Mirror Brain: Picture and Experience

The installation Mirror Brain was developed by artist Elisabeth Weissensteiner and neurobiologist Dorothea Brückner at the University of Bremen, Germany, where it was launched. The installation, a contemporary work of hybrid art, establishes a philosophical play with viewers-turned-actors rather than an interpretation of neuroscience. Thus it provides a metaphor—a mirror—for the role of neurobiology in science and in art. Based on the project, this paper elaborates on how artistic and scientific depiction differ from each other.