Opening Date: 25 February, 2018

The exhibition is part of the Art & Brain Week of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University, in cooperation with the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Curators Michal Mor and Alona Shani-Narkiss have compiled nine posters, pairs of architectural elements from the Suzanne and Charles Goodman Brain Sciences Building, which is being built on the campus of the Hebrew University, with elements from the brain world produced by M.R.I photographs, microscopic photographs and more. The posters show the similarity between the brain and architecture, as well as the inspiration they give each other. In addition to the banners, a one-minute time lapse video documents the construction site, which follows five years of constructio.

What happens when brain science researchers meet with architects to realize their vision of creating the ultimate space in which intensive research activity brings together researchers from different disciplines? The realization of this dream was made possible when scholars, architects and donors joined forces under the auspices of the Hebrew University to establish a single unique building in Israel.

The Suzanne and Charles Goodman Building for Brain Sciences, which will soon open on the Edmond J. Safra Campus, was designed by renowned architect Norman Foster and the Jerusalem office of Baer, Shifman-Nathan Architects, and incorporates formal influences that simulate and inspire the human brain. The synergy between the architect and the scientist took place on various levels. On the one hand, the architects were inspired by concepts and structures from the realm of the brain and applied it to the interior design of the building and its encasement. On the other hand, they had to design a building that would serve the unique needs of brain researchers, the campus of architectural tradition, and the city, with its many characteristics.

A central element in the vision of ELSC was to establish a building that would encourage multidisciplinary ties between researchers on a daily basis. In the encounter between the architect and the researcher, the possibility of translating the vision into physical realization was enacted. Charts, microscope photographs, imaging scans and mathematical formulas collected over the past century have become visual tools in the hands of architects and have been translated into concrete components in the modern structure.

Every year there is a NanoArt competition of students from the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. This competition allows them to be creative not only in their field but also in art. Atoms and molecules, structures created as a result of the processing of various materials that are used in chemical and physical processes, and advanced magnification equipment become spectacular works. Through the microscope, students discover new worlds that they paint and provide new ways to observe.

Bruno Charbit | Abir Sultan | Refael Aviram | ELSC labs

Curators: Michal Mor, Alona Shani-Narkiss

Opening Date: 12 March, 2017

The strength of the brain lies in the way the nerve cells that form it work together. Every sensory, motor and even cognitive activity stems from the constant interaction among brain cells. This interaction, in all its ramifications, is the field of study by researchers, from different fields, at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences. For one evening, students and researchers joined forces with the artist, Hanoch Piven, who uses everyday objects to characterize iconic figures from the worlds of culture and politics.
Random objects were placed on a clean, colorful slate, thereby taking on a graceful and humorous meaning. By means of collage and assemblage of ready-made materials, the participants created portraits revealing the subject of their research. However, the random is not accidental! Objects such as syringes, mice and microchips, were conjoined with objects from outside the laboratory, thus shedding new light on the thoughts behind the research.
The decoding of the playful art works is done with the aid of images from everyday life in the field of science. The images are presented alongside texts that describe concepts from the world of brain research, advanced research methods, and glimpses into the inner world of scientists.
Enter the creative minds of researchers, learn about their work and see their comical side.

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The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (ELSC) was founded in 2009 with the assistance of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, as an interdisciplinary center for brain sciences. The center has an innovative and revolutionary research agenda for understanding the brain and its complex products: movement, perception, cognition, language, and creativity. Scientists at ELSC examine the brain from the level of the single neuron to complex human behavior using state-of-the-art scientific equipment and innovative research approaches: nanotechnologies, telemetry, and optogenetics. The unique integration of theoreticians with experimental researchers facilitates the simulation of brain activity using supercomputers utilizing mathematical and physical models to present the brain as an ever-changing, dynamic learning system.

About the Gallery

Rinat Kotler | Hillel Roman | Tamar Latzman | Uri Gershuni | Edna Ohana | Tirza Freund | Ayelet Carmi | Alex Kremer | Tomer Sapir | Maya Attoun | Lior Waterman | Nivi Alroy
Artists House, Jerusalem

Curators: Michal Mor

Opening Date: 5 March, 2016 | Closing Date: 30 April, 2016

In the beginning there was art. Then came the written word, and most recently, science. And thus is the order of the world.
The most mysterious, complex, and most elusive object in the entire universe is the human brain. It is like a noisy electrical machine: thinking, calculating, seeing, feeling, speaking, and enabling us to organize ourselves in the world. But how it functions still escapes our understanding and it remains a great enigma: What makes the human brain so creative? Is it merely its biological components — the nerve cells and the interconnecting synapses that create huge, dynamic, and interactive neural networks?
For almost a year, the artists participating in this exhibit were paired with brain scientists from disciplines such as vision, cognition, movement, hearing, and memory. Together, they held research meetings and collaborative sessions culminating in a novel artistic and verbal language. Some artists honed their distinctive artistic handwriting, while others turned to new modes of expression created during the process. Artists and scientists alike experienced a fundamental change in the way they envisioned and represented the world.
This change is a product of the activation of thought and imagination during the learning process, which is essentially a creative process that results in the creation of new synapses between the brain cells. The result is a new, harmonious neural network. Metaphorically, we may say that creativity exists between synapses, between action and reaction. As partners in the act of creation, the artist and the scientist are motivated by curiosity, boundless imagination, intuition, and the quest for answers. Both work diligently, either in the studio or the laboratory, to create new links, attempting to understand the world around us.
Many thanks to The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, and especially to the researchers of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for their cooperation with the artists. Their collaborative efforts have generated new synapses in the brains of the creative teams – artists and scientists – and made this exhibition possible.

Prof. Daniel Mandler | Shimrit Malul | Prof. Daniel Harries | Dr. Jennifer Glenis | Sharona Floresheim | Tal Yizrael | Leora Wise | Dr. Meital Reches | Max Epstein | Vasil Sribny | Dr. Ofra Benny | Maayan Liebman-Sharon | Yaara Nirel

Curators: Ofer Amram, Lilach Orenstein
Opening Date: 21 December, 2016 | Closing Date: 21 December, 2016

During 2015-2016 scientists and artists have found a different way and a different language to translate the scientific formulation into artistic aspects. A unique and direct meeting between the parties brings the outcome you will see here today. "Our departure as researchers outside of the campus borders and outside of the borders of ourselves as researchers, proved to be highly successful. The artists influenced the way we see our world and our researches, and this connection has opened a road to create around us a real art" according to Prof. Danny Porat.

The center for Nano-science and Nano-technology provides a basis and a wide and multidisciplinary frame that brings together researchers from various fields of research, and unifies them with researching the unique effects that occur in the Nanometric range, where the material characteristics are changing and the traditional multidisciplinary borders are blurred. The artists heard about the different physical and chemical characteristics of the Nanometric materials, and lerned from applications like: tiny sensors, drug carriers inside the body, electronic components and optical components. As a result of the conversations, the meetings and the visits in the laboratories, the artists created an artistic interpretation to the contents they have been exposed to. The Nanoart project is an outcome of the cooperation between The Hebrew University Center for Nano-science and Nano-technology, the Municipality of Jerusalem and groups from the fields of dramatic arts and plastic arts.

The meaning of the name "Nano" from Greek Nanos is "dwarf". It is common to think we are living in the Nano period, since this word became to be used on a daily basis, and behind it there is a scientific world that slides to the non-scientific world as well. The origin of the Nano world is in the length unit of Nanometer which equals to the length that received if we divide one meter to 1,000,000,000 equal pieces.  It is clear that such a size is invisible to a naked eye, and also to the regular microscopes, and it is hard to illustrate. It is approximately the thickness of a hair which has cut to 10,000 equal pieces.

In fact, the Nano world describes objects in the size of less than 100 Nanometer, that surprisingly having different characteristics from those larger sized materials, which we can see and hold. The Nanometric objects that can have different shapes (sphere, rod etc.) are made of dozens to hundreds of atoms which are held together by Chemical forces. To the Nanometric materials there are characteristics like color, solubility, etc. that are resulting directly of their small size, and as said, they are different from the characteristics of the same materials which have a macroscopic size. For example, a Nanometric particle of gold can have red or blue color (accordingly to its size), which is different of course from the gold color we know, in the smallest objects we are able to see.

The different Physical and Chemical characteristics of Nanometric objects make them particularly attractive in many applications, such as: tiny sensors, drug carriers inside the body, electronic components and optical components. The huge research that has been made in the scientific world, and today also in the industry, tries to take advantage of the special characteristics of those materials (there are thousands of different Nanometric materials) in favor of the human beings and the mankind. Nonetheless, the people of science not once find themselves hard to explain the Nano world concept to the general public.

NanoArt team: Tirtsa Lavi, Michal Mor, Eyal Ezri, Prof. Danny Porath.

About the Projects (in Hebrew)

The brain is a plastic organ that changes frequently due to the creation of new connections (synapses) between the cells, which construct it. These synapses, estimated in many billions, are very flexible and dynamic components. Creativity, driven by imagination and thought, is a process in which new synapses are created in the human brain and changes the brain's activity pattern. This new activity reflects a new idea or image inside our brain. Observing art, also serves the possibility to discover and broaden the brain's potential by arousing new “brain states”, which are not experienced in our day to day lives. The artist who activates the viewers' brains in new ways and the brain scientist are strongly intertwined.
The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at The Hebrew University, which encourages multidisciplinary collaboration, came up with an exhibition that brings together artists and new research in the field of neuroscience. During 2015, a group of young artists joined forces with the center's researchers and started a journey of mutual creation. These collaborations raised interesting questions amongst the artists: What makes us creative? Is the world of a scientist similar to the world of an artist? How can an artist succeed in creating the desired image?
The bond created between the artists and the researchers yielded the exhibition “Between Synapses: Where Art and Brain Sciences Intersect”, currently displayed in the Jerusalem Artists' House. The exhibition curator, Michal Mor, offers a glimpse into the artists' studio rooms, the place where their creation is discovered and processed. Whether it's by a brushstroke, typing on a computer or pressing on a camera button, each of these artists offers his or her personal interpretation to the combination of science and art.
The audience is invited to take a glance at the work done behind the scenes, as well as to visit the exhibition, currently displayed in the Jerusalem Artists' House.

Opening Date: 28 December, 2015 | Closing Date: 28 December, 2015

Arts and science are fields of knowledge and creativity that may seem distant, but overlap greatly. In 2015, a project was launched to connect between nano-science researchers and artists who were trying to examine the term 'Nano', a measure unit prefix for a billionth.
During the course of a year, researchers and artists worked together to understand and interpret one another's fields and create a new artistic-scientific language.
"We wanted to provide significance to the world of nano through art and also to make this scientific field of research accessible to the public at large.  Our vision is to create a new language – 'nano-art'," noted University Curator and initiator of the project, Michal Mor.
The Hebrew University Center for Nano-science and Nano-technology is an outstanding scientific and technological institute that brings together researchers from a variety of fields and unites them in multidisciplinary research of the unique nanometric field.
The artists heard a series of lectures by the Center's researchers about the different physical and chemical characteristic of nanometric materials and their unique qualities, which make them so attractive across various fields of industry and research. The artists and researchers grouped together to various working teams, producing an artistic interpretation of concepts from the world of nano-science. Their works span across artistic platforms, from video art to dance, from artistic installations to theatre.
The project was launched in cooperation with the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Science and the Municipality of Jerusalem, together with artistic groups from Jerusalem, the Machol Shalem Dance House, HaZira Performance Arts Arena and its association.

The work culminated in a special event held at the Hebrew University’s Edmond J. Safra Campus in Givat Ram, Jerusalem. Among the works exhibited in the evening were:

“Ishket” – Dr. Ofra Benny and Ofra Karsh Blumen, Maayan Liebman-Sharon, Yaara Nirel, Michal Agassi and Laura Kirshenbaum.
One of the research projects of Dr. Benny deals with angioma, the process of accelerated creation of blood vessels that takes place in cancerous growths. Using nanotechnology methods it is possible to take advantage of “defects” that exist in the cancerous blood vessels and to create nano particles that carry drugs.
Creating the dance derives inspiration from the dynamic and kinetic processes that characterize the cancerous growth, from the movement of the nanometric particles and their diffusion into the cancerous cell, from the changing form of the cells and the hollow spaces created between them and from the interaction created by the nano particles.  The nano particles cannot be seen in a direct manner.  This “unknown” appears in the work in a video showing of the dancers and the creation of new hollow spaces being created and changing under the influence of the movement between the dancers and the content being shown, and this creates a new image.

“Concepts of left and right: mirror images of molecules to choreographic stabilizers” – Prof. David Enoch and Ido Betesh.
In the world of chemistry and biology there are molecules that can appear as left handed or as their mirror image – right handed. The distinction between these two options is critical for all aspects of life at the level of molecules. Is it also important in choreography? Does placing certain choreographic posture, as opposed to placing its mirror image, influences the aesthetic concept of the dance? Does it influence the challenge for the performing dancer? Research in psychology of aesthetic concepts points to the view that concepts of left or right of the same object, may be very different.

Research tools from the fields of chemistry, biology, and computer science, combined in order to deal with this research question which is completely new in the field of dance.

“Time (a temporary name)” – Prof. Nadav Katz and Zvi Sahar. 
The project deals with an attempt to understand the concept of time, to feel it, to intervene in it, and to take advantage of it.  The theatrical project is based on Sahar and Katz’s third subject – Josephus Flavius, who wrote about his past – for the future.  As an historian, he carried out in his period and his time “intervention in time.”
How do we view time and its meaning in various periods?  And how does the spirit of time influence the concept of time?  How does the modern concept of time influence the medium that appears in the theater, which constantly strives to create the feeling that it is all happening “here and now.”

“Terra incognita: travels in an unknown land” - Prof. Daniel Mandler and Shimrit Malul.
The idea at the base of the work and the research is to understand the influence and response of nano materials on human beings, on their feelings, on their changeability, on their oral and physical interactions with them.  The mutual response of the person on the material is no less fascinating and enables us to reveal new characteristics in the behavior of the human creature and the material.  The project wants to locate nano materials which, when interacting with the human body, can create a sensory response that can be seen and can be used to develop a new artistic and scientific language.  The touch of man on metal is a starting point…

“The Juto Circle” – Dr. Meital Reches, Max Epstein and Vasyl Sribny.
The project deals with construction of a "laboratory" for research of art that would enable a new philosophic view of the concept of nano. In this “laboratory” relationships are being created between three participants: the researcher, the artist and the children. This system enables an academic meeting point between science and art and between intuition and the spontaneity of children.  The process of research is based on correspondence between them through images.  The first image presented is a photograph from the chemistry laboratory that studies nano-technology.

Special thanks to Tirza Lavi and Lilach Orenstein

Event Program (in Hebrew)

Eyal Peled, the television presenter of Masa Olami (Worldwide Journey), suffered a severe stroke in 2008, resulting in damage and paralysis to the right side of his body and in aphasia, a loss of the ability to speak. However, Eyal did not lose the urge to continue his “journeys”. Despite his physical disability, he uses his Smartphone – an iPhone – as a visual tool to communicate the thoughts trapped within his brain. While traveling through the country by car, Eyal stops at various locations to photograph objects that catch his eye. Sometimes he goes back and forth over the same stretch to choose the correct angle for the picture. His handicap forces him to shoot with his left hand through the car window. The connection to the objects photographed, says Eyal, is achieved in two stages: the first is to take a picture of the object in the natural environment. The second is a verbalization of his more personal response to the object. Eyal's associations range from the desire to fly to the desire for grounding, between the yearning for freedom and independence to the feeling of being sealed and closed.
Aphasia is a syndrome that interferes with the production of language, caused by brain damage, especially by a stroke. This occurs in regions called "Brain Language Areas" (Broca's area and Wernicke's area), located in the left hemisphere. Damage to Broca's area, called "motor aphasia", is characterized by difficulty in the production of grammatical sentences. People who suffer from this kind of aphasia speak in short sentences, use a functional vocabulary in a telegraphic manner, and have difficulties in finding the word they want to use. They do comprehend speech, however, and are therefore often aware of their condition. As a consequence, they experience frustration, and avoid verbal communication. Motor aphasia is often accompanied by paralysis or weakness of the right side of the body. Damage to Wernicke's area, called "sensory aphasia", is characterized by fluent but confused or meaningless speech. Sensory aphasia is characterized by problems in understanding as well, so that sufferers are unaware of their disorder. Damage to both areas is called "global aphasia".
The strength of the brain lies in the way the nerve cells that form it work together. Every cognitive and motor activity stems from the constant interaction among brain cells. This interaction, in all its ramifications, is the field of study of theoreticians, computer scientists, cognitive psychologists, and biologists at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences. Their research leads to new findings in the fields of human behavior, diseases, and brain trauma, and to new methods of rehabilitation and treatment for people with mental disabilities. One of the many topics investigated at the Center is the study of human language – its uniqueness and structure, and the brain injuries that may cause a potential loss of producing and understanding language.

The exhibition was produced with the support of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University.
Curator: Michal Mor
Producer: Alona Shani-Narkiss
Eyal Peled was born in Jerusalem and served as an education officer in the army. He has been working as a producer and presenter on television and in film since the end of his academic studies, and in addition guided dozens of tours around the world for many years. In 1994 he initiated and created the TV program "Worldwide Journey with Eyal Peled," in which he merged his loves and skills: touring and guiding, and television.
Eyal was the screenwriter, director, producer and presenter of the program between the years 1994 and 2007.
In April 2008 he suffered a severe stroke during his sleep that affected his speech and motor abilities, which he continues to rehabilitate to this day.

Exhibition Catalouge

Curators: Michal Mor

Opening Date: March, 2014 | Closing Date: April, 2014

"A man must know that from the brain, and only from the brain, come our pleasures, joys, laughter,  as well as our sadness, pain, suffering and tears, and especially — through it we think, see, hear,  and distinguish between good and bad and between pleasant and unpleasant".

(Hippocrates, 5th century BCE). 

There are some ten billion nerve cells in our brains. Each cell communicates through about 10,000  synapses (links) to neighboring cells in the nerve network. Thus broad nerve networks are created  in our brains which are composed of hundreds of thousands of cells linked to each other through  synapses which function as a collective — a large orchestra that creates "the music of the nerves .  This music is researched daily in the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences in the Hebrew  University. Researchers from various fields working together —  theoreticians, computer scientists,  cognitive and biological psychologists — are carrying out outstanding interdisciplinary research that  leads to new understandings on the relationship between "material" and "spirit", on the question  of free will and awareness and on a series of questions that are related to the essence of man and  his uniqueness in nature. 

The Center views great importance in making the research accessible to the public. Thus a creative  partnership has developed between researchers of the brain and caricaturists from around the Country.  In cooperation with the "Shpitz Project" the works you see have been collected and provide a  glimpse into the wonders of the brain with touches of imagination and humor in lines, color and a  serious of pictures that create a story. 

This Exhibit creates a dialogue which connects the world of the scientist acting within the  framework of the customary rules of scientific methodology, and the modern artist who is free to  choose topics and manner of presentation that he strives to reach in his creation. Common to both  is imagination, intuition, searching, experimenting, satisfaction and disappointment that accompany  the work of creation. This resemblance is what enables theכIt is our hope that this project will serve as a foundation  for ongoing dialogue that will produce interesting understandings and will be an inspiration for  additional creation — both artistic and scientific. 

Project editor I Nissim Hezkiyahu 

Production I Alona Narkiss 

The Exhibit is supported by the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

View the Sketches

Virtual Exhibition
Opening Date: 2013

“I think of it as painting with tools of technology” – Paula Crown

The self-portrait is among the most prevalent subjects in art history. Typically, it involves using a mirror to capture the surface information which is then selectively conveyed to the audience. With any luck, the artist’s internal life will shine forth from these external details.  Of course, no objective portrait exists. The artist’s perception always colors his/her view of the subject, and the viewers’ perceptions color their interpretations.

The multimedia work INSIDE MY HEAD: A Contemporary Self Portrait (2013) began with MRIs of Crown’s brain. Beset by migraines since childhood, she animated these high-tech images of her internal landscape and projected them on concave screens. The piece is a self-portrait rendered from the inside out, an intimate view of her personal topology. Altered and viewed in an alternative scale, the images evoke the cosmos and its starscapes, from which we evolved.

This virtual exhibition includes an animation made from Crown's MRI scans. Initially, the imagery appears to be abstract patterns. However, upon closer observation, these images, with their pulsating accumulation of shapes and forms, reveal the workings of the artist’s own brain, documented via a magnetic resonance image (MRI).

As Crown states, “I view them as abstract forms and topologies that could be micro or macro in size.” Although Crown has said that landscapes capture her attention and she researches topologies and maps, there is not narrative or symbolism to her work. It’s the various shapes and patterns that interest her. My work is “just a connection between what is happening in our bodies and what is happening in the larger world,” she says.

The animation is accompanied by an audio track composed specifically for this piece, replacing the original hammering noise of the MRI scanner with a soothing violin, a musical interpretation of the activity of Crown’s brain. As the shapes change so does the music. “The music is my brain’s anatomy that was literally put into a software program and converted to sound,” Crown explains. “Then a violinist played to the animation of the brain scans.”

Website of the artist