Enter Your Brain into an Art Competition, If You Dare

On the surface, art and neuroscience have little in common. One illustrates the world our brains conjure, while the other seeks to find empirical answers. Seeking to show the deeper relationship between the two, The Neuro Bureau runs a Brain-Art competition that showcases the most imaginative and artistic representations of the brain. They exhibit a variety of experimental art created both by the general public and leading neuroscientists, with entries ranging from warped brain images created by FMRi bugs, to abstract neuronal paintings, illustrating that, although unconventional, the brain and its neurons have aesthetic features as appealing as the natural forms used traditionally in art.

Established in 2011, The Neuro Bureau’s Brain-Art Competition (enter here) aims to create a space for the neuroimaging community to show innovations in data visualization. As Dr. Daniel Margulies, one of The Neuro Bureau’s Co-Founders, tells The Creators Project, “Our primary interest is to offer a space for people to share creative visual outputs related to the brain in various forms with the hope that they're able to impact a wider community. […] The submissions come from individuals with a wide range of backgrounds across the arts and sciences. The judging is done by a group of approximately 50 individuals from across the neuroimaging community."

"One of the more exciting aspects of the ongoing competition has been its diversity," Margulies continues. "There's been a remarkable amount of playfulness and innovation in the submissions we've received, and we've been delighted to see the competition take on a life of its own.”

The Brain-Art competition validates the longstanding but lesser-known history art has with neuroscience—artists being the early explorers of visual perception and the first to remark on how the eye perceives depth and object form via changes in light. The competition demonstrates that the integration of both perspectives allows us to arrive at a better understanding of perceptual reality, bringing together divergent but valuable visual interpretations. “Artists can be valuable collaborators with all kinds of scientific projects," one of the competition winners, Toronto-based Digital Art and Science Contributor, Ron Wild, tells us. "Each artistic medium features something unique about the brain and its processing power. My neuro art shows the processes occurring at both super and subconscious levels of awareness—my goal being to create art that is credited with sparking Nobel Prize-winning insights." Check out more images from the Brain-Art Competition below:

To view more about The Neuro Bureau, click here.

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