My Brain 06
Our ability to produce art is identical to our ability to produce language. They both depend on one another, and are reinforced by each other. From this awareness sprung the idea of this work as a manner of studying the mind and the human brain. The brain is, of course, the biological organ but it is also an intellectual, cultural organ that contains our language, thought and consciousness. It is associated with both the biological and cultural realities which are inseparable and interminably connected. That is why the human brain is an intriguing field of study both in the scientific realm of biology and the human field of sociology and philosophy.
What I am focusing on is the fact that the biological examination of the brain is vastly different from the academic scrutiny of the thought contained in its cultural, intellectual, psychological and social manifestations. Science seeks knowledge of complexity of structure and composition, while I search for the human aspects of the mind whose complexity no curriculum can manage. As the study of the brain has been done only within the scientific framework, I was curious to investigate the workings of our senses through uncovering the interconnections between what is visible, what is audible, and what is tangible. We are obliged to consider these potential relationships and interconnections in order to arrive at new levels of awareness, and that was the basis of "My Brain". I pose through this work different ways of seeing, hearing and understanding the processes of nature.
I display the work in a dark room containing photographs of a theatrical performance, CAT scans of the brain, and finally a short video presentation that lasts about (?) minutes. This dark room bears a resemblance to an X-ray room. The pictures document an acting performance I did with lines painted on my face- the lines on the brain that embody the hard to negotiate barriers to reaching the moment of mental awareness. Those lines were drawn to perfectly match the brain lines on the CAT scans. The pictures were divided into parts that were displayed on two lit screens, while the video is of a scene that manifests the moment of mental awareness accompanied by sensual awareness of the body that charges the viewer with the intuition to recognize what is being implied.
Finally, the aforementioned has led me to realize that the human brain system follows a complex order that cannot be abstracted into a written doctrine, a set of simple principles, or even several unambiguous notions
What I am focusing on is the fact that the biological examination of the brain is vastly different from the academic scrutiny of the thought contained in its cultural, intellectual, psychological and social manifestations. Science seeks knowledge of complexity of structure and composition, while I search for the human aspects of the mind whose complexity no curriculum can manage. As the study of the brain has been done only within the scientific framework, I was curious to investigate the workings of our senses through uncovering the interconnections between what is visible, what is audible, and what is tangible. We are obliged to consider these potential relationships and interconnections in order to arrive at new levels of awareness, and that was the basis of "My Brain". I pose through this work different ways of seeing, hearing and understanding the processes of nature.
I display the work in a dark room containing photographs of a theatrical performance, CAT scans of the brain, and finally a short video presentation that lasts about (?) minutes. This dark room bears a resemblance to an X-ray room. The pictures document an acting performance I did with lines painted on my face- the lines on the brain that embody the hard to negotiate barriers to reaching the moment of mental awareness. Those lines were drawn to perfectly match the brain lines on the CAT scans. The pictures were divided into parts that were displayed on two lit screens, while the video is of a scene that manifests the moment of mental awareness accompanied by sensual awareness of the body that charges the viewer with the intuition to recognize what is being implied.
Finally, the aforementioned has led me to realize that the human brain system follows a complex order that cannot be abstracted into a written doctrine, a set of simple principles, or even several unambiguous notions
