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The magazine will feature exclusive interviews with artists, scientists, writers and creative thinkers.

Mapping below the surface

The desire to ‘map’ is at the core of Angela Palmer’s work. Having spent years taking the familiar and peeling back the outer layer, she has explored the human body, and in particular the brain, as well as the animal form, to expose the extraordinary matter lying unseen below the surface. By drawing or engraving details from MRI or CT scans onto multiple sheets of glass, layer by layer, Angela Palmer presents the subjects as three-dimensional objects ‘floating’ in a glass chamber. In this exclusive interview she talks about her ideas and work.

Between beauty and disgust

“My work is surprising, raises questions, the fragile beauty is often associated with horror, even with disgust. Not only for the created work, but also for the violation of the integrity of the living being, for it is often necessary to be destructive in the method of research. This duality that I experience at any dissection or other research experience is part of my job. It would be an illusion to think that the final artwork remains untouched by it. And I notice that artists and scientists often dance on the same tightrope.”
With her training in psychology and art, Chantal Pollier shows the fragile, vulnerable body in its temporary presence. In this exclusive interview, she discusses her ideas and work.

Passing Thoughts

Susan Aldworth is an experimental printmaker and filmmaker referencing both neuroscience and philosophy in her work exploring human identity.

Significant recent shows include Susan Aldworth:The Portrait Anatomised at the National Portrait Gallery; Brains: The mind as matter, Wellcome Collection; Mind Maps: Stories from Psychology, Science Museum, London; and Images of the Mind, in Dresden and Brno. Her work is in many collections including the V&A, British Museum, Hunterian Museum and Wellcome Collection.

On The Master and his Emissary

Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist and writer. He is committed to the idea that the mind and brain can be understood only by seeing them in the broadest possible context, that of the whole of our physical and spiritual existence, and of the wider human culture in which they arise – the culture which helps to mould, and in turn is moulded by, our minds and brains. His seminal book, The Master and his Emissary, is a fascinating exploration of the differences between the brain’s right and left hemispheres and their effects on society, history and culture. In it, he argues that, despite its inferior grasp of reality, the left hemisphere is increasingly taking precedence in the modern world, with potentially disastrous consequences. In this exclusive interview, Iain McGilchrist discusses the book and the need for a greater understanding between science and the humanities.

Brain, Consciousness and Neuromania

Raymond Tallis is a philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic and was until recently a physician and clinical scientist. In the Economist’s Intelligent LifeMagazine (Autumn 2009) he was listed as one of the top living polymaths in the world. In this exclusive interview he offers a critique of current predominant intellectual trends and discusses an alternative understanding of human consciousness and of what it is to be a human being.

Understanding Consciousness

Max Velmans is currently Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, Visiting Professor in Consciousness Studies, University of Plymouth, an Academician of the Social Sciences, and has been involved in consciousness studies for around 40 years. His main research focus is on integrating work on the philosophy, cognitive psychology and neuropsychology of consciousness, and, more recently, on East-West integrative approaches.

Mind Uploading

Mind-Uploading: the process of transferring one’s mind from the brain to a new substrate, generally a computer. It is the stuff of science fiction, immediately recognizable in contemporary literature and cinema. However, it has also become increasingly respectable–or at least approachable–within technological, neurological, and philosophical circles. In this exclusive interview, Keith Wiley (author of ‘A Taxonomy and Metaphysics of Mind-Uploading’), discusses the ways that minds may be uploaded in the future, and some of the key issues that this poses.

Passionate about Consciousness

Philip Goff is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Central European University in Budapest. HIs main research focus is trying to explain how the brain produces consciousness. In this exclusive interview he discusses how we need to radically rethink our understanding of matter in order to explain consciousness, in something like the way Einstein radically rethought the nature of space and time