Stimuli Space is a 30 feet wide data-generated mural at The Midway Gallery, San Francisco, comparing states of the brain while we process language; created in collaboration with Valentina Borghesani from UCSF Neurobiology Lab and SprayPrinter using brainwave (MEG) data and Albert the Robot Muralist.
Stimuli Space stands as a testament to the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, where art and science converge to unravel the mysteries of the human mind. Drawing from Borghesani's research on the human brain's ability to extract complex meanings from symbols, , the collaboration offers a profound exploration of language processing, network dynamics, and the regenerative essence of cognitive functions.
Video by MMB FILMS
"My research focuses on the amazing ability we share, as humans, to extract meaning from arbitrary symbols. A word is nothing more than a series of letters, strokes on a piece of paper, but we can retrieve a very complex and multidimensional meaning from it."
-Valentina Borghesani, UCSF Language Neurobiology Lab.
Stimuli Space: Hyperconnection, 2022
Hyperconnection is a new digital artwork by visual artist Can Buyukberber for The OHBM 2022 Brain Art Exhibit, a further audiovisual iteration of Stimuli Space (2018), an art and science collaboration between the artist and senior postdoctoral researcher in cognitive neuroscience, Valentina Borghesani. Stimuli Space: Hyperconnection takes the initial generative form that has been created as a mural based on Borghesani’s studies on comparing the states of the brain while we process language, and turns it into an animated meditative deep dive into the organic networks inspired by neuromagnetic recordings, emphasizing the concept of regeneration.
Buyukberber’s use of digital aesthetics aims to explore the beauty behind visualization of complex information systems, and connectivity of all natural dynamics over space and time, in an ever-connected world of digital relationships and representations. Borghesani’s recent research suggests a pervasive reorganization of brain networks in response to ATL neurodegeneration: the loss of this critical hub leads to a dysregulated (semantic) control system, and defective semantic representations are seemingly compensated via enhanced perceptual processing.
