this drug "enhances" the sense of artistic creativity (Janiger).

Butterfly image in brain scan (same image)!

 The combination of neuroscience and art still holds a lot of potential for future usage and even treatment. Like stated in previous lectures, LSD usage showed positive outcomes until its magnitude was found (Vesna). Thankfully, there are other alternatives that could still yield positive outcomes. In more recent studies, it has shown that the combination can serve as a new form of art therapy, one that could help populations be diagnosed and treated with precision (Konopka). Until then, it is then a topic that will continue to fascinate me and the general public.

 

Word Count: 362

Sources:

[1] Anker, et. al. "Neuroculture." DESMA9. 9 May 2022. University of California, Los Angeles. Class Handout.

[2] Anker, Suzanne – Geneculture | Dataisnature. https://www.dataisnature.com/?p=532.

[3] Janiger, Oscar, and Marlene Dobkin de Rios. “LSD and Creativity.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, vol. 21, no. 1, Jan. 1989, pp. 129–34. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.1989.10472150.

[4] Jay, Daniel. "Neuroscience + Art with Daniel Jay: How the Brain Perceives Art and Towards an Art-Science Institute." DESMA 9. 5 May 2022. University of California, Los Angeles. Lecture.

[5] Konopka, Lukasz M. “Where Art Meets Neuroscience: A New Horizon of Art Therapy.” Croatian Medical Journal, vol. 55, no. 1, Feb. 2014, pp. 73–74. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2014.55.73.

[6] Magnetic Field Artwork. http://danjayart.com/. 

[7] Vesna, Victoria. "Lecture 3: Neurochemical, Neuroscience + Art." DESMA  9. 9 May 2022. University of California, Los Angeles. Lecture.

[8] Will Drinker. Brainbow Hippocampus. 2014. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZCZV5-v3S4. 

 

 

 

Comments

  1. joshhahnDESMA9May 14, 2022 at 9:16 PM

    Hi Michelle, I agree with you that neuroscience and art feel like they go together better than most scientific fields as I thought of the same thing while watch the lectures. I wish I was able to attend Dr. Jay's guest lecture as it sounded like it was very interesting. I love his artwork that you talked about and displayed with the use of different elements based on the periodic table to create something so unique.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Umut SerhatkuluMay 15, 2022 at 11:40 PM

    Hello Michelle, I also agree that the combination of neuroscience and art created amazing projects. I think the reason why neuroscience and art goes well together is because neuroscience focusses on the brain and creating a unique art-work needs a lot of brain usage. Also, in Dr. Jay's presentation there was a lot of amazing art projects which are really one of a kind. My favorite project of his is the cryoart where he uses liquid nitrogen to create paintings.

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