Read about a multidisciplinary collaboration between neuroscientists and artists, developed through The Convergence Initiative. Founded in 2016 by neuroscientist and graphic designer Dr. Cristian Zaelzer, the Convergence – Perceptions of Neuroscience initiative is a partnership with the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program (BRaIN) of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), the Faculty of Fine Arts of Concordia University (FoFA), and the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN/ACN). This partnership has been continuously supported by the RI-MUHC, the Montreal General Hospital Foundation, McGill University Integrative Program in Neurosciences (IPN), and the Visual Voice Gallery.
Dr. Keith Murai, BRaIN program director, thinks the science vs. humanities dichotomy is a false one.
In Dr. Murai’s perspective, neuroscience and art have more in common than most people think. “If you think back to the earliest investigations of the brain”, he said, “they were performed by highly creative individuals such as Santiago Ramón y Cajal. At the time (1800’s – early 1900’s), scientists lacked the sophisticated microscopes and electronics of today and relied on pencil- and ink-on-paper to describe what they discovered. In many ways, they relied on their artistic skills to communicate and translate what they observed.” While the modern technologies and increasingly specialized science research topics seem to have estranged researchers from the artistic quest in scientific research, he believes the new lectern will remind researchers of the power of multidisciplinary work: “I hope this project will inspire all of us to be collaborative yet unique, and think beyond the barriers of our work space. By doing so, life will be more interesting and our contributions more impactful”.
Read the full article on this collaboration on the Convergence initiative website:
