State of Mind

State of Mind was a new artist's project at the BIOS centre supported by a People's Award from the Wellcome Trust. Initially inspired by current scientific developments in imaging brain activity, artist Ruth Maclennan worked alongside BIOS researchers to explore the ways in which the mind, as physical and cultural entity, has been or might in future be represented and manipulated and with what scientific, aesthetic, cultural and political implications.  

For centuries artists, writers and scientists have attempted to describe and visualise the workings of the mind and its 'container', the brain. Advances in brain imaging seem to promise that at last we will be able to see the mind when we look at the brain. This investigative and speculative art project will consider diverse approaches to the 'mind-body problem' from memory theatres, to the 'brains-on-stalks' of science fiction, to contemporary MRI scan imagery.

Ruth Maclennan was artist-in-residence at the BIOS in the academic year 2004-2005. Together with Nikolas Rose, director of BIOS and Simon Gould, co-curator, she organised a series of public debates entitled State of Mind, between artists, curators, scientists, social scientists and writers, on representations of the mind in science, art and popular culture. To coincide with the series, Maclennan and Gould curated an exhibition of contemporary art, on the same theme, from 29th April to 29th May 2005.

Exploring the mind (PDF) 
Ruth Maclennan, BIOS artist in residence, describes the State of Mind project.

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