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Published News and Events RI-MUHC website.

By Cristian Zaelzer and RI-Communications Team.

The Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is proud to partner with Convergence, Perceptions of Neuroscience. In the last academic year this initiative created 16 works of art in collaboration between graduate students in the BRaIN Program and undergrad students from the Concordia University Faculty of Fine Arts. Although the academic course is in hiatus this year, Convergence is introducing a series of talks showcasing the work of scientists and artists in a crossover of disciplines between the sciences and the arts.

Published Alex Tran Photography Blog

By Alex Tran.

Her woodshop is about to close and Pam’s covered in sawdust. It’s technically Concordia’s woodshop, but you’d think she owns it with the way she effortlessly maneuvers the machinery and endlessly teases the technicians there (unlike the other students, who gingerly approach the power tools and address the technicians in a formal and polite manner). Later, at the bar, as she's rummaging through her purse and taking out items one by one to find her wallet, she casually pulls out lipstick and a few sheets of sandpaper, seemingly not noticing that people don't typically carry sandpaper in their purses at bars. But that's the kind of thing that becomes normal when you're a wood sculptor whose life is consumed by art.

Published on Le Journées Internationles de la Culture Scientifique website

By Kim Glassman & Cristian Zaelzer.

Science and art were closely practiced until the advent technologies such as photography, which rendered the function of art as a tool to represent the natural world useless, consequently creating a rift between the disciplines that persists to this day. Why is that so? Are there still benefits to the arts and sciences engaging in conversation? What examples exist today that fights the stereotypes of the art/science division? The proposed panel falls into the categories of “Citizen Involvement” and “Scientific Literacy,” and focuses on the convergence of science and the arts. Our primary purpose is to discuss a connection between these communities to make scientific research more accessible to the general public, expose new innovative opportunities for scientists to communicate their research through art, and to give artists access to new and fascinating areas...

Published on Le Devoir

By Claude Lafleur.

Durant des siècles, science et art ne faisaient souvent qu’un puisque médecins, inventeurs et astronomes étaient généralement d’excellents dessinateurs, quand ce n’était pas même de grands peintres. On n’a qu’à penser à Leonard de Vinci.​

Mais avec l’utilisation de la photographie en science, il y a un siècle, l’art n’a plus été considéré comme un outil de représentation. C’est ainsi que les deux disciplines se sont dissociées l’une de l’autre.​

Or, Cristian Zaelzer, associé de recherche à l’Institut de recherche du Centre de santé de l’Université McGill, aspire à ce que la collaboration entre artistes et scientifiques mène à créer de nouvelles synergies. Il a par conséquent mis sur pied l’an dernier le projet Convergence, qui vise à unir les neurosciences et les arts.​

Published on Concordia News.

By Andy Murdoch.

Bettina Forget is on a long-term mission to bring more women to science through art.

The Concordia grad student owns and runs Visual Voice Gallery in downtown Montreal. It's a studio, research lab and exhibition space all wrapped up in one. It’s also the only gallery in Canada with the mandate to exhibit art that is connected to science.

With more and more artists incorporating science into their work, Visual Voice Gallery is gaining an international reputation. Forget is fielding an increasing number of queries nationally and internationally from artists wanting to show in her small space in the Belgo Building.

Published on MUHC News and Events.

By Andrée Lessard.

It happens to all of us. We go to an art museum with an open mind and the will to learn something new, but we get lost in translation in front of a piece of art, spending time with it, taking a few steps back to see it from different angles…. Sometimes even the explanations on the labels don’t help. The confusion may come from our lack of knowledge about the artistic approach taken and methods used to achieve the art form, which can be challenging for artists to deliver.

Oddly, trainees in neuroscience face much the same challenge when it comes to explaining their research projects to non-scientists.

“It is always a little frustrating for me to hear this: ‘Why in the world are you studying flies?’ ‘What is that for?’” says Hunter Shaw, a doctoral student in Dr. Yong Rao’s laboratory at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health ...

Published on McGill News Magazine

By Andrea Bennett.

Steve Beukema, a McGill PhD candidate in neuroscience, is standing in front of a room filled with artists and fellow scientists, talking about the way our senses work.

The manner in which our brains interpret information about the world around us isn’t a straightforward process – and that’s a subject of keen interest for both neuroscientists and artists.

Beukema, part of the McGill University Health Centre Research Institute’s Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program (BRaIN), clicks to his next slide. It’s an image of a Rubik’s cube. The top of the cube is bathed in light, and the side is obscured by a shadow.

Published on Concordia News

By Andy Murdoch.

Last Friday, Concordia fine arts students revealed seventeen collaborative art projects that will be co-created with postdoctoral fellow neuroscientists as part of a local project called the Convergence Initiative: Perceptions of Neuroscience.

The projects are ambitious and wide-ranging: ocular portraits of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder sufferers, visualizations of noise in the brain, stereoscopes that reveal brain arousal, and memes that explore the benefits of drinking water before bed.

The participating fine arts students take a course (DART 461 Independent Study) led by Professor pk Langshaw, researcher and invited artist Christine Swintak, and...

Published on En Bref Magazine - McGill University Health Centre

By Andrée Lessard.

For the general population, the bond between art and neuro- science can be hard to see. However, as artists often visualize things in different ways and scientists are used to viewing things invisible to the naked eye, that convergence makes sense to both the artists and scientists. It is in that spirit of learning from each other’s expertise that Convergence: Perceptions of Neuroscience was born.

Every year, the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN) organizes a public outreach event. "Since art is a powerful tool to explain complex mechanisms, I thought that the next CAN meeting, to be held in Montreal...​

Published on McGill University Health Centre Research Institute - News and Events

By Alison Burch.

The Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is proud to support Convergence, Perceptions of Neuroscience. This initiative, conceived by Dr. Cristian Zaelzer, a research associate at the RI-MUHC, brings together 17 neuroscience trainees from the BRaIN Program and 28 students from the Concordia University Faculty of Fine Arts to create works of art inspired by the trainees’ research projects. Two major events are planned for Spring 2017: an exhibit at the Visual Voice Gallery (April 22 to May 20) and...​

Published on Concordia University News.
By Kim Glassman

For some artists, talking about neuroscience might be a bit out of their depth. For certain neuroscientists, meanwhile, art represents uncharted waters.

Enter the Convergence Initiative: Perceptions of Neuroscience. It’s a local project that aims to reduce this unfamiliarity through interdisciplinary conversations with arts and science communities in Montreal. Concordia's Faculty of Fine Arts is one of the initiative's principal partners.

On December 11, Shaw and other 10 neuroscientists from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre’s (RI-MUHC) Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program...

Published on the website of The Montreal General Hospital Foundation

by Cristian Zaelzer.

Convergence, Perceptions of Neuroscience, is an independent initiative supported by the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program of the MUHC, Concordia University Faculty of Fine Arts (FOFA), the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN/ACN), and the Montreal General Hospital Foundation.

Our primary goal is to make neuroscience research accessible to a general audience by linking it to the arts.

Convergence is based on the collaborative work between neuroscientists on early steps of their careers, and fine arts students of...

Published on The Link

By Kelsey Litwin.

What inspires you? What motivates you? What holds you back? What brings you down? These questions must be addressed, no matter what it is that you’re trying to produce. Stimulation and inhibition are the building blocks for creation.

Divergences, however, exist in the ways stimulation and inhibition are approached. 

Dr. Cristian Zaelzer, founder and director of the Convergence, Perceptions of Neuroscience Initiative—a joint effort between McGill University’s Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program and the Faculty of Fine Arts of...

Published on McGill University Health Centre Newsroom

By Alison Burch.

RI-MUHC neuroscience trainees are teaming up with Concordia University fine arts students for an outreach project! 

The Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is proud to support “Convergence, Perceptions of Neuroscience.” The initiative of research associate Dr. Cristian Zaelzer, this project brings together neuroscience trainees from the BRaIN Program and students from the Concordia University Faculty of Fine Arts to create works of art inspired by trainees’ research projects. A public event and exhibit is planned for the annual...

Published on McGill University Health Centre Research Institute - News and Events

By Valérie Harvey.

Is it art, or is it science? It’s “Convergence: Perceptions of Neuroscience,” a project that promises unique rewards to those who dare to cross the great divide. 

For the next eight months, teams of Concordia University fine arts students and trainees from the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) will collaborate to create works of art inspired by neuroscience research projects. The initiative launched with a stimulating interchange on October 12, when the...

Interview on CBC Radio One Homerun

With Sue Smith.

The @InfoConvergence is a new project bringing artists and neuroscientists together to learn about science and create art.