In the photo you can see this: Artist Alfredo Guerra, dressed in black and sitting on the edge of a chair with a turquoise cushion, arms crossed on a table and in front of him, on the other side of that white oval table, at scientific Luciana Benedetto, a medical biologist and sleep researcher, wears a gray T-shirt with her legs crossed. There is also a wooden piece of furniture, a lamp, some plates, some white mugs, and something served on a wooden board and floor like a chessboard.

The picture is part of the book look at the mind. Uruguayan scientists and artists together consider the most mysterious processes. On page 45 and two pages earlier, on page 42, the title says: Dreams and Reasons. A little lower down, in smaller print, explains: Casa de Alfredo Guerra, August 2018.

What follows is a 12-page conversation between the artist and the scientist about dreams, in which Guerra says things like this: “I live with cats (…) that we can say are four-legged hair and I observe that, among other things, the dream. One sees them dreaming. And the day I saw my cat dreaming, I felt such deep feelings, I felt incredibly close to him, I felt that he was notorious for being his owner (…) I felt terrified. At the same time, I am happy to share life with such This lofty being, because the dream world for me is a level of development and has absolutely fundamental importance in my life.” And Benedetto things like this: “The little I know, from a scientific perspective, is that (the dream) has a lot of content left from the day, from the fears a person is going through.”

What does a scientist and artist do talking about the dream sitting at the ends of a white oval table? Or what they do, for example, after a few pages, a nerves And a dancer in a lab at the Faculty of Medicine talking about sound and color? Or later a doctor and a photographer exchange the process of seeing and looking?

Perhaps there is an answer that unites them all: meaning creation, meditation, and communication.

That’s what this book published by Estuario and the Center for the Arts and Sciences (GEN) is all about, which was born out of the idea of ​​neuroscientists Paula Busu And the Anna Silva And he has, in addition to his own, guardianship of Pablo CasacopertaArtist in front of GEN.

Thus, each chapter of the book consists of a dialogue About some of the mind processes that come from meeting a scientist and an artist. In addition to Gera and Benedetto, there are: Alvaro Cabana and Magella Ferrero on language, Paola Bosso and Andrea Aruba on sound and color, Matilda Campodonico and Lionel Gomez on vision and appearance, Patricia Cassina and Gustavo Genta on structure and movement, Flavio Zolesi and Fernando Foglino on memory and monument, Jose Prie and Rita Fischer on chemistry and acting, and Ana Silva and Matias Paparamborda on light and time.

In all cases, there is a photograph of that meeting, taken by Casacuberta, as well as the book attached with photographs of all participants, drawn by Tally Kimmelman.

two worlds

It all started in 2016, says Paola Busso, when she and Ana Silva ran a photo exhibition at the Montevideo Center of Photography titled A History of Mind Puzzles. They are both neuroscientists and both are interested in them for different reasons art: Various forms of art.

When the exhibition ended, they agreed that they wanted to continue research along these lines: how art and neuroscience are not two separate and diametrically opposed topics, and how they can coexist and even complement each other.

This is how they came up with the idea to write a book for GEN and from there, with Casacuberta at their head, they set out to shape it.

But why join neuroscience and art? Or better: Why do we use art to communicate science?

“Firstly because we believe that there is a general idea that society has that art and science are like opposite poles: that scientific He is strict and strict, and the artist is relaxed and undisciplined,” says Bossu. “And in fact, we have many points in common: whether in art, or in neuroscience, or in science in general, we are strict, we are disciplined, we have a project, we research the topic and then we pass it on . The difference is that we basically pass it on more towards our community (although now we also develop a lot of scholarly publishing) and artists create work in which they convey a message to the community. There is a lot more in common than people think. and the Book He tries a little to show that they are not opposite poles, they can complement each other.”

Looking into the mind, then, is exactly that: traveling through dialogues between neuroscientists and artists from different disciplines and reflecting on topics Neurology which goes through everyday life but approaches thinking through exchange.

In the preface by Bosuo and Silva, neuroscientists say: “Artists and scientists sense, feel, interpret, and explain. Both explore boundaries, both delve into the boundaries of mystery, and both give way modestly when the edge brings them face to face with the unknown. We seek to cross those dividing lines. Opportunity For the public to appreciate the mind viewed through the eyes of science and art as the main motive. Thus we reveal the beauty of some of the mysteries of the brain revealed by research conducted by Uruguayan scientists. We also called upon those Uruguayan artists who, from a different perspective, found inspiration in neurosciences.”

In Mirar la mente there are two worlds that meet and unite without losing one in the other. In this book, science is considered part of culture in the same way that we must understand it every day: “In the pandemic, the social significance of science was evident, all over the world but also in Uruguay,” says Bossu. “It is important that society easily understands scientific knowledgeWho knows what we’re doing and why it’s important to society.”

In the end, far from all that is said, interviews, dialogues, and photographs, what remains is this: the idea that art and science exist in more places than we see, and in ways we think more.