Sonja Blum

This course will explore bridges/ links between neuroscience and art. After covering basic concepts related to structure and function of the nervous system, we will focus on how the properties of our nervous system affect art making and viewing. We will particularly focus on the vision system, memory and attention.

Ideas/ concepts covered will include: 1.) basic architecture of the central nervous system and its known properties/ functions, including neuronal architecture axons/ dentrites / synapses and basic molecular concepts (what is a neurotransmitter / synaptic junction)], 2.) localization of brain functions (from focal lesions to cells and molecules to brain wide networks and back), 3.) basic structural and functional components of the sensory system with particular focus on the visual system, 4.) the relationship between sensory system and perception / approximations and predictions made by the nervous system to interpret
incoming sensory stimuli (ex. blind spot filled in, etc), 5.) common abnormalities in perception (benign hallucinations/ Charles Bonnet syndrome, etc.), 6.) case studies of famous artists and writers whose work was possibly affected by neurological disorder (Kant, Van Gogh, Caspar David Friedrich, Edgar Allan Poe, Nietzche).