OHBM Brain Art

Exhibition info:

• When? June 24-27, 2024
• Where? OHBM 2024 Annual Meeting. COEX (Hall B), Seoul, Korea.

Beyond Borders

Borders have historically been put in place to discretize otherwise vast physical and allegorical territories. In neuroscience, researchers seek to define borders - anatomical and functional landmarks mapped onto the brain to localize brain function and explain brain organization. Borders have also been created between subfields of neuroscience to help navigate the complex multitude of approaches to study the brain. In politics, physical borders are created by governmental bodies to set geographical demarcations between countries and outline how far the power of each body can reach.

While borders arise from the human need to break up a whole into smaller defined pieces, and to belong, borders can fail to bridge the smaller compartments they create. They can also fail to capture the broader system as a whole. In society, borders divide individuals with different social, religious and political views. Throughout history, borders have polarized our scientific and social communities, leading to fragmentation of knowledge, social stigma, isolation and conflict.

Nonetheless, established borders are actively evolving. In neuroscience, new definitions of neural landmarks emerge with advanced understanding. In society, social and political affiliations and demarcations change over time. In nature, borders - organic transitions within or between elements - are slowly disappearing as a result of climate change: glaciers are melting, and erosion is changing our shorelines.

Altogether, there is a growing need to reflect over borders, in neuroscience, in society, and in nature.

The 2024 OHBM BrainArt exhibition will explore the theme of Beyond Borders. Artists and scientists can submit material in any form (still images, videos, sculptures, AI-generated images, written word, interactive displays). No specific axes are provided this year: the notion of borders has no precise delineation and remains open for exploration. We are hoping to receive a diversity of submissions within the general domains of neuroscience, society and climate change.

The exhibition will be held at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Conference between June 23-27 2024, in Seoul, Korea. While we would like to display all submitted material at the conference, this will unfortunately not be possible due to space constraints. Therefore, submitted material will go through a selection process, and only selected art pieces will be displayed at our exhibition.

In order to ensure a smooth execution of the event, we would like to keep the following timeline.