Brain Voyaging

October 1, 2011, I attended  The Art and Science of Brain Imaging, part of the Expedition Series presented by Subtle Technologies. It took place at the Centre for Brain and Mind, Natural Sciences Centre at the University of Western Ontario.

The 9:00 am – 6:00 program included Brain Basics and Human Brain Imaging Basics, presented by Dr. Jody Culham, Brain Networks, presented by Dr. Matt Hutchson, a 3D Brain Imaging tutorial with Dr. Tim Wilson and a series of 20 minutes workstations: Electroencephalagraphy (EEG), Anatomical MRI, Functional MRI, Brainstorming, Afterimages, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Resting State Connectivity: Independence Components. We had an introduction to the open source software used in the field, Brain Voyager.

My interest in taking this workshop was based in some work I did in the 1990s (specifically, Nature of the Body and Breath and the Heart, Thinking) and an unrealized neurobiology project with Shared Habitat 2, a 2 week festival of  dance, visual art and biology, produced in 1993 by Bill James and Rebecca Todd. I did in fact create a work with Shared Habitat, but as no neuroscientist was to be found at the time, the work became something entirely different, Earth’s Flesh (also not yet a page on my site but will be in the fullness of time).

My interest in this subject in the 90s was driven by my early spiritual practice and the notion of mind in Buddhism, coupled with a glee in recent scientific and Buddhist support for the blowing up of the Cartesian split of body and mind. I love the idea of mind throughout the body. I love the fact that the superiority of mind over body, with all its historic gender garbage, just can’t hold anymore.

Interestingly enough, yesterday on Facebook I saw a post for an upcoming symposium in which Rebecca Todd is a presenter, along with her husband Evan Thompson. In 2002 at the Shared Habitat Symposium, Rebecca kindly provided me with an article by Evan and Francisco J. Varela, Radical emodiment: neural dynamics and consciousness. And oh, by the way, the star presenter is Joan Halifax. The program is Zen Brain: Emotions, Equanimity, and the Embodied Mind and takes  place at Upaya Institute in New Mexico next January. I would dearly love to attend although it seems highly unlikely, wish me a lottery win please.

I am unsure where a renewed interesnt in this material and imagery will go.

p.s – there are lots of links in this post, but they don’t show unless you hover your cursor.