Between: Mind, Matter & Materials
Date: 30 January - 3 February 2012
Private View: Tuesday 31 January, 18.00
Artists: Susan Aldworth and Karen Ingham
This exhibition included Cambridge Art and Science Circle on Tuesday 31 January, 19.00-20.00: artist Susan Aldworth in dialogue with Nicholas Humphrey, author of A History of the Mind, Consciousness Regained and Soul Searching.
Date: 30 January - 3 February 2012
Private View: Tuesday 31 January, 18.00
Artists: Susan Aldworth and Karen Ingham
This exhibition included Cambridge Art and Science Circle on Tuesday 31 January, 19.00-20.00: artist Susan Aldworth in dialogue with Nicholas Humphrey, author of A History of the Mind, Consciousness Regained and Soul Searching.
'Between' proposed a new model of collaborative research around contemporary notions of embodiment. The project brought together art, philosophy, and neuroscience. Central to the project's premise was the desire to move beyond the label 'sciart' and to embed the art in a broader cultural context.
The period of the Enlightenment, characterised by intellectual curiosity and empiricism, revolutionised our understanding of science, and at its heart was the quest to know the mind and body. This was largely a journey from matter, to mind, to metaphysics as epitomised by Descartes' mind-body dualism. This complex intertwining led to long-standing divisions in the way philosophy, art, and science view the mind and body. But these divisions are being steadily eroded as contemporary breakthroughs in neuroscience and neuro-philosophy reveal that our sense of self is far more complex than previously thought.
Questions relating to biomedical imaging technologies such as fMRI and confocal scanning electron microscopy images of the brain pose interesting problems of interpretation for both scientist and artist alike. The 'meaning' of these images is debated on many levels and at times the language of the scientist and of the artist appears to coalesce. It is this coalescence, around theories of embodiment that is central to the practice of Ingham and Aldworth.
The period of the Enlightenment, characterised by intellectual curiosity and empiricism, revolutionised our understanding of science, and at its heart was the quest to know the mind and body. This was largely a journey from matter, to mind, to metaphysics as epitomised by Descartes' mind-body dualism. This complex intertwining led to long-standing divisions in the way philosophy, art, and science view the mind and body. But these divisions are being steadily eroded as contemporary breakthroughs in neuroscience and neuro-philosophy reveal that our sense of self is far more complex than previously thought.
Questions relating to biomedical imaging technologies such as fMRI and confocal scanning electron microscopy images of the brain pose interesting problems of interpretation for both scientist and artist alike. The 'meaning' of these images is debated on many levels and at times the language of the scientist and of the artist appears to coalesce. It is this coalescence, around theories of embodiment that is central to the practice of Ingham and Aldworth.
For Aldworth this extends to an engagement with the actual pathology of the brain and our 'sense of self', while for Ingham the histories, philosophies and narratives of biomedical imaging in relation to corporeality and identity are in question.
Both artists challenge traditional notions of portraiture by referencing those aspects of the self that reside below the surface. At the core of these engagements is the focus on collaboration with neuroscientists, anatomists, cognitive and neuro-psychologists, and philosophers, which often result in time-based installations and moving image works: the pieces that form the focus of this project. Both artists have been independently developing practice in this area over the past decade, have exhibited and published internationally, and have coordinated and participated in symposia and public events.
The exhibition included 6 time-based artworks, 3 from each artist. At the heart of the project was the desire to revitalise questions of embodiment, be it re-embodied organs as in Narrative Remains (Ingham) or disembodied brains as in Going Native (Aldworth); embodiment is once again a key concept in the quest to better understand the mind-body relationship. The works were in dialogue, with each other and with the locations they occupied, and, as the exhibition was space adaptable it enabled the artists to be site responsive. It was envisaged that the project would act as a catalyst attracting a wide range of academics, artists, scientists and general public and help lay the ground for the development of a new art-science network within Cambridge and the broader East of England region.
Please click images to enlarge.
Both artists challenge traditional notions of portraiture by referencing those aspects of the self that reside below the surface. At the core of these engagements is the focus on collaboration with neuroscientists, anatomists, cognitive and neuro-psychologists, and philosophers, which often result in time-based installations and moving image works: the pieces that form the focus of this project. Both artists have been independently developing practice in this area over the past decade, have exhibited and published internationally, and have coordinated and participated in symposia and public events.
The exhibition included 6 time-based artworks, 3 from each artist. At the heart of the project was the desire to revitalise questions of embodiment, be it re-embodied organs as in Narrative Remains (Ingham) or disembodied brains as in Going Native (Aldworth); embodiment is once again a key concept in the quest to better understand the mind-body relationship. The works were in dialogue, with each other and with the locations they occupied, and, as the exhibition was space adaptable it enabled the artists to be site responsive. It was envisaged that the project would act as a catalyst attracting a wide range of academics, artists, scientists and general public and help lay the ground for the development of a new art-science network within Cambridge and the broader East of England region.
Please click images to enlarge.
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