Head On: Art with the Brain in Mind

The human brain is regarded by many as one the most intriguing human organs. In London, at least two groups have tried to unravel this mysterious anatomical structure. Artists and medical scientists have collaborated in Head On: Art with the Brain in Mind, offering the artists interpretation of the brains structure and functions, aided by the works and historical collections of scientists.

Superior aspect of a human brain manipulated to represent the brain falling to pieces.

HEAD ON
Science Museum, 14 March to 28 July 2002
An exhibition organised by the Wellcome Trust
Photo credit: Courtesy Heidi Cartwright/Wellcome Photo Library

Head On is based on three broad themes: the anatomy of the brain, models of the brain, and the relation between the inside and outside of the head. The onus is on the visitors themselves to understand the brain by suggesting that, “we might understand more about the brain by seeking than by finding results.”

Head On displays the work of eight contemporary artists supported by the Wellcome Trust. Using modern imaging, photographic, and audiovisual techniques, the artists offer different perspectives of how we sense the world. Artistic displays are interspersed with historical scripts and tools describing the various models of brain function discovered by neuro-anatomists, sociologists, and doctors.

The quest to understand the brain began with the hotly debated link between brain and mind. After the Renaissance, scientific study of the human brain was via the anatomists knife. In the mid 19th century, the emphasis shifted to observing people with brain injury and illness. Paul Broca (famous for the eponymous brain region associated with expressive dysphasia) and his colleagues later began speculating that regions of the brain performed specific functions. Today, all this is translated into the revolutionary radiographic images, represented by the modern artists version of brain function. Before this, the study of the human face (physiognomy) and the contours of the skull (phrenology) were trendy, although not scientifically proved.

19th century illustration depicting a physiogonomist
(someone who studies the way people's heads look) at work

HEAD ON
Science Museum, 14 March to 28 July 2002
An exhibition organised by the Wellcome Trust

Phrenological chart

HEAD ON
Science Museum, 14 March to 28 July 2002
An exhibition organised by the Wellcome Trust

This brief exhibition is never short of curiosities and humour. Although Einsteins brain was not on display, a carefully dissected brain of the mathematical wizard and the inventor of the computer, Charles Babbage, is available for public viewing. Through art, the brain of a genius is presented and through science, viewers interpret that the intelligence lies in its physical characteristics. Such baffling concepts are neutralised by animations such as the one by Galli. Entitled Parking, various psychological ideas are represented by the different ways a car is driven into and parked in a hospital compound, perhaps reflecting the drivers personality.

Artwork showing the brain in the form of 1960's pop art

HEAD ON
Science Museum, 14 March to 28 July 2002
An exhibition organised by the Wellcome Trust

MRI scan, head normal

HEAD ON
Science Museum, 14 March to 28 July 2002
An exhibition organised by the Wellcome Trust
Photo credit: Courtesy Wellcome Photo Library

Babbage's Brain

HEAD ON
Science Museum, 14 March to 28 July 2002
An exhibition organised by the Wellcome Trust

This exhibition is not as mind boggling as other modern art displays, but it will probably still turn a few heads.

Science Museum, London; www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/HeadOn; until 28 July 2002; admission free