For all you science people out there, the American Museum of Natural History has an exhibit for you. This exhibit, “Brain: The Inside Story” opens tomorrow. This particular exhibit is described as more of an show. There are pieces of artwork as well as larger displays and more interactive parts to keep everyone interested and involved.
In the article, the exhibit appears to be somewhat of a letdown from an artistic standpoint. It is very educational, the main focus of the exhibit being on brain topography. It teaches about language, reason, and memory; the arrangement of the brain according to evolutionary archaeology; and electrical impulses through the brain, just to name a few.
The curators of the exhibit include a team of researchers and specialists in neuroscience. The team is led by Rob DeSalle, who worked along with Joy Hirsch and Margaret Zellner. The time and effort they put into gathering information and artists for the exhibit is evident by the variety of artists they have used as a part of the show. I’m sure the exhibit would definitely teach me some things about the brain in a more creative way, but if I was looking for more of an art show, it would not satisfy my desire.
The way you described this exhibit as a “letdown” actually reminds me of a few of the posts I’ve made about specific exhibitions in the city. You can truly admire and be awestruck at the steps taken to make a certain piece of art, and you certainly respect the artist(s) who spent so much time and research to make this happen, but in the end, even as you learn some really useful information, just standing and watching the stationary product can seem a little fruitless.
For me though, just being able to tackle why an exhibition might seem like a letdown has made ma able to overcome that obstacle and make me want to go to an exhibition. I’m not a science freak at all, but this seems like something that would really give us a lot of working knowledge of the brain, which could never hurt anyone!
It is important to have reasonable expectations when you go to an exhibition. The one you are referring to is not really about art, but rather about representations of natural phenomenon.