Me,
Myself and MRI
Me, Myself and MRI
is a science and art project that has resulted in a touring exhibition of
digital portraiture. The exhibition uses digital creative
technology to manipulate neuroimaging data, photographic images, video
and audio to create contemporary portraits of six selected project
participants that will consider and interpret the ideas associated with
perception of self.
Working with a group of student from Archbishop
Holgate's School over 12 months the project has
delivered a series of workshops covering the following areas:
- the development of medical imaging, from early anatomical drawings to contemporary techniques such as MRI and MEG;
- discussions around the perception of self and how science and the arts can be used to discover and interpret information about individuals;
- investigation of the developmental history of portraiture and installation as art forms. To include discussions around context (historical, social and artistic) and site-specific works;
-
discussions around the historical development of links between science
and art. Is the perceived division between science and art an
artificial distinction?
We have also taken the young people to arts venues to enable them to see
visual artworks in an exhibition/installation context and to
investigate some of the issues surrounding the staging of exhibitions.
The
project team have invited six participants (guided by the students in our choice)
to undergo an MRI scan. They have also sat for photographic
portraits and been interviewed using questions
devised by the students as a means of discovering key information that
will distinguish participants as individuals.
Finally, the project’s
creative team have created the final exhibition pieces using ideas
generated by the students, and including the
MRI datasets, photographic portraits and video/audio interviews.
The workshops are outlined as follows:
| Session
1: |
Project outline and introduction: Who we are and what we will be doing over the next nine months. |
| Session
2: |
Visit to York Neuroimaging
Centre: The MRI and MEG scanners; looking at and altering pictures of a person's head and brain. |
| Session
3: |
Ethics in Art and Science, and is
it art or science? Defining 'ethics'? Gunter von Hagens and Bodyworlds; Damien Hirst's art; Cloning and Dolly the sheep. |
| Session
4: |
Visit to York Art Gallery -
Artists as Investigators: Investigate/explore portraiture; science and art naturally overlap and both are means of investigation. |
| Session
5: |
Visit to York Art Gallery -
Perception: Artists & scientists study similar aspects of the world and transform this information into other things. |
| Session
6: |
Who are our subjects? Who are the people - or types of people - that we want to investigate, explore and study? |
| Session
7: |
Artist Session - video and
editing: How might video be used to learn about our subjects? Can we edit video to say something specific? |
| Session
8: |
Artist Session - photography: How can we use photographic evidence and portraiture to capture our subjects? |
| Session
8: |
Artist Session - audio and
editing: Keeping an audio diary. Interviewing our subjects - what questions to ask? Editing audio recordings. |
| Session 9: |
What makes an individual: Finding out who we are and how we can show this. Does science or art have all the answers? |
| Session 10: |
What is the final exhibition
going to look like? Building a prototype. How can technology help? What is 'interaction'? |
| Session 11: |
Publicity: How do we want our work to be promoted and shown to the outside world? |
Me,
Myself and MRI is
funded by the Wellcome
Trust and Arts
Council England, working with the York
Neuroimaging Centre, and the National
Science Learning Centre. The exhibition will launch
at the National
Science Learning Centre in February 2009 before embarking on a
tour to other venues nationally.
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 |
This page will be updated with additional information about these and other projects as it becomes available.