Photographic Image Takes Top Prize In 2021 Art Of Neuroscience Competition

In 2011, the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience held a symposium in Amsterdam to discuss how neuroscience, art, and technology seemed to be converging. Part of that discussion involved a call for art on the topic. The goal was to inspire people to appreciate “…the beauty and complexity of the brain and stimulate discussions at the intersection of art and neuroscience.”

The 2021 award went to Yas Crawford for the photograph titled Cognition IX. It was inspired by the effort of coping with chronic disease. Yas is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society who likes to work in the “gray space” between ambiguity, science, abstraction, and the as yet unknown. The judges described Cognition IX as a “…perfectly composed image in classical black and white…full of movement and dynamic flow.” Also awarded in the competition were a sculpture, a mind wave processor, and videos.

—Thanks to Friederike Heuer for the tip!

Cognition IX (detail), from the series The 8th Sense by Yas Crawford from a story in Scientific American