THEARTBO
www.theartbo.com

"The genesis of the Synaptic Plasticity story was really an intertwined construct between approaches of neuroscientific issues, the perception of art, own memories and an insightful self-reflection. I was strongly powered through my interest in Neuroscience and Psychology and became essentially affected after I came into contact with the valuable contributions of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the artworks of brain structures by Greg Dunn. Today's new understanding of the flexibility of our brain and the possibility of our synapses to change their connections, which not only influence our development but rather the learning process and our memory, awakened the questions: Could I show these complex processes together with necessary stimulating effects - which operate like a circulatory - in an artistic way? What would be a fascinating impulse, what could be a significant stimulation? The idea wasn't that much about getting people closer to neuroscience (nevertheless a possible side benefit), but rather about activating a fundamental self-reflection, making aware of the consistent possibilities, of the choice we have - always and everywhere - and therefor, to open one new door of life.

The most obvious aspect in the images is the nonexisting end in the picture segments - a link to the billions of neurons and a pointer to an open pitch, free to start a fight into a (new) reflection process. For me, mental processes are incredibly interesting, however they are not really "catchable", like an art work on which you involved a lot of time with a visible result in the end. So it's no wonder that you have the feeling sometimes to get something visualized or touching it. Information through words are powerful, of course, but "blind" or invisible in your brain.

With the color selection I wanted to follow and combine two different parts: "typical" associative medicine colors like blue and green - the more functional and "clean" approach for connecting art with the science aspect -, and the soft shades of beige with a finer structured arrangement - the sense part, color-contrasting with white, as the channel for any modification, variance - a meaningful "nothing" to fill.

Science is so much about capturing something with your mind, about new perspectives, belief systems, enthusiasm and novelty.
Indeed, the connection to art couldn't be more clearly at this point."

                                                                                                                                                     - Sarah Klose for THEARTBO