Ecke Gallery
“Art and Neuroscience - A new approach”


The Project “Art and Neuroscience-  A new approach”, initiated by Ecke Gallery in 2010 in Berlin, aims at promoting collaboration between artists and scholars involved in neuroscientific research,  and thus at developing innovative and multidisciplinary works of art. Ecke Gallery regularly hosts international visual artist, multimedia artists, performers, curators, neuroscientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, psycho-linguists and philosophers, who come together in smaller groups to work on a specific topic, such as: consciousness, perception, cognition, memory, and time.  Then, the results of the collaboration-works of art- are presented in a group exhibition.

Ecke Gallery would like to share this new approach to artistic practice and knowledge production.  Thanks to the project “Art and Neuroscience. A new approach ”, artists gained an access to such unique scientific tools as Positron emission tomography (PET), Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Multichannel electroencephalography (EEG), which enables them to comprehend contemporary scientific investigation on human mind, or to apply these tools in the piece of art .
Secondly, the artists involve in a critical dialogue with knowledgeable scholars and scientists, who also share valuable resources and approaches during workshops and talks. 

 So far, Ecke Gallery has been a self-funded initiative, which seeks financial support to maintain and develop the collaboration between artists and neuro- scientists.

Not only does the “Art and Neuroscience” Project serves as interface between the two disciplines, but it is also an incubator for art work creation based on neuroscientific critical topics: Chalmers´ Hard Problem of consciousness, Qualia, memory and time and Hallucination. For this competition we would like to present (as an example) one of the works that is now being developed. 


The creation of work involves application of a set of specific equipment: high resolution, neuro-signal acquisition and processing wireless neuroheadset, Pc – develop software combine signal from the neuroheadset and transmit to mixer and speaker the relative decoded audio signal and 2 Loudspeakers. 

Finally, through the project “Art and Neuroscience” Ecke Gallery develops a theoretical research that stands as a conceptual frame and a basis for neuroscientific experiments. We are concentrating on investigating the efforts in Neuroesthetics and the evolutionary approach to art developed by such neuroscientists as Jean-Pierre Changeux, Antonio Damasio, Semir Zeki and Vilayanur Ramachandran. This particular perspective has been selected to be an alternative and complementary direction for the art and neuroscience researches. 
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Our methodology/Tools:

- Monthly Meetings:  develop discussions on critical topics between artists and scientists, permit sharing resources and information.
- Work-groups: furnish a work frame where one artist work in strictly collaboration with one or more neuroscientist in order to produce piece of art, to develop experience and creative process related in specific topics for neuroscience (see Works-group). After several selections and 10 meetings (in Ecke Gallery, Joao Cocteau art Gallery and Kaleidoskop art Gallery) have been created 7 work-groups, each composed by one artists and one or more scientists. Each creative process, owned by the artist, can be constantly integrated by scientific data. The access to neuroscientific tools (PET, fMRI, EEG, MEG) provides also additional material. Those groups worked applying an interdisciplinary (scientific and artistic) method to create a work of art elaborating on a particular theme. This research is complementary to philosophical and scientific investigation. Through this point of view a piece of art suggests a general solution that can be applied to other knowledge systems.
- Workshop and talks. Artists and neuroscientists organize and assist specific workshop and lectures to deeply develop specific topics. (See Attachment)

- Experiments. Through the collaboration with neuroscientists, the artists have access to such tools as Positron emission tomography (PET), Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Multichannel electroencephalography (EEG), Magneto encephalography (MEG) and can set up a specific experience.

-Ecke Gallery project develop theoretical researches that stands as a conceptual frame and a basis for neuroscientific experiments. Through this approach we are concentrating on investigation efforts in an evolutionary point of view to art.

-Exhibitions in academic and scientific context: the art pieces produced by this interdisciplinary method are shared by exhibitions, especially in scientific contexts such as congress and academic environment Ecke Gallery participated  the exhibition ART@HBM 2011 that was held during the “Neurocartographies” – Neuroscience congress in Quebec, Canada in July 2011.