Week 7: Neuroscience and Art

 This week's talk of the brain reminds me of what I have learned in some of my psychology courses concerning how our brain and mind work. Professor Vesna began her lecture by discussing phrenology brought up by Franz Joseph Gall which was an attempt to examine an individual's intellect and personality by exploring their skull. Although phrenology was disproven, Gall's idea about localized brain function was later identified by Broca in his research of the brain's speech area. 

                                            Language Specific Areas of the Brain

Furthermore, Vesna speaks of dreams, specifically how they relate our conscious and unconscious minds. In relation to our unconscious mind, Professor discusses Sigmund Freud who is known to have coined the idea of the unconscious mind (Vesna, 2012). In his idea of the unconscious mind, Freud suggests that the unconscious "is not just an irrational, swirling mess. He described a complex and highly organised system that operates according to laws"(Freud Museum London, 2018). 

                                    "The Battle between the Conscious and Subconscious Mind"

This idea of the conscious and unconscious mind as it relates to dreams very much interests me. Its fascinating to me to be able to learn about Freud and Jung as their ideas relate to one another yet they differentiate due to religion. It reminds me of an event I attended online towards the beginning of the quarter with Ann McCoy. McCoy is an artist that utilizes and visualizes alchemy in her art. Further, she views the four basic alchemical elements (fire, water, air, earth) in her dreams - a look into her subconscious mind and experiences. McCoy was a very interesting speaker and incredibly knowledgable in relation to her practices. 

                                                      "Coeur de Lion" By Ann McCoy

In this piece by McCoy, she utilizes fire and earth to paint this picture of taken life and sacrifice from her dreams. This piece is very intriguing to me as it is something that McCoy described seeing vividly in her dream and she was able to beautifully recreate in her art work. McCoy spoke a lot about Carl Jung in her talk and how he influenced her practices tremendously. In my own experience, I had only learned about Freud in psychology courses but not so much of Jung. I wonder if this is due to the modern day ideal of science and thus away from perceived spirituality.

References

Alan.trang. “The Battle between the Conscious and Subconscious Mind.” ALAN AI VOICE LAB, 9 Nov. 2021, https://alanaivoicelab.com/the-battle-between-conscious-and-subconscious-mind/.

Language Specific Areas in the Brain. | Download Scientific Diagram. https://researchgate.net/figure/Language-specific-areas-in-the-brain_fig1_317356553.

Localization of Brain Function: The Legacy of Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828). https://sites.oxy.edu/clint/physio/article/LOCALIZATIONOFBRAINFunctionTheLegacyofFranzGall.pdf.

McCoy, A. (n.d.). Ovum Philosophorum: L.A. Land of New Beginnings. Ann McCoy. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://annmccoy.com/alchemy/ovum-philosophorum/

“Rubedo.” Ann McCoy, https://annmccoy.com/alchemy/rubedo/.

Vesna, Victoria. “Neuroscience-pt1.Mov.” YouTube, YouTube, 17 May 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXjNbKDkYI&t=103s. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Mind Intro.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 Mar. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF0Qt7L2-kM&t=52s.

“What Is the Unconscious?” Freud Museum London, 29 Apr. 2018, https://www.freud.org.uk/education/resources/what-is-the-unconscious/.