Brain Scans And The Scanner

I've been looking at brain scans of OCD suffers against those who don't suffer from the illness and have been surprised to see some visual differences as well as reading up on the mental ones.

I'm interested in capturing brain activity because it's something that we can't see whenever we chose. We can't see what our brains look like when they're processing thoughts, when they're telling us we're sad, when they're sending hyperactive signals to our limbs or when we're dreaming...

Once again I found myself researching the potential brain malfunctions of an OCD sufferer even though I've already done this twice before I still feel as though readin up more on it will give me a clearer idea of how OCD potentially exists. 

The Orbital Cortex os the area of the brain that is located behind the eyebrows. It is involved in initial perseption of fear and danger. It detects whether something is right or wrong. 

The Anterior Cingulate Gyrus is activated by the detection of fear and causes for example stomach churning and anxiety to respond with fear sensations. 

The Caudate Nucleus is the filtering station for the thoughts which come from the Orbital Cortex. It is involved with automatic transmission which means it is part of the brain which switched from one thought or behaviour to another. It is basically the on/off switch. 

Now I know a little bit more about what certain parts of the brain do I can confidently move on to producing some pieces of work based around the idea of brain activity, brain scans and OCD.

I googled brain scans purely for the visuals, I don't know what these brain scans say about the person who's brain they are from, I just appreciate the colours and detail in these images. I'm intrigued by the extremely bright brain wire images which I've previously mention after visiting the Wellcome Image Award Exhibition in Manchester. The bright wires are such a beautiful way to represent something going on inside our heads, it's almost unbelievable that we have wiring, tubes and all sorts inside us and it's images like that that make you realise how complicated a working human being is. 

I scanned my face onto the scanner and overlapped it with one of the wired brain images I found on the internet then I darkened the edges to give it a more even tone. It's a simple strategy and idea that I think has an interesting quality upon it's result. 

The brain scan fit perfectly over the face of my model on this scanner image. I don't like the smooth curve of the head, it's too prominent  I prefer a more blended mix between images after overlapping and changing the opacity.

The squashed face on the model in my scanner photo reminds me of Jenny Saville's work.

The squashes face, glass marks being pressed onto the skin and the distorted expression create a distressed look in the model. 

When looking at brain scans online I came across a lot of pictures of labelled brains, I liked the look of them because they looked professional, clinical and serious. 

I have an idea to label a brain with the thoughts and actions of what that part of the brain does in an OCD sufferers for example the Thalamus becomes hyperactive in OCD sufferers so I could label it with hyperactive thoughts and activity represented by crazy colours and chaotic patterns.