Fine Art nominee

In this series I reflect upon the adaptive changes made by birds and humans 65 million years after the K/T mass extinction event. Birds are the only dinosaurs to have survived the K/T extinction, which opened an ecological niche for mammals and the eventual rise of humans. Both birds and mammal exhibited explosions in their diversity after the K/T event, in part, due to their intellectual capacity, adaptability, and problem solving skills.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD, explores the connections between the brain, art, and technology within a humanities framework, earning his neuroscience degrees from UCLA and MIT. His work seeks to blend and expand on these disciplines into new and dynamic interactions. His projects start with concepts informed by network theories, guiding and shaping his endeavors in art, science, and community engagement. He has been awarded multiple grants, including from the Massachusetts Arts Council and the Council for the Arts at MIT for his projects. Sariñana’s photography captures the transformation of mental representations, showcased in exhibitions, including at Aperture Gallery, FOCUS photo l.a., Photoville, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. He has also had solo exhibitions for his series Prosopagnosia, Image of Structure, and Mental Mapping. He has received accolades from the Sony World Photography Awards, Photolucida Critical Mass, and Latin American Fotografía, Sariñana’s photographic work has been featured by Apple and periodicals such as Black & White Magazine, Silvershotz, and BETA developments in photography. Sariñana is also a communications specialist, contributing to publications such as WIRED Magazine and MIT Technology Review and sharing his expertise with the Museum of Science, Boston, and for the Neurohumanities series at Trinity College, Dublin.