Increasing Complexity (A) Collage

My work is largely inspired by science. As an artist with a background in neuroscience, I often find myself wondering between the two distant worlds of data-driven knowledge and subjective human experience. In this latest series of work, I explore my personal inner conflict of being a scientist and an artist and the dialogue that forms between the two by juxtaposing visual elements used in traditional East Asian painting with fluorescent microscopic images. Through collaboration with the Cai lab from the University of Michigan, genetically engineered fruit flies were generated to express different fluorophores in individual neurons of the Antennal lobe -the structure in the fly brain that functions to sense smell. Confocal microscopic images of these fluorescent neurons were taken from dissected fruit fly brains. In a lab setting, images like these are computed and analyzed to understand how neurons anatomically project to other places and make connections with each other to create a network that collectively give rise to complex phenomenon such as perception, motion, consciousness, etc. In this work, these images are no longer data sets that are subject to scientific analysis, but as colorful abstract prints on silk, are objects to be appreciated for its visual appeal and aesthetics. Each image is blown up in scale (about thirty thousand times larger), and are paired with an abstract ink painting. Similar to how I visually detect and trace out different structures in such microscopic images for scientific purposes, I reproduce what I see with a brush; however, without attaching biological meaning or interpretation to my actions. What results is an abstract monochrome landscape filled with different patterns of brush strokes. Each image is assembled with its corresponding painting and mounted using traditional Korean scroll making technique. The title and cut-out pattern provides a hint of the original scientific content with each image. The final work presents a contrast between cutting-edge and traditional, scientific and poetic, data and markings, representative of my experience as a scientist and an artist.