Paths Relit I & II shows highlight a central scupture piece that reflects on the complex modes by which neurons in the brain connect with one another.

A 3D-light sculpture depicts the pathways of 18 connecting neurons and animates several short and robust pathways that learn to connect to generate a successful interconnected network of neurons.

 Here, several attempts to connect the network together result in Red i.e. unsuccessful pathways and the learned outcome of these failed connections leads to the consolidation of a successful pathway in Yellow that connects the entire network together. This sculpture imagines perhaps the birth of a pruned and tuned pathway for a specific memory in the brain.

The piece explores the topic of whether our structure imbues function or vice versa and how we could generate control over our biology or understand it’s inevitable design.

Negative memories can often intrude stronger on our consciousness, are repeated often as an important learning, and have a deeper impact on our behaviour. This likely occurs due to negativity bias, which refers to our brain giving more importance to negative experiences. I invite the observer to enter a different visualization of the sculpture and question the output of the final consolidated pathway in the piece as being either a positive or a negative reinforced experience/memory. Both memories would follow a similar biological pathway of interconnected neurons in the brain, thus perhaps here is a philosophy to gain agency over our biology by applying reinforced and repetitive positive memories over negative ones to regulate those negative spiral of memories.

Artists: Tina Ghelani, Daniel Till, Karl Pannek

A meld of network visualization techniques and culture hippocampal image analysis on networks of cultured hippocampal neurons are animated into a simulated neuronal network generated. This video and digital art piece tie together with the main Paths Relit I light sculpture. Together these pieces bring the analytical and structural transformation of raw neuroscientific data into the new network visualizations. Together these pieces re-visualize the structural design of connecting neurons functioning through simple designs of network connectivity. They delve into the topic of how our structure imbues function or vice versa. We invite the observer to enter different visualizations of neuronal networks and question their function in the light of positive and negative reinforced experiences.