Abstract nominee

Using the circular frame I telescope back in time to reconcile distinct representations of past and present self. The images in this series were captured during the struggles of early adulthood and highlight moments of love, wonder, and isolation. I use the pictures in this series as a form of therapy to cognitively restructure how I view and accept the narrative of my life.

As a neuroscientist I am keenly aware that memories are inaccurate and are at best based upon a true story. In fact, whenever a memory is recalled it is changed. Brain regions become re-activated when a powerful cue of a past event is presented. Cues can be the smell of a loved ones t-shirt, a melancholy song, a picture of a childhood friend. Reactivated brain regions become susceptible to change for a period of time, allowing new information or feelings to be inserted and integrated into our past experiences or potentially peeled away from psychological access.

Individual histories are filled with blind spots and our brains fool us into thinking that our reality is seamless.

Neuroscientists play an integral part in culture but the public knows little about how science is done, who does it or why it’s important. One consequence of opaque scientific work is the inability to see which individuals are conducting their research, their personal stories, and their motivations to help reveal the complexity of the nature we are imbued by.

These images were captured with a compact large format camera using experimental New55 PN instant film. The opaqueness of the positive (left) represents the raw data collected by scientists on their quest to understand nature. The inverted negative (right) represents how scientists reveal nature through filtering data, beautifying imagery, and at times removing unwanted, but captured information.

All scientists are part of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.