The event I attended this week was led by Dr. Mark Cohen, an inventor, scientist, and entrepreneur with extensive experience and training in both neuroscience and engineering. Dr. Cohen’s work aims to understand the complex systems of the brain that ultimately accumulate to arrive at the senses we perceive, and how by further understanding how our brain works to perceive sense, we can create art to manipulate the user experience to the artist's advantage.
 |
| Brain Information Processing, courtesy of MMA Global |
During the event Dr. Cohen went into some detail as to how our brain attempts to work through the immense amount of sensory information constantly around us at all time, filtering many of these senses to only arrive at a very muted and more digestible level for our brain to comprehend. For example, our eyes are only able and trained to perceive light that is of a very specific wavelength, and therefore failing to detect a large amount of sensory information around us that doesn’t fall within our visible spectrum. By knowing that the brain has selective focus and is constantly responsible for disengagement with much of our surroundings, it begs the question of what more is out there that we are unaware of simply because we fail to tune in or correctly process it, and how can we overcome this to take in more?
 |
| Various Brain Networks, courtesy of Mark Cohen Event |
This is the arena in which Dr. Cohen finds his inspiration for new works both artistic and with medical applications. This understanding also allows us to realize why we can make sense of seemingly so little information, and the brain is able to make sense from so little. Over the years we train our brain to attune to the slightest patterns to aid in recognition and filling in small pieces that may not actually be so that things make sense to ourselves and we find understanding.
 |
| An arrangement of 29 lines creates an indistinguishable portrait, courtesy of Mark Cohen Event |
Overall this was a very interesting and applicable event to our class and related well to our topics in neuroscience and art. I would recommend this to my peers who are wanting to know more about perception and brain function, as well as people with an interest in art surrounding the brain.
Sources:
Albu, Cristina. Planetary Re-Enchantment: Human-Animal Entanglements in Victoria Vesna’s Octopus Brainstorming. https://www.sfu.ca/cmajournal/issues/issue-ten--enchantment--disenchantment--reenchantment/cristina-albu.html?fbclid=IwAR1twyrqbeKqNrJSUXSihLVGvX_D9ARndxDv3USnw2pTENE_iXHJtIo8v54. Accessed 29 May 2022.
Mark Cohen, Ph.D. – UCLA Brain Research Institute (BRI). https://bri.ucla.edu/people/mark-cohen/. Accessed 29 May 2022.
“Mobile Cognition Research.” MMA Global, https://www.mmaglobal.com/cognition. Accessed 29 May 2022.
Proof of Attendance:
No comments:
Post a Comment