The 19th century neuroanatomical drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal continue to fascinate those with an interest in the brain sciences. Cutting through the unimaginable complexity of the brain, they offer the illusion of clarity – legible objects and neural arrangements that describe a plan for building a brain. Yet, as hand-drawn works on paper, they will always suggest a degree of whimsy; an alien landscape half-conjured up during a fitful sleep. What if we could conjure up our own neural networks and bring them to life?
Synaptic Wall (2008) was a speculative arts project. Through a paper-digital interface, users would be able to draw networks of imaginary connected “neurones,” whilst a projected digital version brought the same drawing to life. As a portable device, networks could be drawn onto any paper-like material and projected onto any surface, opening it up to use as a collaborative performance tool. Through computer-based recognition of each hand-drawn element (such as a cell body or its input and output structures), a number of realistic neurone behaviours could be superimposed on top of the projected network. This included neurone activity and signal transmission between neurones, but also network learning (plasticity) where the active relationship between neurones could be modified. In this way, Synaptic Wall would allow users to create their own experiments in neural “chronocircuitry”. Synaptic Wall was a collaborative project developed at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University (US) with media artist Pinar Yoldas and student programmers Yang Su, Gregory Mittelstaedt, Loredana Diaconu, Ahmed Ghazi.
