Su Brain Tracts

Lia Cook California College of the Arts
“Su Brain Tracts” is woven art work 54" x 50". I use DSI Diffusion Spectrum Imaging (DSI) of the brain and TrackVis software from Harvard to look at the fiber connections of communication between different parts of my brain and to integrate these fiber tracks with the actual fiber connections that make up the woven translation of an image. The woven face is drawn originally from a detail of a personal childhood photograph. This work is a third generation translation. Starting from a snapshot of myself I originally made a weaving from the image. This was re-photographed and used in a video animation that combined a series of woven self-portraits with moving images of the neural connections in my brain. My work “Su Brain Tracts” is woven from a still frame taken from this video and re-translated through the weaving process into a larger scale. The scale is important because I am interested in the emotional connection as a person moves in relation to the work and discovers the tactile nature and associated memories of tactile experience. The continued process of re-translation, regeneration gradually leads to a kind of abstraction. This piece Su Brain Tracts is currently on view at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. It is part of a series of artworks combining personal interviews, woven faces or portraits of others, with the DSI imaging of their own brains with the use of TrackVis software.
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