Developing Visual Studies: Brain Impairment

My last study in impairing my own function was on the brain, so I began with some research into what sort of disorders occur.

Brain Disorders can be split into roughly four main categories:

• Brain injuries
• Neurodegenerative diseases
• Brain tumours
• Mental disorders

What I essentially learned was, if things malfunction in your brain, the disorders that occur are all hideous compared to when another organ malfunctions and symptoms are bad but are mostly curable. I suppose the disorders are much worse because the brain is your body’s control centre and it has a role in most of your body systems, so if it malfunctions, it can affect a lot inside your body.

I then looked at the conditions of each type of disorder and what their symptoms were.

Examples of different conditions were dementia, hemorrhage and depression.

I won’t list them all as it’s very long, however, a common symptom in all the disorders (but not all the conditions) was memory loss.

I decide, based on this research, to create a drawing study where I impair my memory. Compared to the other ways of impairment, this was hard to replicate what someone with memory loss would do/feel. Since the most accurate way to draw something is from an object in front of you or an image, I decided that I could impair myself by drawing from my memory.

I thought this would be easy, however as soon as I stopped looking at the brain, I found it very challenging to remember the specific details of what it looked like.

I think it looks like a brain but I don’t know if that’s just because I know it’s supposed to be a brain. It doesn’t really matter anyway, what matters is that I expressed malfunction in an alternative way, through the technique, rather than just drawing something that looks like it’s malfunctioning.

Since I didn’t think that it looked like a brain, I developed this study in order for people to understand what it was.
Until you see a ‘conceptual’ piece of artwork in a relatable environment, it doesn’t really register with most people. That is why I’m creating developed ‘in situ’ studies for people to understand where malfunction can happen and what it can affect.

While it may not explicitly show memory loss, it could be seen as displaying a function of the skull, which is to protect the brain. In this study, the brain is exposed which could be meaning that the skull is malfunctioning. I think instead of isolating one organ on its own doesn’t truly represent the idea that everything in our body is connected, which is also another reason why I think combining two studies together engages an audience better for your concept.