For over 30 years, I’ve been an artist, neuroscience researcher and a doctor. I take care of people and do basic research in a lab. My experiences in the medical field and science have greatly influenced my art. My latest artwork focuses on connections, both internal (as stored memories) and external (with other people). 

 

Certain memories and traumas are registered in our bodies and mind, some causing profound change. I believe that my memories of the past, both traumatic and pleasant, continue to shape who I am today. As a physician, I see the repercussions of memory in my patients, sometimes even manifesting with physical symptoms such as pain.

 

Just as computers store information within the circuitry of their “motherboards,” we too store memories in our central nervous system. If we could see our biological “motherboards,” what would they look like? What would our fears, hopes, feelings, desires look like? What colors, shapes, sizes? This train of thought lead me to creating visual representations of what our biologic motherboards might look like.

 

But beyond our internal motherboards, we also interact with hardware motherboards from technologies that have become increasingly important in daily life.  Through these devices, we transmit, re-transmit, and forward digital images. However, to save data space, software algorithms slightly degrade an image each time it is transmitted. And although these subtle modifications are invisible to the human eye, they are not unlike the way human brains modify memories, computers, and images.

 

My current work uses several layers of body images such as CT scans, X-rays, or neuronal networks juxtaposed with images of familiar places, scenarios, and people. I then digitally transform the images with specific software algorithms which reflect the ways in which our memories and thoughts change over time. Ultimately, they acquire new personal meanings and emotions based on our experiences, biases, traumas and hopes.