Initial visual research… looking for photographs of ‘the mind’ might be a bit futile so instead I have been thinking about images that depict mental/brain activity and my first few sketch book pages reveal how prevalent un-accredited artwork is …. much info- graphic, and illustrative material being produced for American clinic brochures and websites …. no artists’ names which is such a pity given that although, a lot of rather cliched visualisations are ‘out there’, the skills, time and effort that has gone into creating them really should be acknowledged !
Mind images.
To explore the ‘photography’ methodology I dice-rolled, I am going to use the notion of ‘neuroimaging‘ AS ‘photography’ and do a bit of research about the history of this field while I contemplate the ‘plastic’ aspect of this week’s experiments.
Putting the term ‘bio artists’ into a search engine, produces some glorious results – quite edifying. The term arose while I was watching the ‘dual brain’ TED talks and I am thankful, not only to have discovered some fascinating art as a result but, also; appeasing the frustrations I felt at the beginning of the week, discovering some artists actually working in textiles around the ideas I am exploring.
First, I came across Melissa Fisher https://www.mellissafisher.com and within her site, work entitled ‘Microbial Me’. This, I find completely fascinating.
Bacteria cultures on agar by Melissa Fisher
Her site is well worth taking the time to browse thoroughly; raising interesting notions about, art being able to make the unseen visible, about artists working in tandem with research scientists – I LOVE THAT IDEA!!! – and about the team of artists involved in the ‘The Invisible You: The Human Microbiome’ project at ‘The Eden Project’. I must confess that I feel like a bit of a green eyed monster – I’d love to do work in a context like that!!! but more on the Eden Project in a minute.
Regarding Melissa’s work, I am intrigued, in particular, by the beauty of these etchings,
Etching made from drawing the Microbial Me Bacteria Cultures.
and the way her process evolves from the ‘living’ sculptures created on the agar face moulds through drawing processes to the making of the etchings – stunning.
Browsing The Eden Project Microbe Art – Sketchbook research pages.
I expanded my research from the Eden website and from reading the catalogue by visiting the websites of the artists whose work had caught my eye. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Rogan Brown’s reflections upon his work and the description of how material, process and concept unite in the realisation of his work.
” Art and science are each valid ways of seeing the world: Science makes us understand what we see, and art makes us feel it. Art can therefore act as a valuable bridge between science and the general public, taking the complex factual data that scientific research provides, and through craft and imagination, make it accessible and pleasurable for people without specialised training.”
Rogan Brown.
This quotation from Rogan Brown about the potential links between art and science, reminds me of some of the teaching points I made about art and science at JCS when I was doing the ‘nature’ topic with the Y9 students. One of the ideas I invited them to consider (when they were researching hyper-realist artists) was the place such work can have ‘in the real world’ (i.e. to contextualise it) I was quite interested, in how artists can actually bring clarity to ‘people’ with specialised training’ , and not just as Rogan suggests, ‘make information pleasurable to people without it’. At the time, I introduced the students to work by medical illustrators and we discussed the merits of that type of visual reference for scientists rather than, for example, photographs….. the latter often depicting just a gory mess whereas, through drawing, specific structures can be revealed more clearly. Back then, I was quite intrigued by Johns Hopkins University’s Art/ Medical Science course gallery. More art/science validation I think, coming from the enabling work( for patients), that anaplastology artists can do!
Ideas vacuum now gone! Head full of ideas! BUZZING! (but also a little mentally drained). How exciting to have come upon a series of TED talks about gut bacteria and mental health, dementia, etc. This came about when I stopped imagining ‘food’ as a medium to be used and began thinking more of ‘food for thought’, using it more as a concept to work with alongside mind to inform what to make with textile techniques …. perhaps, some representation of the dual brain idea I have been learning about… a sort of textile piece, info-graphic about the relationship of our gut biome to the brain via the vegus nerve.
Much of what I have listened to and followed up on is quite intuitive on one level, but it is fascinating to hear the ‘science’ behind how important bacteria are in our lives. This however, comes as a bit of a shock (below) and certainly provoked some raised eye-brows followed by interesting debate about what it means to be human in group crit about our initial research and ideas for the week.
Also… the gut biome is as large an ‘organ’ as the brain!
I went on a hunt for textile supplies to experiment with and found a range of yarns and embroidery threads to play around with.
Palette and tools
I found some gorgeous, silky, grey, chunky yarn that made me think ‘bowel’ and some double knitting wool in grey that said ‘brain’ to me. Not the usual thoughts I have when browsing in the wool shop! – but hey ho, that’s Fine Art for you.
I selected a range of colourful double knitting yarns and matching embroidery skeins. I’m thinking that the colours will make bacteria (wool in the gut) and neurons (embroidery thread) in the brain…. matching motifs that speak of the relationship between the bacteria and brain function. The colourful aspect also references the interesting theory put forward by Neal Barnard in his TED talk about colourful food (antioxidants) promoting a good gut flora and supporting their role in preventing the formation of free radicals in the body and oxidised metal plaques in the brain.
To represent the vegus nerve that connects the bowel and the brain as John Cryan put it in his TED talk ‘the bi-directional gut brain relationship’ I chose some shiny metallic threads – thinking electricity and neuron firing – because they are sparkly.
I have started to French Knit the double knitting yarn to create the brain. It is serendipitous that it coils itself up as you knit and quite spontaneousy looks like brain folds in the grey matter – woolly gyrification!
I wanted to make embroidery thread ‘ropes’ in a similar way to weave through the grey matter and represent the communication pathways in the brain but found that my French knitting dolly was too large for the fine thread. Rather fun – I made a narrower gauge one with an empty bobbin and some pins made out of bent floristry wire – very successful!
Interestingly, or more ‘surprising’ really, was finding – in group crit- how few others have even heard of French Knitting!
5. The French Knitting can become quite monotonous so, for relief from that, I have a bunch of other activities to pick up and put down for a bit of a change. Making tiny pompoms for example.
6. I am making a range of motifs to represent bacteria using a variety of techniques, French knitted tube motifs, crocheted shapes etc. The plan is that there will be a ratio of 10:1 bacteria motifs that relate to knitted neurons motifs (in the embroidery thread). I will weave the bowel yarn around the former and the brain wool around the latter…. applique-ing them onto a hessian back has come up as an idea. Through the whole will run stitching of the sparkly thread……. much experimentation to do!
A new mind-mapLow tech responses ….. just get making.
Initially, I have felt a bit stuck with this new roll of the dice because ‘food’ seems so close to the ‘plant-life’ explorations I did last week. To get past the block I have just done some low tech making …. just doodles I suppose… an image manipulation of rebus ideas of ‘I’m going bananas’ and drawing ‘butterflies in the stomach’ – also collecting some images of ‘food and states of mind’ sayings that I can find around the house. The Aldi bags are great! Rather un-productive primary research outcomes unfortunately, some interesting things to do with food and mental states or food and textiles but thus far, no success finding anything that joins them all up.
