The Next Frontier: Neuroscience, Business and the Arts

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer your­self any direc­tion you choose.” — Oh The Places You’ll Go, Dr.Seuss.

The space between cre­ativ­i­ty and entre­pre­neur­ship is one of the most excit­ing areas unfold­ing in our mod­ern world right now. Although this rela­tion­ship has been acknowl­edged by every true entre­pre­neur for many years, it has tak­en too long for the cor­re­la­tion between the two areas to be under­stood, encour­aged, and expand­ed upon in a broad­er sense.

Our entire sense of val­ues has shift­ed dra­mat­i­cal­ly in the last 20 years. A cre­ative econ­o­my has emerged, and along­side it, an expe­ri­ence econ­o­my; no longer are we, as con­sumers, inter­est­ed sim­ply in prod­ucts. Instead, it is the expe­ri­ence of the prod­uct from its pur­chase to its final use that deter­mines our sense of value.

Giv­ing birth to About My Brain and the Brain Art Awards is a demon­stra­tion of work­ing across dis­ci­plines. By bring­ing togeth­er the three worlds of neu­ro­science, busi­ness and the arts, my col­leagues and I (with spe­cial thanks to our great ambas­sador Flut­ter Lyon) aim to form a whole new plat­form of expe­ri­ence, infor­ma­tion and edu­ca­tion resources, and, why not, enter­tain­ment? We are reach­ing peo­ple who may nev­er have imag­ined how impor­tant it is to under­stand our brains.

Think of it like a hot­line to the main­frame. From us, the non-sci­en­tists, direct­ly to the sci­en­tists who know more about us than we do our­selves. It’s time we inte­grat­ed ways of learn­ing more about our­selves from this sci­en­tif­ic lev­el, into our every­day lives. This is why we are proud Spon­sors of the upcom­ing 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit.

The Brain Art Awards & Exhi­bi­tion is an inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion with ten media cat­e­gories, open to any­one aged 14 — 99. It offers a $5,000 cash prize to the major win­ner, and gar­ners a fas­ci­nat­ing inter­na­tion­al response to a spe­cif­ic area of human Expe­ri­ence. This year it is cen­tered around the provoca­tive theme of ‘Life Plea­sures and the Brain.’

With entrants as diverse as: a teenag­er from Spain explor­ing new life expe­ri­ences, a sci­ence enthu­si­ast from Cana­da, a pro­fes­sion­al cre­ative from Aus­tralia and every­one and every­where in between, this is an incred­i­ble col­lec­tion of artis­tic respons­es to a uni­ver­sal theme. It’s all about neu­ro­science by peo­ple oth­er than neu­ro­sci­en­tists. It helps to bridge the gap between each of us, our per­cep­tion of the world around us, and how we engage in dif­fer­ent ways with the same experiences.

• What is this com­pe­ti­tion about: We want to inspire you to cre­ate work that com­mu­ni­cates neu­ro­science find­ings in a cre­ative and inter­ac­tive manner.
• Why are we doing this: We are ded­i­cat­ed to bring togeth­er three com­mu­ni­ties: neu­ro­science, busi­ness and the arts, with the pur­pose of pro­mot­ing cre­ativ­i­ty and brain aware­ness in the com­mu­ni­ty. This ini­tia­tive aims to give any­one with a tal­ent an oppor­tu­ni­ty to pro­mote who they are and what they do through our glob­al network.
• Where will this take place: Your work will be shown through our online and inter­ac­tive vir­tu­al gallery and dis­played at the 2012 Brain Art Exhi­bi­tion at Verge Gallery Syd­ney, Australia

–> To Learn More: Vis­it web­site and down­load brief at BrainArt Awards 2012

 — Sil­via Dami­ano is the Direc­tor of About­My­Brain, offer­ing a bunch of remark­able expe­ri­ences that intend to bring togeth­er three com­mu­ni­ties: Neu­ro­science, Busi­ness and the Arts. How? Via Exhi­bi­tions, Awards, online and offline resources. With 20 years of expe­ri­ence, Sil­via has worked in Aus­tralia, South Amer­i­ca, South Africa and in the USA with­in the cor­po­rate sec­tor for a vari­ety of indus­tries, includ­ing finance, telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, IT and pro­fes­sion­al firms.