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Exhibitions of Art and the Brain

The Brain Index on the ground floor of the Greene Science Center (Credit: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University).

The wonders of the brain at your fingertips

The ground floor of the Greene Science Center serves as a crossroads for Columbia’s Manhattanville campus. Open to all, this welcoming space is home to a rotating selection of interactive installations that introduce visitors to the wonders and beauty of the brain.

Unveiled in 2016, the Brain Index was the space’s debut exhibition, and showcased scientists pushing the boundaries of neuroscience at the Zuckerman Institute. Its floor-to-ceiling screens guided the observer through the brain using real scientific data, while telling the stories of the individual researchers and their curiosity.

Three years in the making, this exhibit was the brainchild of Laura Kurgan, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation who also directs the Center for Spatial Research at the Architecture School, and Mark Hansen, professor and director of the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation at Columbia Journalism School. Commissioned by Columbia’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, the work brought together art and science, and was designed to spark the same sense of wonder and curiosity in the public, that drives the institute’s researchers.

A new interactive installation is currently in development.

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VIDEOS OF THE BRAIN INDEX

Art of the Brain, and the Scientists who Study It

Video created by Columbia University News

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