Subjective Realities (2020-21)

Humans are visual creatures, and we often build our reality around what we can see. However, what we consider to be an objective reality is often only a subjective interpretation informed by our individual biologies, cultures, and past experiences. As a neuroscientist who studies the retina and a sculptor who relies on vision to create work, Jen Ding (PhD 2021, Neurobiology) and Anton Auth (MFA 2021, Visual Arts) explore the subjectivity implicit in the act of seeing. Subjective Realities is an opportunity for two practitioners-one of science and one of art-to speak candidly with each other to compare the role of seeing in two fields of knowledge that are sometimes considered to be on opposite sides of the cultural spectrum.
This collaboration-compiled into a book of artworks, scientific inquiries, descriptive figures, correspondences, disputes, and moments of synchronicity-investigates the differences in practice and approach between the participants. The exploratory journey across disciplines proposes questions to the collaborators and to the reader: How do people’s sociological background impact the way that they see? What does handcraft look like in science, and where do we see evidence of the scientist in her experiments? What happens when the artist begins to see himself as the subject of his own experiments?
Faculty Advisors: Stephanie Palmer (Associate Professor, Organismal Biology and Anatomy) and Geof Oppenheimer (Professor, Visual Arts).