Brain(s)

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Image courtesy of CCCB.

The human brain is the most complex object that we know and it is also the fabric of dreams and of conscious experience. It enables us to explore and change our surroundings, remember the past while we invent diverse futures, and understand the universe in unprecedented detail. Brain(s) explores not only how humans have studied and represented the brain, but also follows the analysis of the set of activities that it carries out, such as abstract thinking, language, consciousness, imagination and dreams. How does it create reality? What are the nature and origins of conscious experience? Could a machine imitate human creativity? Do non-human animals have consciousness? Can an ant or a plant be compared to a brain? Are we, as humans, a society of brains similar to a collective intelligence?

The mind/brain duality that was established by modern Western science, influenced by the Christian division between body and soul, has been superseded by the discoveries of neuroscience, and today we know that the two things are inseparable. To the point that currently scientists and philosophers affirm that the human mind, with all of its capacities, is the result of biological evolution and responds to the same adaptive criteria as other aspects of life. What do we know, therefore, of what really makes us human? What happens in our mind/brain when we are capable of talking, creating and feeling emotion?

These and many other questions are at the inception of a project that the CCCB, the Fundació Telefónica and the Wellcome Collection started up together with an extensive network of researchers, creators and thinkers. Through artistic projects, laboratory experiments, mediation workshops and public debates, Brain(s) questions our understanding of conscious experience and explores what can happen when this experience is interrupted or undermined.

For more art events check our online events calendar.