Alexa Piotte is a graphic designer living in Montreal. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts majoring in Design and minoring in behavioural neuroscience psychology from Concordia University. In this exclusive interview she discusses her work relating design and neuroscience, including her collaborative project, ‘BDL: Mapping out the Genetic Blueprint of the Fruit Fly Visual System’, with Hunter Shaw, a Ph.D. candidate in biology at McGill University.
Anjan Chatterjee is a professor of neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics and a member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. His research focuses on spatial cognition and its relationship to language. He also conducts neuroaesthetics research and writes about the ethical use of neuroscience findings in society.
Dan Lloyd is the Thomas C. Brownell Professor of Philosophy and a Professor of Neuroscience at Trinity College, Connecticut. He is the author/editor of ‘Subjective Time: The philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience of temporality’ (co-edited with Valtteri Arstila). In this article he discusses his developing research into the animation and sonification of brain activity.
Tyler Sloan is a freelance data artist/scientist. While he is not developing custom Jupyter-based data processing pipelines, he produces computer-generated artwork and data-driven motion design using Open Data and formal scientific models. His artwork combines elements of his training as a developmental neurobiologist (B.Sc, Ph.D.) with his passion for Open Data.
Julia Buntaine Hoel is a conceptual artist whose work is inspired by and based on Neuroscience, the scientific study of the brain. She is also director of SciArt Center, and editor in chief of SciArt Magazine. Julia attained her double BA in neuroscience and sculpture from Hampshire College, her post-baccalaureate certificate in Studio Art from Maryland Institute College of Art, and her MFA of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts. She also teaches, consults, curates, and frequently writes about art, and is currently the Innovator-in-Residence at Rutgers University.
Tam Hunt is an Affiliate Guest in Psychology in the META Lab, Psychological and Brain Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. His work focuses on the philosophy of mind, reconciliation of scientific and spiritual views of the world, and the interaction of mind and matter. A practicing lawyer, he brings a unique perspective to psychology and philosophy.
Thomas Cronin is Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research interest is in Visual ecology: the evolution, adaptation, and specialization of visual systems of animals ranging from the simplest marine invertebrates to complex animals like mantis shrimps, cuttlefish, whooping cranes, and right whales
“In many ways the brain is a time machine, we remember the past to predict the future and we engage in mental time travel (we can mentally project ourselves into the past and future). Additionally, we are pretty good at telling time, whether demonstrated by catching a ball, playing the piano, or anticipating when the red light will change to green. But how does Mother Nature build clocks using neurons?”
Dean Buonomano is a professor in the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology, and a member of the Brain Research Institute, and the Integrative Center for Learning and Memory at UCLA. He is a leading researcher on how the brain tells time. His new book is is titled ‘Your Brain is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time.’
“One could say that the study of time consciousness overlaps with the study of phenomenal consciousness. Conscious awareness is extended awareness of duration, temporal order, the present-moment, and the passage of time.”
Marc Wittmann is currently employed at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany. He has written two books on the topic of time perception. ‘Felt Time’ has been published in 2016 by MIT Press and ‘Altered States of Consciousness’ is going to appear in August 2018, also published by MIT Press.
Valeriya N-Georg is an artist inspired from Neuroscience, Psychology and Consciousness studies, who works with a range of media: drawing, printmaking, mixed media and sculpture.
“My principal interest is Neuroscience, as a system of exploring the relationship between the human body and the embodied self. I use fragments of physical anatomy to visually represent the inexpressible experience of inhabiting a body; the boundaries between the inner and outer self; between the physical and metaphysical; tangible and intangible, the tactile and the optical.”