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  • Angela Keane

BRAINBOW

My work focuses on the relationship that has developed between the brain, the eyes and the thumbs because of the wide spread use of new technologies in our everyday routines. I have examined the social, physical and psychological effects of this new dynamic and its fast evolving relationship. My work currently has a particular emphasis on how neurons transmit signals to other neurons which light the brain up in different areas, in a very specific way by using the thumb as the primary and only working digit on the hand, this can be seen particularly in the use of smart phones.

Through this research my studio practice is now based on a scientific process called ‘Brainbow’, a process by which individual neurons in the brain can be distinguished from neighboring neurons using fluorescent proteins. By randomly expressing different rations of red, green and blue derivatives of green fluorescent protein in individual neurons, it is possible to flag each neuron with a distinctive colour and command.