OHBM BrainArt 2021: the virtual experience & Me

by Roselyne Chauvin & Valentina Borghesani

We’ve freshened up!

After two years of existence as an official OHBM Special Interest Group (SIG), the BrainArt SIG has now proudly released its website, created by Anastasia Brovkin and Désirée Lussier, following brainstorming by all SIG officials. You can browse through all previous competitions and exhibits, as well as submit your pieces for the 2021 edition! 

You can find out more about our SIG by checking out previous posts on how we came of age and how we consolidated our role within OHBM, but also about our prehistory and history. And we highly recommend having a listen to Neurosalience episode #8, where we had a blast chatting with Peter Bandettini.

We’re preparing a great BrainArt Exhibit for you!

The BrainArt SIG is busy preparing the annual brainart exhibit for OHBM 2021 meeting attendees. The SIG has confirmed artists from all over the world and...well, we don’t want to spoil your surprise but you are in for a treat! We will offer a broad representation of artists ranging from full time scientists, full time artists, and all creative souls in-between. Our 2021 theme is “Big Data & Me”. We wish to celebrate the achievements of Big Data neuroimaging projects, while acknowledging the suffering of individuals affected with brain disorders. Honoring the trees as well as the forest.

First, we will dive into large datasets while keeping in focus inclusivity, diversity, and the representation of populations. 

Second, from big N to small N, what about the personal suffering of individuals? After all, we started the field with case study. We will explore the dimension of brain illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, age-related neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and autism in a single subject looking glass. 

Finally, will host the pioneering ideas linking different levels of observation, as interpreted by artists who are encouraged to explore the reciprocal interactions between Big Data research and personalized treatment, i.e. breaking of the barrier between research findings and treatment. 

We’re ready for your artworks!

So don’t wait another minute! Please go explore our website and the archives and get inspired. It’s time to create and participate in the BrainArt competition 2021 - now open to accept your masterpieces. On the website you will find a form to submit your art for one of the following five award categories: 

1. Big Data & Me - a new category in celebration of this year’s BrainArt Exhibition
2. Beautiful Mistake - anything resulting from a artifact, bug, or failed attempt  
3. Pictures to Prose - brainart poem or brainart short story 
4. Still Images -  any brainart image
5. Videos and Animations - any brainart audio-visual or animated contribution

This competition highlights an ongoing aim of the BrainArt SIG, which is to foster the dialog between artists and scientists, blurring the line between Arts and Science. We believe that the exchange of ideas and tools between these two disciplines encourages the development of novel approaches to scientific data visualization, and promotes the exploration of different perspectives on human brain structures and functions. Researchers, scientists, and everyone in between: you are all encouraged to submit your original work(s)! There are no limits to the number of submissions per participant, and both team and single-person entries are welcomed. 

The Submission Deadline is 11:59 PM CDT, Saturday, June 6, 2021 and the award notification will take place during the Annual Meeting. For additional details, please check out our website.

This year, following the success of our campaign to provide a logo for Aperture, there is also a very special 6th category added to the BrainArt competition:

• Logo for OHBM SEA SIG  - We’re calling all artists and designers to help visualize a logo concept for the recently founded OHBM Sustainability and Environment Action (SEA) Special Interest Group. We created a placeholder logo upon our founding last year (see our website), which was closely based on the main OHBM logo. However, the time is now right to create a dedicated SIG logo. If you’d like to create a logo for consideration, please review the following details:

 

1. The logo can include the SIG name, or not.
2. The logo should try to reflect the mission of the SIG outlined here: https://ohbm-environment.org/ 
3. Logo design should be clean and striking, and can be in colour or black and white.
4. Logo submissions should be in png format, 100 dpi, and no larger than 8 x10 inches. The winning logo will be requested at higher resolution: 300 dpi and in tiff format.    
5. The logo will be used in the SIG online platforms and communications (e.g. SIG website, twitter account, talk slides), virtual or otherwise ​

We hope that this teaser and the exploration of the new OHBM BrainArt SIG website will encourage you to participate or enjoy this year's BrainArt Competition & Exhibit.

With contributions from the BrainArt SIG:

AmanPreet Badhwar
Zoltan Nagy
Sridar Narayanan
Peter Kochunov
Ting Xu
Anastasia Brovkin
Désirée Lussier