“Exploring neuroplasticity through art and science”, Brain Roads symposium & workshop in Berlin

Workshop with Hugues Duffau and visit at Charité Neurosurgery Department

1.11 — Meeting between students from ESAD de Reims and weissensee kunsthochschule berlin at the Central Lab of the Cluster Matters of Activity. Working session with Professor Hugues Duffau.

3.11 — Observation of brain surgery at Charité Hospital, meeting between design and art students with medical interns and Master Class by Hugues Duffau. Tour of weissensee kunsthochschule berlin.

Symposium “Exploring Neuroplasticity Through Art and Science”, Central Lab, Cluster Matters of Activity (Berlin)

2.11 — Symposium.

Like the sculptor with marble, neurosurgeons dialogue with the brain they operate on, exploring its inner plasticity. Mapping and representing these “brain roads” can be achieved through various imaging devices and methods. It can also be done with less use of medical imagery.

The French Professor in neuro-oncology Hugues Duffau is famous for performing awake surgery with very little technology. He will present his research in a dialogue with the members of the project “Cutting” of the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity”, as well as the students from two art and design academies, one in France, and one in Germany, who produced visual interpretations of his ideas and mode of operation.

Brain Roads Symposium Program (PDF)

Olaf Avenati is a graphic and digital designer in Paris and Professor in graphic and digital design at École Supérieure d’Art et de Design in Reims. He is an Associated Member of the Cluster of excellence « Matters of Activity. Image, Space, Material » Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Within the “Adaptive Digital Twin” research, he is leading the “Brain Roads” project.

Horst Bredekamp is an art historian and professor of Art & Image History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. As Senior Co-Director, he leads the Cluster of excellence « Matters of Activity. Image, Space, Material » Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin together with Peter Fratzl, Claudia Mareis and Wolfgang Schäffner.

Hugues Duffau (MD, PhD) is Professor and Chairman of the Neurosurgery Department in the Montpellier University Medical Center and Head of the INSERM 1051 Team “Plasticity of the central nervous system, human stem cells and glial tumors” at the Institute for Neurosciences of Montpellier (France).

Alicia Iacobone is PhD candidate in Philosophy at FINO Consortium (Genoa/Turin) and visiting fellow at the Institut für Kunstund
Bildgeschichte at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, with a dissertation on “Plasticity and Sculpture. Forms, Materials, Imprints”.

Thomas Picht is a neurosurgeon, head of the Image Guidance Lab and co-director of the Berlin Simulation and Training Center of the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. His research group deals with non-invasive brain function diagnostics, connectivity analyses and neuromodulation with the aim of optimally treating brain tumors with individualized therapy concepts.

Patricia Ribault is Professor for Performative Design Research at the since 2020 and Principal Investigator of the Cluster of excellence « Matters of Activity. Image, Space, Material » Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She is also a lecturer at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Jürgen P. Rabe
has been Professor of the Physics of Macromolecules at the Department of Physics at Humboldt-Universität 

zu Berlin since 1994. His research aims to correlate the structure and dynamics of molecular systems at interfaces with mechanical, electronic, optical and (bio)chemical properties. He is also the Founding Director of the Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences — IRIS Adlershof at HU Berlin. 

Anne de Mauregard, Élisa Dubosc, Ash Georges, Mado Lecroart, Antoine Sigur are the Master 1 students in Graphic & Digital Design at ÉSAD de Reims.

Lilly Drosch, Alexandru Ganea, Marieke Herbst, Inyeong Song, Tal Snizcer, Leo Ullrich, Jelisa Weber are the students in Art and Design at Weißensee KunstHochschule Berlin