Penelope Rose Cowley
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What happened at the ASTROART-ORIGINS Intro Event Sunday 19th February 2023?

24/2/2023

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​ASTROART-ORIGINS

Today news blog is all about the ASTROART-ORIGINS intro event that happened last Sunday on the 19th Feb 2023, that announced the Prizes and inspiration for the Exhibition and Competition.

You may have noticed on my home page that the Art Life Society was founded in early 2020 (officially 2019)  by myself and a few artists, it has since grown in numbers and is exhibiting and holding regular events. I am one of the Communication Officers. Being a part of  Art Life Society is a passion of mine. Helping to bring people together for artistic pursuits of diverse activities for all abilities. Therefore, I'd like to share here the Open Call and  all that happened last Sunday, and of course to encourage, perhaps artists like yourself to join the Art Life Society and exhibit at the, National Astronomy Meeting 2023 for AstroArt Origins.

OPEN CALL FOR ASTROART ORIGINS

SUBMIT YOUR ARTWORK VIA-
linktr.ee/artlifesociety
All the details you require; Rules and Information about about exhibition are available via the link above.   

Submission Date 02/06/2023 12AM
T&C: To apply you must over 18 and a member of the
Art Life Society Membership is £5 per year.

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When is the actual Exhibition?

3rd - 7th July 2023
Along side
The National Astronomy Meeting 2023   
nam2023.org
AT
The New Centre for Student Life-
In Association with
Cardiff University School of Physic and Astronomy
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​Appreciations

First of all, I'd like to convey my upmost appreciation and big thank you to all that attended the introduction event for the AstroArt-Origins Exhibition; To the Art Life Society committee, Sarah Fowler, Karen Williams and Bill Roger for attending Zoom Meetings and Prof. Steve Eales, Dr. Christopher North for inviting us to be apart of the National Astronomy Meeting 2023 and the researchers, students that gave presentations. To everyone that mingled with us all in the 'Rest Frame' room and to those that stayed on for the Cosmic Watercolour workshop on the 19th Feb at Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy.
Thank you! 

It was wonderful to see many familiar faces, a few new ones too, and fantastic to have the opportunity to listen to Astronomers, Physicist and Cosmologists who shared their work and showed us inspiring images and videos.  

I was honoured to be hosting the talk to introduced the project, and the opportunity to provide a little background as to why Prof. Steve Eales and Dr. Christopher North contacted myself just before Christmas in the first place. 

Prof. Steve Eales Head of Astronomy Group, and Dr. Chris North Public Engagements, had the idea to create an exhibition along side the National Astronomy Meeting 2023. Cardiff University School of Physics and Astronomy is hosting the event this year in the new Student Life Centre, July 3rd-7th. To be frank Prof. Steve Eales did not know of any artists, as he puts it, 'because all we do is hang around with other scientists all day' other than myself! He contacted me and asked if I knew any artists and I was very happy to inform that yes, in fact I do, the Art Life Society!
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​Infinite LIGO Dreams

I had previously worked with the department over 7 years ago to create a large painting called 'Infinite LIGO Dreams'. The painting is on permanent display in the 'Rest Frame' room in the North Building, along side a few other paintings I had created in the basement of Dr Dan Read's lab (another story). 'Infinite LIGO Dreams' celebrates the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015, which in turn proved Albert Einstein theory of general relativity 1915, it was and still is an immense discovery.

I had opportunity to share a short video integrating the visual data, showing the development with audio/music, and then to show the physical painting in the 'Rest Frame' for the first time to people outside of the University.

The purpose of showing this artwork was to show one of the ways in which artists, perhaps you, might like to approach creating art for the AstroArt Origins exhibitions, albeit, a little something to spark the imagination.   

After I had shown this I was able to then provide a brief overview of how artists (maybe you) are able to submit  work using the online form which is accessed via the linktr.ee/artlifesociety.

If you have any questions at all about the artwork you would like to submit please do not hesitate to ask email: artlifescoiety2023@gmail.com. ​
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​PRIZES

We are very please to also announce the Prizes at the intro event funded by the National Astronomy Meeting 2023-
Prizes are by public ballot.
Attendees to the National Astronomy Meeting 2023 (NAM) will be encouraged to place votes for their favourite ASTROART-ORIGINS artwork at the front desk of the event. The prize giving ceremony will be on the evening of Thursday 6th July sometime between 6pm-8pm.
1st Prize £500
2nd Prize £250
5 Runner up Prizes - £50 in the form of an art or science related voucher.

​Researcher and Student Presentations

Following the logistics of entering and announcing of the Prizes. Our marvellous physicists and astronomers gave individual talks with wonderful inspiring images of the universe that we, the artists, could be sparked by. They were all very excited, passionate and enthusiastic about their work it really was marvellous to see them share their work.

Prof. Steve Eales - Introduced further details about NAM Astro Origins
Dr. Roger Wesson - imaging supernovas
Andrew Cook - Galaxy formations in Simulations (Dr. Freeke van de Voort - Simulations)
Ana Duarte Cabral - Star formation
Theotokis Georgatos - Cloud Collisions

Recording of their presentations and are available for the purposes of the competition please email artlifesociety2023@gmail.com for details. 

We followed the talks with refreshments in the 'Rest Frame' where the Infinite LIGO Dreams painting (amongst others) I have created are on permanent display. It was a fantastic chance for artists and physicists alike to meet each other and generate ideas.

Cosmic Watercolour Workshop

Following this I tutored a Cosmic Watercolour Workshop to create paintings inspired by images from space.

The Photos below express all!


It was a truly wonderful afternoon purely made possible by all those that attended with their grate enthusiasm and interest. 

The event was sponsored by the Institute of Physics and promoted by Cardiff Science Festival. 

I am very much looking forward to seeing the artworks that will be produced.

Thank you, 

Penelope Rose Cowley
Communications Officer Art Life Society
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I am currently exploring...

14/9/2021

1 Comment

 
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I am currently working on a collection called 'Penrose'. The art work shown below is influnced by early 'P1 Penrose Tilings' from the 1970 prior to the 'P3 Tiling of darts and kites', that the creator Sir Roger Penrose developed later.

Image right: P1 Tiling https://penroseinstitute.com

Penrose is known for his work in mathematical physics, in particular for his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He has received several prizes and awards, including the 1988 Wolf Prize for physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems. He is fasinating...for more information go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Penrose9

I highly recommend looking up ORCH OR theory- here is one of my favourite papers I like to read and take inspiration from-
Consciousness in the universe: A review of the ‘Orch OR’ theory
lStuartHameroff  RogerPenrose
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1571064513001188

Which became the inspiration for this painting-
P1 Tiling, microtubule,superpositiion....
'Lay in pastures of pattern and infinite, let the awareness of self emmerge as the turning doors fly open and let me in.'
(This painting is in a Private Collection, Penarth, Wales UK)

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Johannes Kepler, in his 1619 work Harmonice Mundi, created the first list of all the Archimedean tilings, tilings that can be created from sets of regular polygons. http://www.keplersdiscovery.com/Harmonies.html

Penrose progressed on from Kepler and look to the pentagon.  It is in the first of the Penroses tilings  systems from the 1970 that includes the pentagon at the center that I find most alluring. Penrose found that six tiles shapes could tile a 'plane' these and these are dipicted in the paintings. Called a 'P1 tiling' which is Penrose's original set of six prototiles.

It is five-fold rotational symmetry, about the center of the of a centeral pentagon, reflecting the nonperiodicity of the tiling. Any tiling created using this set of tiles must be nonperiodic, a not recurring at regular intervals system. More information about this can be found here- http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Penrose_tiling

Personally I find fragments and shapes jumping out visually in infinite overlaying patterns. It really evokes something in me. In P1 tiling I see everything.

The paintings are an abstraction of geometry and nature the figure dancing in between the corridors of consiouness.

I 'feel' this as a creative response rather than an anything makes sense. It is more of a fasination for the system of tiles and how these relate to everything and to us.

It is also a refinement following on from work I had done prior, that began with sitting in a tree and drawing the branches going out from the bough I was sat upon which you can see below. For me the pentagon and geometry thereof seems to be everywhere.

This series continues to be developed and will be shown one day...
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The Day I met Sir David Attenborough @UCL

24/3/2021

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Recalling the past, almost 3 years ago...
original post 27/04/2018

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  Photography by Anita Maguire

Meeting Sir David Attenborough…. 

It has taken me or a week or so, to really absorb the events that happened last week on the 17th April for the reopening ceremony of the Kathleen Lonsdale Building (KLB) at UCL.

I was invited to attend the morning ceremony and asked to talk to guests and to Sir David Attenborough about the artsci-work ‘COSMOPARTICLE’ when they were on a grand tour of the building. I had been commissioned for the artsci-work by the UCL Cosmoparticle Initiative for the beautifully transformed KLB building in early 2017.  The building is home to UCL Earth Sciences and groups from Chemistry, Astrophysics, and Mathematics.

Traverling to UCL

 Early Morning April 17th 2018-

The journey began with the 5.55am train from Cardiff Central to Euston Square.
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I arrived at Paddington Station a little after 8.30am and caught the underground to Euston Square. Hot and cramped passengers swayed together on the very busy tube. An elderly gentleman, shaking with nerves was attempting get through the carriage to leave, the doors were closing quickly everyone took note and someone called out to hold the door. Three people jumped in to action and held with some effort, the half closing doors and the man was able to safely get off. One the guys who held the door open, was standing next to me had oil and grease all over his hand. My contribution was a handwipe that cleaned it right off, much to the guy’s relief. It was really lovely to see everyone immediately working together and feeling that London has a sense of the kindness, the vibe after was sweet and set the tone for the day.
 
I ended up at Euston Road instead of Euston Square. Which was a short walk from where I was meeting Anita Maguire at the George Farha café in the Lewis Building (which is next to Euston Square Station where I thought I was heading).  Anita is Executive Assistant to Professor of Astrophysics, Hiranya Peiris. It was, Peiris who had initially contacted me after seeing ‘Infinite LIGO Dreams’. Anita and I grabbed some coffee and made away across the road to theCruciform building.

We had been informed there would be ques for the event and we found ourselves at the door to a corridor that led to the theatre entrance, at the end of the rather long que, everyone buzzing with excitement.

After a few moments we flowed in and took our seats, myself and Anita placed ourselves one row back and to the right and awaited the arrival of all the guests and the much-anticipated Sir David Attenborough.

 
Photographer Kirsten Holst www.kirstenholst.com

The hubbub and babel of the theatre came to a murmur as Sir David Attenborough and guests including the Son and Grandson of much celebrated Dame Kathleen Lonsdale entered the room. Perfectly hosted by Professor Lars Stixrude (Head of UCL Earth Sciences) and Professor Ivan Parkin (Dean of UCL Mathematical & Physical Sciences) who introduced us all to the morning ceremony’s programme and our reason for gathering to celebrate the new building fabulously redesigned by Levitt Bernstien and built by John Graham Construction for the re-opening by the esteemed Sir David Attenborough who was waiting in the wings ready to join Professor Lucie Green.

An arm-chair style discussion followed with Sir David Attenborough facilitated by the lovely Professor Lucie Green from UCL Space & Climate Physics. Sir David was energetic and at same time relaxed, quick witted and funny, answering questions posed by about his career and his connection to Dame Kathleen Lonsdale. 
 Photographer Kirsten Holst www.kirstenholst.com

...and here in lies a great mystery...

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During the talk, Sir David was presented with a porcelain sculpture of the plankton created exclusively by University of Southampton researcher by Dr Samantha Gibbs, of the newly discovered species of ocean plankton named Syracosphaera azureaplaneta, in honour of the BBC’s Blue Planet series.

He accepted the sculpture, stood up and held it up in one hand, high in from of us all and I recall he said ‘and here in lies a great mystery’, it was a beautiful moment. He continued to explain that It is the depth and breadth at which all life is interconnected that precedes this ‘great mystery’. From the tiny plankton we may as well say all life on earth depends and therein lies its great importance of study. Words to remember and ponder!

There is one question that for me stood out and the answer to which has enriched my sense of wellbeing and optimism for the future, I feel I am not alone in this sentiment as I heard it again talked about in the afternoons events.

 The question was something along the lines of- ‘What are your thoughts for the future of the Earth and everything that lives on it?’

It felt as if there was a hesitance in the voice of the audience member, perhaps a little anxiety too, I believe we all felt that feeling a little, we all know how much we humans have messed up Earth and the problems we have caused as a species. Sir David Attenborough replied with sincerity and compassion (from my recollection it was along the lines of);

-Had you asked me 10 years ago I would have had a very different answer to the one I am telling you now. I would have been more sceptical. But now I have seen a change; When Australians noticed the hole in the ozone over their heads, a change commenced and since 1996 CFC’s have been banned. When whales diminished to the point of extinction, commercial whaling was banned in 1987. When I first started presenting, the oceans did not have many whales left, but now I see massive shoals, it is a change I have seen in my lifetime.  Now we have plastics and the burning of fossil fuels to deal with, it is heart-breaking, however with; innovation, research, science and technology along with our ability to be curious, connect and communicate on a worldwide instantaneous level I feel that change again will happen. We are at a tipping point and the world of humans is now able to begin correcting the mistakes it has made. –

Hope for the future

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If you were there you would have felt a sense of urgency and relief, the feeling that all is not lost and everyone individually and as a civilisation is capable of change. Sir David really does fill one with real hope.
 
For example, with regards to plastics; It is s a problem that caught the imagination of a Boyan Slat when he was a 16-year-old schoolboy from the Netherlands. I highly recommend finding out all about him.
                                                                                                      Photographer Kirsten Holst www.kirstenholst.com
        

Boyan Slat

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Here is a link to a video, he is 23 now (and adorable) what he has done is incredible #plasticfree- It just goes to show if you have innovation and passion each individual is capable of change.




Follow @BoyanSlat

My part...

The morning ceremony came to end, the audience applauded for a long time before settling down and calmly making their way to lunch. The afternoon followed with three tours of all the special guests.

I had to be ready by 2.30pm to give my first talk in the Cosmoparticle Hub in front of the artsci-work, I was really frilled to be asked, I absolutely love having the chance to discuss the science that goes into the work and how it has come together, I was nervous too, I wanted to get it right for Hiranya Peiris, Andrew Pontzen and Chamkuar Ghag who had provided me with all the data. Here is a video showing, visually the development of the COSMOPARTICLE over a 5 months.

Explaining theCOSMOPARTICLE to Sir David Attenborough.

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 Photograph by Kristen Holst
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Sir David Attenborough is pointing at the Xenon atom and asking what it is…

I explained as best I could, with a little help from the Dean Professor Ivan Parkin and encouraging looks from Hiranya and Andrew.

Find out more about Xenon and why it may help us find Dark Matter, click here.

Here is a photo by Anita Maguire of the Hiranya, Andrew and I all together->


Xenon or Plankton

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It occurred to me that Sir David may well have been pointing it out the atom because in many ways it looks organic, frogs spawn came to mind, at the time.

 However, in hindsight, Sir David may have thought it looked a little like Blue Planet plankton created by Dr Samantha Gibbs.  I should have asked him.

In Awe

Both Sir David Attenborough and the Son of Kathleen Lonsdale, Stephen Lonsdale said that ‘you can keep looking and looking into the painting and see more and more in it’. I believe that’s a good description and I am pleased I had the opportunity to discuss all the elements within it.

I was in awe, the memory, a fuzz of excitement and before I knew it the tour was moving on, I had forgotten to give the letter from my daughter and gift I had for him. I quickly grabbed the gift and passed it to Sir David. He shook my hand again and thanked me for it and I managed to say, ‘you’re an inspiration, it’s been an honour to meet you’ words I am sure he hears many times every day.

The Cosmoparticle Painting

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To read more about the COSMOPARTICLE and the Initiative go to the UCL article ‘Making sense of the Universe through art and physics’ or (click the artsci-work above) written by Zoe Cormier, an author and science writer based in London.
 
So that was the day I met Sir David Attenborough! What a memory, it has been fun recalling the day for this News blog I hope you have enjoyed reading it (especially thus far, well done! It is long!)
 
I will be back soon with news about COSMIC RAY, NEW SIGNALS and other projects happening right now.
For now, all the best, please feel free to post comments below about -if you had the honour- to meet Sir David Attenborough and also about how you are #goingplasticfree and/or #goingpaperfree.
Many thanks go to Anita Maguire for looking after me all day, Andrew and Hiranya for inviting me along and to Linda, Chris, Luísa, and Martin for sharing their knowledge and the brilliant conversations we had when some of us unwound at ‘Resting Hare’. 
Penelope Rose Cowley
Artsci Creator
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Signed Limited Edition Prints are available here. -

COSMOPARTICLE

£233.00
Giclee

Signed Limited Edition of 75
Paper size 26" by 28"
Image Size approx 22" by 24"

Cosmoparticle was commissioned by Hiranya Peiris for University College London's  (UCL) new Cosmoparticle Hub, where it is on permanent display. The original of this work is 200cm x 180cm, Oil on Canvas, It is a painting that incorporates dark matter, cosmic microwave background, galaxies and so much more see the development video here
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NEW SIGNALS: Part 3

13/3/2021

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Re-post from Nov 2019 (recalling the past)

NEW SIGNALS funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Cardiff is home to one of the country’s most prestigious neuroscience institutes, the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center (CUBRIC) a powerhouse of brilliant minds and cutting edge technology that aims to bring together world-leading expertise in brain mapping with the very latest in brain imaging and brain stimulation.

Their goal is to “understand brain and behaviour in health and disease through advanced imaging and cognitive methods” – but they also extend their work beyond the walls of the lab and into the realm of the studio.


CUBRIC commissioned three artists, of which I was one, to create “artsci” works that celebrate and reflect the research and images they produce. Through various mediums, each artist produced works inspired by the work of brilliant researchers, who collaborated with every artist to help them appreciate and communicate specific scientific concepts.

My work, a project we titled NEW SIGNALS, is finally complete. I would like to thank all the collaborators I had the pleasure to work with:

-  Dr Leandro Beltrachini, Brain Imaging Group, School of Physics and Astronomy

-  Professor Kevin Murphy Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow, 

- Dr Emma Tallantyre, Clinical Senior Lecturerin the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience in the School of Medicine

and 

-  Alex Goodall of the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust


I also had awe-inspiring exchanges with Fabrizio Fasano, Collaboration Scientist at Siemens Healthineers, advice from CUBRIC Ying Lin, Wellcome Trust Strategic Award WTSA and CUBRIC Project Manager and feedback and encouragement from the Director Professor Derek Jones of CUBRIC

These are the results of two years of research, collaboration and inspiration completed last year May 2018...

 MINDSCAPE

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Mindscape
150cm  x 180cm
Acrylic on Canvas
2018
Collaborators: Dr. Leandro Beltrachini and Dr. Kevin Murphy

​Professor Matt Griffin, Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy, recommended Dr Beltrachini and Dr Murphy to work with me for my NEW SIGNALS project. “It is interesting, the possibility of immortalising the alliance between Physics and CUBRIC in an artistic way,” commented Dr Griffin. As I had been commissioned recently by the School of Physics and Astronomy for 'Infinite LIGO Dreams'  it was natural to carry on the connection.
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Prof. Matt Griffin and I at the opening of the 'Rest Frame' room, November 2016 Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy.
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Infinite LIGO Dreams
Dr Beltrachini, Professor Murphy and I decided to create an artwork combining images from electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRi) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTi) to celebrate their research. We also discussed epilepsy; Dr Beltrachini explained how he creates simulations that can more accurately predict where an epileptic seizure will start in the brain. These discussions with Professor Murphy and Dr Beltrachini inspired me to incorporate images of blood vessels, tractography, eigenstates and EEG into the artsci work.

ILLUMINATED TRACTOGRAPHY 

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Illuminated Tractography
Lightbox with transparent digital Artsci work
594mm x 841mm
2018
Collaborators: Dr Emma Tallantyre and Alex Goodall

Working with collaborators Dr Emma Tallantyre and Alex Goodall, an intern from Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, we decided to create an 'artsci' work that expressed the forms and structures derived from the DTi and tractography images produced by the 3T MRi Connectome scanner. All these images are produced as a range of views – axial, sagittal and coronal - of so-called “Regions of Interest” (ROIs) in the brain. Emma, Alex and I chose each image with the aim of giving our audience insight into the beauty of tractography.
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Emma suggested we use images of the corticospinal region, which in the brain branches into the corona radiata, internal capsule, fornix, and corpus callosum. I suggested we also use images of the cingulum and tallantyre, which I found to be aesthetically pleasing. In the end, we decided to merge images of the fornix and cingulum together. Aided by Goodall’s expertise with the programme ExploreDTi , we created three sets of stunning tractography maps.


THE MAGNET 

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The Magnet
36 inches by 24 inches
Oil on canvas
 2017
At the beginning of my work on NEW SIGNALS, I was invited to visit CUBRIC as the building neared completion to attend the arrival of a 40 ton 7 Tesla MRi Magnet being craned into the new building in the summer of 2016. This became the first of several artworks for, NEW SIGNALS. Cardiff University produced a video documenting that day, featuring sketches and paintings I produced afterwards.


 BRAINTREE

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Braintree
100cm by 70cm
 Acrylic on canvas
 2018
Braintree is an integration of everything my collaborators had shared with me over two years, and an outpouring of all my experiences through the medium of paint. It was completed towards the end of this project and for me it is a visual conclusion to how I have absorbed their research and integrated their ideas into my own work – and how I understand how we experience our existence.

Mindscape

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Illuminated Tractography

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Braintree

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Axial 1 Self Portrait

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7 Tesla Magnet Suspended

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Coronal 1 Self Portrait

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NEW SIGNALS: The Creative Process Part 2

13/3/2021

3 Comments

 

Re-Post from Nov 2019 (remembering New Signals)

In 2012 Professor Derek Jones team at Cardiff University’s Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) offered to scan my brain. Following the scan I had my first look at Diffusion Tensor imaging (DTi). In bright spectral colours, neuroscience seems to give use the blueprints we need to draw the architecture of the mind. I was hooked.

Axial 1 Self Portrait

Coronal 1 Self Portrait


I feel that the freedom of artistic expression allows us to give form to cognition, using the smallest vibration and most detailed structures within us as source material. In this vein, I think of the words of Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944):

It is never literally true that any form is meaningless and ‘says nothing’. Every form in the world says something. But its message often fails to reach us, and even if it does, full understanding is often withheld from us. And, properly speaking, form is the outward expression of this inner meaning.

- The language of Form and Colour : Concerning the Spiritual in Art
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"Picture With White Border" by Wassily Kandinsky,1913.
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‘Saggital Self Portrait’ by Penelope Rose Cowley, 2013.
Upon seeing a diffusion tensor imaging (DTi) scan of my brain for the first time (represented in “Saggital Self Portrait”), I wondered about the relationship between the real structures within the brain, and the pure abstract expressions that Kandinsky is concerned with. In his painting 'Picture With White Border', I personally can see a sagittal view of the brain, with many structures recognisable within.

Is there a relationship between 'Picture With White Border' and my painting 'Sagittal Self Portrait 2013'?
​

Did he mirror his mind on canvas? As he put it, ‘Is form an outward expression of inner meaning?’

NEW SIGNALS does not attempt to answer these existential questions. But these existential ideas form part of my journey and creative process.

 MINDSCAPE
I chose Zoe Cormier, an author and science writer , to be the face to represent MINDSCAPE.

Cormier has a minor form of epilepsy, and Dr Leandro Beltrachini’s research at CUBRIC involves creating mathematical models to improve the medical care of epilepsy. I therefore took the view that Cormier would be an interesting person to speak to about how her seizures colour her experiences of the world.

I travelled from Cardiff to London to gain insights into her perspective. You can see my sketches of her on the NEW SIGNALS image page and here.

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These are visual expressions of how she describes her seizures: “It feels as though the connection between myself and my personality is severed. I can’t remember having ever been happy or imagine being happy ever again.” I incorporated the visual data provided by Dr Leandro Beltrachini and Dr Kevin Murphy with Zoe’s perspective in mind. The outcome: MINDSCAPE, a multi-layered landscape of the mind that depicts EEG recordings, tractography maps, MRi machines, and the structure of blood vessels.

  ILLUMINATED TRACTOGRAPHY 

My collaborators and I decided to celebrate tractography – a method of mapping the nerve cell tracts in the brain by measuring the movement of water molecules as they travel along neurons - with my CUBRIC collaborator, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at Cardiff University Dr Emma Tallantrye.

We arranged to extract tractography data from the 3T MRi Connectome using the 'ExploreDTi' programme, which processes the data gathered in tractography. We enlisted the help of Alex Goodall, an intern with the local NHS trust who was working with CUBRIC to improve his technical skills with ‘ExploreDTi’.


Working closely with Goodall, Dr Tallantrye and I collected a variety of different views of each of the tractography maps using the ExploreDTi programme. This allowed us to turn the nerve cell tracts into spaghetti-like tubes using toggled lighting effects, giving shadows and highlights to each tract, creating texture and life. The map became soaked in hues of red, green, blue and a whole rainbow of colours in between, each colour relating to one direction in the three-dimensional space 3-D space traversed by water molecules. Here are a selection of the stunning Regions of Interest (ROIs) we created together.
We decided to use a Lightbox to display the art – the same device used in hospitals to illuminate X-rays and MRi scans. We printed the artwork onto transparent film using state-of-the-art processing at Wave Design to Print Ltd to ensure the depth of hues, tones and gradients. These are so fine, that no trace of ink can be seen, even under a magnifying glass. 
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An enormous amount of research, ideas and time go into every project I am involved with - and NEW SIGNALS is no exception.

The whole journey has been so challenging and so stimulating, I will probably still be discussing it in years to come. It is another chapter in my journey merging art and science.

Thankfully, the NEW SIGNALS story is not over yet: all the artsci works will eventually be placed on permanent display at the CUBRIC centre in Cardiff. Plus, over the next few years a touring exhibtion of all the works commissioned from myself and other artists will be toured around the UK before they then take their final resting place at CUBRIC. 

For now I would to give special acknowledgements to...

Director Professor Derek Jones for inviting me to participate in the project, and for all the conversations and encouragement he gave me I had over the years since 2012.

Project Manager Ying Lin Wellcome Trust Strategic Award WTSA for all the advice, patiences, understanding and recommendations.

Editor Zoe Cormier, for making sense of my words, sharing her experiences and allowing me to make her a part of MINDSCAPE.

Scientists Dr Leandro Beltrachini of the Brain Imaging Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr Kevin Murphy, Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow. I want to thank them both for our conversations and for explaining their research.

Researchers Dr Emma Tallantyre, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at the School of Medicine, and Alex Goodall of the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust. I am thankful to both for their enthusiasm, for sharing their research, and for creating beautiful tractography images. 

Scientist Fabrizio Fasano, Collaboration Scientist at Siemens Healthineers and CUBRIC. I want to thank him for sharing his research and conversations.

And to The PROVIDI Lab, headed by Alexander Leemans, which focuses on processing, analyzing, and visualizing diffusion MRI data for investigating microstructural and architectural characteristics of tissue organization. I have not yet had the pleasure to meet Alexander yet, but I would like to thank him for giving me permission to integrate PROVIDI Lab images into NEW SIGNALS.  

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NEW SIGNALS: The Inspiration Part 1

13/3/2021

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Re-post from Nov 2019

Picture
(how time flies!...)

I have been creating pieces in the genre known as “artsci” since 2012, when I first met Professor Derek Jones, Director of the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center (CUBRIC) at a local art exhibition where his team present their visual data – images of the brain – as art.

This inspired me to bring scientific ideas to life through my painting and illustrations. For the past six years I have been commissioned to create and exhibit a range of artsci pieces that explore subjects ranging from neuroscience to magnetism and astronomy.
I find the beauty in the data irresistible.

Memory Sketches of Conversations at CUBRIC in 2012...

For all of my commissions, I have worked closely with scientists to understand their research and incorporate their ideas into my work. These collaborations have had a profound influence on my perspectives of how we experience our existence.

I have been lucky enough to have a glimpse of the potential of the research at CUBRIC. Inspired by their incredible images of the brain, with every new piece of knowledge I gain from my collaborators, I find myself meditating on the composition of thoughts themselves. Such as the “spin echo” of a hydrogen atom’s proton as it vibrates inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRi) machine. Or how through “tractography” we can map the nerve cell tracts in the brain by measuring the movement of water molecules as they travel along neurons, pushed by magnetic fields. In a way, it feels like we can see the shape of our minds, and I find it incredible and very inspiring. 

A selection of visual data from CUBRIC...

Provide by Alex Leemans of
PROcessing & VIsualization in Diffusion Imaging (PROVIDI) Lab
http://www.providi-lab.org/image-gallery.html
Research in the macro scale and the micro scale into the anatomy of the brain lies on spectrum so vast, it seems the deeper one delves into the structure of the mind, the further down the axons we fly into a profusion of probabilities. It blows my mind.

The colours seen in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans and tractography images are not just pretty to look at: each hue represents one direction in the three-dimensional space in which echoing protons flip with magnetic pulses. With each pulse, they move along, through, in and out of axons, white matter, grey matter and the vortices of the brain. I find these to be incredibly beautiful in their own right. I have create many artsci work regarding DTi.

Selection of macro diffussion tensor artsci works in pen and ink and oil on canvas:

One portion of my work on New Signals for CUBRIC involved collaborating with Dr Leandro Beltrachini and Professor Kevin Murphy of the Brain Imaging Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University. Over several months starting in January 2017, I met with them to discuss their ideas and research, which I assimilated into my work.

Leandro explained to me how he works with electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors, magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanners, and the university’s new 3T connectome scanner to map the microstructures of the brain. With these he develops “numerical models for representing physical processes in arbitrary domains and conditions” – a complex way to describe something known as the “forward problem” .
Kevin is uses the aging process as a model to understand altered vasculature – how veins and arteries change, and how that affects an entire organ. He is developing neuroimaging tools we can use to assess the health of the cerebrovascular system – the veins, capillaries and arteries within the brain. In January 2017 he explained to me how his work on brain blood vessels and their relationship to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

I also collaborated with Dr Emma Tallantyre, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at Cardiff University, whom I was introduced to by CUBRIC’s Project Manager Ying Lin of the Wellcome Trust. Emma can be seen in this video:

Cardiff Brain Scanner from Paper Cow on Vimeo.


Emma can be seen in this video at 2:44 discussing a scan with a volunteer in July 2017. In this video, we can see some of the first highly detailed scans from the new 3T microstructure scanner. It was very inspiring to witness. We were also joined by Alex Goodall, an intern from the NHS Trust, who was there to improve his technical skills with the ‘ExploreDTi’ programme, which processes the data gathered in tractography.

​

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Book on to NEW Art Workshops and Life Drawing.

1/3/2021

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Thursday Evening Life Drawing Live Online from £24

£32.00
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Private Bespoke Art Tuition with Penelope Rose Cowley

£50.00
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Lovebirds Online Art Workshop Tues 16th Feb, 1pm -3pm £9 or concessions £6.50

11/2/2021

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 New One Day Art Workshop with ZOOM:
“LoveBirds” in Watercolour
1pm-3pm
Tuesday 16th February 
£9
Concessions £6.50
Once you and booked on you receive Zoom Details the day before, on Monday 15th Feb.

The inspiration for the Lovebirds was from a photo by Instagrammer -Sara Torres Soler @saratorressoler of her lovely Lovebirds.

Materials
Watercolours
I often use Reeves Watercolours 24 x 10ml -
Colours- Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Peach (Rose Pink/Orange), Light Green (Lemon Yellow/Viridian) Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue.

Brushes Round No.2, No. 6, No. 16.

I often use Royal & Langnickle. ​ The product listed is a good value selection of brushes I'd like to recommend but it does not contain a no. 2 round, unfortunately, nevertheless, it is a good selection. This set is also good value and comes with a palette too- https://amzn.to/3tMmJmm

Watercolour Paper, I use Daler Rowney Aquafine WC Texture Pad 300gsm A4 -

Intro to Pen and Inks from £6.50

£9.00
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Learning Resources Page - Lovebirds
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New Free Learning Resources Pages

11/1/2021

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Click an image in the Gallery to see sketches, paintings, videos and materials used for each painting

 Inspiration for the Cheetah was from instagrammer @rangerkidafrica
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New Learning Resource page : Cheetah

10/1/2021

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Click the Cheetah to go to the new page.

Inspiration for the Cheetah was from instagrammer @rangerkidafrica
For this stunning photograph of the  Cheetah (click here)


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