Biology 1AL, 001 - Fall 2013 Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

Deborah Aschheim, Hellman Visiting Artist, Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco http://www.minervaberkeley.org/conferences/seeing-knowing-vision-knowledge-cognition-and-aesthetics/2014-speakers1/deborah-aschhiem/ From 2009-2011 I was Visiting Artist at the Memory and Aging Center (MAC) in the Department of Neurology at UCSF. The MAC is well known for research into visual creativity and the brain, particularly some startling findings of patients seeming to develop increased visual sensitivity and creative expression despite or possibly as a result of language deterioration seen in Frontotemporal Dementia. My initial proposal was to use my residency to make a connection between UCSF MAC clinical and research programs, and to repurpose experimental data into artworks for waiting areas in the MAC’s hospital, office and lab sites throughout San Francisco. One of my Visiting Artist projects was a collaboration with musician Lisa Mezzacappa and Soprano/Neuroscientist Indre Viskontas, which involved scanning our own brains to compare our subjective experience with memory and cognition to what the machines could show us. For Seeing/Knowing, I will premiere the final version of two four-channel videos we created that blend hand drawn animation, live footage, experimental data from EEG (Electroencephalography) and fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and original music into a new artwork. I will also share my experiences working with researchers and clinicians studying memory and cognition at UCSF and University of Pittsburgh between 2006-2012. 2014 Conference on Neuroesthetics - Seeing Knowing: Vision, Knowledge, Cognition, and Aesthetics http://www.minervaberkeley.org Co-sponsored by the School of Optometry and Vision Science Program, University of California Berkeley