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Biographies
Artist and Researcher Partners
Researcher Artist
Lucy Goodman Sophie Bannan
Kim Wise Aleksandra Petrovic
Amy Smith Dane Taylor
Joanne Lin Aaron King‐Cole
Amelia Van Slooten Amy Unkovich
Pritika Narayan Mei Cooper
Jane Evans David McClunie
Renee Gordon Tom Henry
Sarina Iwabuchi Estella Castle
Valerie van Mulukom Melanie Bell
Carolyn Wu Rita Godlevskis
Henry Walkvogel Henrietta Harris
Reece Roberts Lia Kent MacKillop
Juliette Cheyne Tim Chapman
Veema Lodhia Alexander Hoyles
Lucy Goodman
Research Assistant
Visual Neuroscience Research Laboratory
Lucy Goodman works as a Research Assistant at the Visual Neuroscience Research Laboratory (VNRL) within the Centre for Brain Research, under the supervision of Dr. Ben Thompson.
Lucy has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Neuroscience and is interested in learning about how the brain can adapt to change. She has worked in a range of neuroscience fields, including adult stem cells and childhood brain cancer. She also has qualifications in Science Communication.
Lucy is currently working alongside other researchers at the VNRL to understand whether the visual areas of the brain can be modified to improve how we perceive visual information. Understanding this ‘plasticity’ of the visual brain areas may help to develop clinical treatments for certain types of visual disorders, such as ‘lazy eye’ (amblyopia).
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a method of transiently altering brain excitability. Lucy is involved in a research project using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test whether tDCS over the adult visual brain areas will promote plasticity and improve vision in both the normal and amblyopic visual system.
More information about the VNRL can be viewed online:
http://www.opt.auckland.ac.nz/public/research/labs/VNRL/index.html
Sophie Bannan
Sophie is an artist from Christchurch, currently working in Auckland.
Working with a range of mediums, from film and photography to painting and installation, her work is largely performance based. Her recent artwork reflects her interest in the history of feminism, performance art and social activism and questions the privilege of high art over marginalised craft, which act as platforms for dialogue between institutions. Sophie was a Co‐Founder and Director of artist‐run space 448 Gallery, and has recently exhibited in group shows at The High Seas (Auckland), High Street Project (Christchurch), and ProjectSpace B431 (University of Auckland).
Kim Wise
PhD Student
Audiology Section and Hearing and Tinnitus Clinic
MYSELF: Originally from Arizona, I completed a Speech and Hearing Science BSc at Arizona State. In 1999, a Rotary scholarship led me to NZ for Audiology study. I concluded my MA Degree in 2003 and stayed (audiologists were needed). I began work for the Audiology Section and Hearing and Tinnitus Clinic in 2004. Clinical life has mostly revolved around tinnitus—head/ear sound—assessment and management. In 2006, I became a NZ Citizen and subsequently began Doctoral study with Dr Grant Searchfield, as my supervisor. I adore art in nearly all forms; sophisticated to silly.
MY RESEARCH: Tinnitus: Involuntary sound perception (lacking an external sound source) usually described as occurring in the head/ears—an internal indicator something has gone awry or suffered damage; often within the auditory structures or ears. Ninety‐percent of people experiencing tinnitus also have assessable hearing loss. Presently, no cure exists. Tinnitus can differ but many describe it as “ringing in the ears.” Tinnitus percept can vary: From occasional unobtrusive sound, to intense, constant, distressing or debilitating noise(s). Tinnitus severity appears to have an attention connection, with sufferers unable to selectively attend to other auditory or environment sounds. We are investigating auditory attention training toward reducing tinnitus impact.
Aleksandra Petrovic
Aleksandra Petrovic was born in 1985 and currently lives and works in Auckland.
She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2007 and is currently studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts, due to be completed in 2011.
Since completing her BFA, Aleksandra’s work has been included in numerous group shows around Auckland; most recently at the High Seas Gallery and Plaything Gallery, both in 2009. In 2008, Aleksandra completed a work for the ongoing installation titled Bare Rock and Backbones in Britomart, as well as a solo project and window installation in Stanbeth House. Her work has also been shown at City Art Rooms, Sanderson Gallery, Wallace Trust Gallery, Rob Garrett Contemporary Fine Art Pop‐Up Gallery in Newmarket and Cross Street Studios.
Aleksandra’s work is inspired by folk tales, puppets, everyday observations, bad jokes and z‐grade horror films. She is interested in questioning the roles of meta‐narratives as well as constructing her own offbeat narratives in order to construct new ways of seeing and storytelling.
Amy Smith
PhD Student
Neuropharmacology Laboratory
I am a second year PhD student in a neuropharmacology lab at the Centre for Brain Research. I did my undergraduate degree in biomedical science at the University of Auckland and I have been doing research in Professor Dragunow’s lab for two years. I was awarded a Top Achiever doctoral scholarship to carry out research on the immune cells of the adult human brain. These have not historically been the most widely studied cells, but there has been a recent awakening to the important role that the immune system plays in regulating the brain.
The immune cells of the brain are called microglia. They protect the other brain cells from various types of damage and they play a role in many brain disorders. I study the basic functions of these immune cells in the adult human brain. We are one of very few labs in the world that can grow cells from the human brain and this provides us with a unique opportunity to directly study the function of these cells.
I have recently published my first article in the journal Neuroscience and my aim is to add to this growing body of knowledge of how two systems, the nervous system and the immune system, interact.
Dane Taylor
Dane Taylor was born in 1981 in Masterton. His recent work often straddles painting, photography and sculpture. It aims to build a visual language of its own with internal logic. Aspects of this language resemble scientific models and cultural signs. Hybrid forms are a reoccurring theme in both Dane’s methodology and his images, which occupy a space between figuration and abstraction, science and mysticism, the retro and the futuristic.
In 2009 Dane completed a BFA (Hons) at Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University. In 2001 he graduated with a BA (Film and Anthropology) from Victoria University, Wellington.
When he’s not making collages, taking photos and painting he likes to practice speaking Japanese, refine his swing dancing, make zines and play bass/guitar in some notable local punk rock bands.
Joanne Lin
PhD Student
Psychopharmacology and Neurodynamics Group
I am a second year PhD student from the School of Pharmacy; I completed a Bachelor of Pharmacy with First Class Honours in 2007 and worked as a registered pharmacist until I started my PhD in May 2009.
I began my research as an undergraduate by investigating the subjective and electrophysiological effects of Party Pill drugs BZP and TFMPP using electroencephalography. From that I have published one paper as first author in the journal Psychopharmacology, and have two more papers under review.
My PhD research project is investigating the effects of methamphetamine addiction on the human brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), particularly focussing on metabolic changes using magnetic resonance spectroscopy and white matter structural changes using diffusion tensor imaging.
We are also trialling a potential substitution therapy for methamphetamine addiction, with participants entering a 22‐week double‐blind placebo‐controlled parent trial using methylphenidate. Participants suffering from methamphetamine addiction are run through the MRI at week one of their treatment and again at week 10 to see if substitution therapy has had ameliorative effects on methamphetamine‐induced brain changes/damage.
Aaron King Cole
Born in Auckland, 1984, Aaron studied at Elam School of Fine Arts and graduated in 2008. He has been exhibited through galleries, centres, boutiques, and artist‐run spaces since 2002 and is currently practicing within Auckland‐based artist collective, Method and Manners.
Aaron's work is largely pictorial, working in two dimensions with a focus on drawing processes and materiality.
His discipline occasionally extends to include sculpture, painting and domestic crafts such as cross‐stitch and felting, but there is consistently a graphic element underpinning ideas whose manner is to isolate aspects of generating and interpreting image.
Recent group exhibitions include:
"100 Clams" @ High Seas ‐ 2009
"Draw III" @ High seas ‐ 2009
"Panic" @ Plaything Gallery ‐ 2009
"Bro‐Fi" @ Liberty Gallery ‐ 2008
Solo Show
"Gravity Zone" @ Butterfly Net ‐ 2007
‐ a selection of works in cross‐stitch, and sonic sculpture
Amelia Van Slooten
PhD Student
Neural Repair and Neurogenesis Laboratory
Amelia is currently a PhD candidate in the Neural Repair and Neurogenesis laboratory in the Centre for Brain Research at The University of Auckland. She recently graduated from The University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) specialising in Biomedical Science and attained first rank in the Biomedical Science Honours Year 2009, in addition to an award for Excellence in Research Presentation at the Biomedical Science Research Symposium.
Her PhD research is supported by scholarships from the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand and The University of Auckland and is funded by the Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust.
Amelia has always been fascinated by the human brain due to its complexity and vital role in determining who we are as individuals. Neurological disorders that affect a person’s ability to walk, speak or perform cognitive tasks are extremely debilitating and her current research focuses on promoting brain repair following stroke to potentially alleviate the effects of this devastating condition.
Amy Unkovich
Amy Unkovich is a collector and archivist by nature.
She completed a bachelor of Fine Art from Elam in 2002 and has contributed to various collaborative exhibitions within New Zealand. She works with photography and found imagery. The process itself includes craft knives, blue tac, tiny scissors and a favourite camera. Amy currently lives and works in Auckland.
Pritika Narayan
PhD Student
Neuropharmacology Laboratory
Aside from being a final year PhD student (investigating patterns that alter gene expression in post‐mortem human brain, particularly in Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease), Pritika is a proud Aunty, a committed mentor to kids in her local community, a suspect bollywood dancer and an avid bookworm. She delights in discovering and creating new things, which are valuable attributes to have in science.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science from Victoria University in Wellington, Pritika relocated to Auckland in 2004 to join Professor Mike Dragunow’s lab. She received training in high‐content imaging and analysis techniques at Universal Imaging Corporation in Philadelphia. Her current work is in collaboration with researchers from AgResearch and the Liggins Institute to investigate epigenetic changes in the human brain. At this early stage in her career she has already published 10 articles in international peer‐reviewed science journals, the most recent being in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Her research is supported by the Seelye Trust and the National Research Centre for Growth and Development.
Pritika hopes one day to use her skills in neuroscience and her passion for social justice issues in bettering research/research outcomes for dementia and mental health in the context of majority world countries.
Mei Cooper
Using modernist art theory as a platform, Mei Cooper studies at Elam School of Fine Arts. Her research investigates the disparate methodologies of high art and craft, dialects in the state of metaphysical contradictions [and their solutions]; whilst using the everyday as immediate content of the work.
Predominantly making paintings, video and sculptural work; about love and everyday life in the way a pop star writes pop songs. Fascinated with water colours and concrete, Cooper neutralizes and eradicates the painful clichés implied in her work, through design based filters and barriers. Sentimental one liners are rendered inert through the use of standardized formatting, then shifted again through painting; linking the works back to a specific tradition.
“I want to make work about nothing, but the nothing that’s semantically something, I am interested in exploring this space as a space of monotony, repetition and banality; embracing the space where chaos is suspended, resulting in a state of exception.”
Employing soft images (kittens, lovers kissing in the sunset, waves rolling in), Coopers work becomes flotsam in a sea of sameness. Slippage occurs; time and context become increasingly relevant as both past and future are placed into an objective present… ...time has little or no space: it is stationary and going no where�2 Smithson.
Works sit as embodiments of the same condition coloured with a poetic ideal of open potential of repeating tradition in an alternative context ‐ exemplified in her work “On time and time again” a minute and a half long video loop of waves rolling into the shore; a work that has been made countless times and will no doubt be made again in the future.
Jane Evans
PhD Student
Neural Repair and Neurogenesis Laboratory
Jane did a BSc in Biomedical Science, specialising in neurobiology, at the University of Auckland. Her honours year was spent at the Liggins Institute, where she looked at synaptic markers in the aged brain. She then spent time at the Liggins Institute, working through UniServices, investigating the possibilities of a commercial product to augment memory. In 2008 Jane began her PhD in the Neural Repair and Neurogenesis Lab under the supervision of Associate Professor Bronwen Connor. She is interested in the effect of stress and depression on endogenous modulators of neurogenesis. Her research is looking at dysregulation of a neurosteroid called allopregnanolone under conditions of chronic stress. She is investigating the impact allopregnanolone has on the generation of new cells in the brain (neurogenesis) and on GABAergic signalling. This project is supported by a NARSAD grant.
Jane finds the brain, and the different approaches to studying it, fascinating.
David McClunie
David McClunie is an artist who works mainly painting portraiture in oils and charcoal. He is a self taught and heavily technique based artist, in particular to the Grisaille, Chiaroscuro and other renaissance methods.
David likes to paint in small intricate and demanding scales and is known for his realism. He honed his illustration and painting skills in private for many years, before being asked to come up with the concept and artwork for the cover of Lawrence Arabia's award winning album (Silver Scroll and Taite awards) Chant Darling.
David is a full time artist and currently works on private commissions and continues to expand his knowledge into different materials, media and concepts.
Renée Gordon
Research Fellow
Neural Repair and Neurogenesis Laboratory
Renée Gordon graduated from the University of Auckland in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science specializing in Medicinal Chemistry and was the Senior Scholar in Pharmacology. She commenced her Doctor of Philosophy studies in the Department of Pharmacology in 2005, investigating the role of inflammatory cytokines in attracting stem cells to sites of injury in the adult brain.
Throughout adulthood stem cells within the mammalian brain continue to divide and produce new mature neurons. Following brain injury or disease this process is amplified, with immature neurons migrating towards the site of cell loss. However the numbers of new cells formed are far outweighed by the number of cells lost and the mechanisms responsible for directing this ectopic migration of stem cells are largely unknown. During her PhD Renée developed methods to examine this injury‐induced migration of stem cells and identified 3 cytokines which may be responsible for this cell replacement process.
Renée is currently employed as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. She was recently awarded a Douglas Research Grant in Partnership with the Neurological Foundation to investigate the effect of gene knockdown of chemokine receptors on the recruitment of stem cells to sites of brain injury.
Tom Henry
Tom Henry is an artist working primarily in the mediums of drawing, collage and printmaking. His esoteric visions of suburban cults, transdimensional secrets, and preternatural phenomenon fit somewhere between magic realism and hoax. Sometimes he just like to draw trees. Tom is studying to become a master of the fine arts at Elam art school in Auckland.
http://tomhenryart.blogspot.com
Sarina Iwabuchi
PhD Student
Cognitive Neuroimaging, Neuroplasticity and Neurodevelopment Laboratory
I am a PhD student in the Department of Psychology researching brain structure and function using a variety of neuroimaging techniques. My particular interests revolve around brain asymmetries – differences in structure and function between the left and right cerebral hemispheres. Using MRI techniques (functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging), I am hoping to discover a direct link between brain structure (connections between various brain regions) and function (how these brain regions activate during cognitive tasks), and how these connections differ between the hemispheres. On establishing these links, the ultimate goal would be to investigate the implications on patients undergoing resection surgery and the patterns of postsurgical neural recovery of these connections. Outside of research, I have a mild obsession with film and music along with a newfound love for photography.
Estella Castle
Valerie van Mulukom
PhD Student
Memory Laboratory
I am a PhD student from the Netherlands doing research in Cognitive Neuroscience. Currently, I am conducting an experiment involving memory and imagination, in an fMRI paradigm (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The experiment is based on recent research that shows that similar brain activity occurs when we think about our past (remembering) and when we think about our future (imagining).
I am also highly interested in art: I’ve studied some art history in the past, love visiting museums, taking photographs, drawing and just viewing, discussing and reading about art. In the future, I want to extend my research in imagination to investigate the finer compounds of imagination (a.o. abstraction, relational processing, etc.), its links to creativity and evolutionary aspects.
I think that seeing art from a cognitive point of view can give us amazing insights about this unique product of human creativity and craftsmanship. Reversely, I believe that many parts of research have a highly aesthetic value – ranging from beautiful images of the brain and neuron cells to the beauty of a new explanation or conceptualisation of a problem or question.
Melanie Bell
Melanie Bell completed her BFA (Hons) at Elam in 2009, where her final presentation was based in edited found video, ghost hunting expeditions and abstract painting. She is interested in the relationships between theory, research and creative practice, and in the way concepts can be used or applied both literally and theoretically.
She is currently one of the curators at The University of Auckland’s Window gallery.
Carolyn Wu
PhD Student
Cognitive Neuroimaging, Neuroplasticity and Neurodevelopment Laboratory
Carolyn Wu is a PhD student in the Psychology Department studying music perception and its inherent relationship to action; we move to music and move to produce music. Music performance requires a highly established and efficient system for auditory‐motor integration. Musicians undergo extensive training which produces these established links between auditory and motor areas of the brain; the training undertaken aims to develop, strengthen and eventually enable flexibility in these connections in order to become proficient in performing music. Training‐induced plasticity of the brain is fundamental in creating these auditory‐motor associations. Therefore music learning provides a framework for cognitive neuroscientists to study the human brain’s facility for plasticity in the sensorimotor domain.
In particular, Carolyn is investigating auditory‐motor associations during and after musical training, and studying musicians and non‐musicians will enable exploration of short‐term and long‐term training effects on the brain. Currently Carolyn is using electroencephalography (EEG) to look at changes in oscillatory activity in the brain after piano keyboard training.
Rita Godlevskis
Rita Godlevskis is a creative media producer working primarily on photography based projects.
She has worked across a range of media platforms with a diverse portfolio of projects in fine art, commercial and educational contexts as well as corporate communications.
A graduate of the Ryerson Image Arts program in Toronto, Canada she also holds a Masters in Creative Media from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia and has exhibited her work widely throughout Canada, the United States and Australia.
Solo exhibitions of note include; “Hedging Desire” at The Harbourfront centre Gallery (Toronto, Canada, 2009), “Momentos” at VU, Centre de Diffussion et de Production de la Photographie (Quebec City, Canada, 2008) and “Momentos” at The Blue Sky Gallery (Portland Oregon, USA, 2007).
Henry Waldvogel
Senior Research Fellow
Neurogenesis and Neurodegenerative Diseases of the Human Brain Laboratory
I am a senior research scientist and I have been interested in imaging the brain for many years now, from low power slices of the whole brain to high power images of what is found in and around brain cells. I have produced images of the brain and brain cells from many different angles, from slices of the whole brain stained in various ways to taking images of individual cells within the brain. I use many different markers to show the complex wiring of the brain and also the complexity of each individual brain cell. These pictures are taken through the light microscope, fluorescent and confocal laser microscopes and the electron microscope. These images of the brain show the structural basis of what makes up the brain and this provides an insight into how the brain operates. Studying the detailed makeup of the brain allows us to appreciate the incredible complexity of the circuitry and minute structures that make up the brain. I have published many of these studies in international scientific journals such as Nature Protocols, Brain, Neuroscience, Journal of Comparative Neurology, Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy, have published several book chapters on the results of my studies and presented talks and posters at international conferences in Australia, Europe and the USA.
Henrietta Harris
Henrietta Harris is an Auckland‐based artist and illustrator who has steadily built a solid body of work after graduating from Auckland University of Technology in 2006, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She has produced a successful hand‐drawn/hand‐printed t‐shirt range, created gig posters and record artwork for bands both in New Zealand and overseas, been involved in drawings for television advertising, and added her distinctive style to various projects.
Henrietta’s work combines contemporary and neo‐luddite attitudes – she steers clear of the aid of computers but keeps an eye on both traditional and modern subject matter and style.
Reece Roberts
PhD Student / Research Assistant
Cognitive / Memory Laboratories
As a cognitive psychologist, my biggest interest is the role brains play in generating the intelligent behaviour we see in humans (and animals) all the time. For my PhD research, I spend most of my time working on and thinking about how brains represent the visual environment in which they find themselves.
For the last year and a half, however, I have worked as a research assistant to Dr Donna Addis and have analysed imaging data showing a neural network specialised for both remembering the past and imagining the future. This is somewhat surprising as it suggests episodic memory may have evolved not simply to recall moments from our past, but that it is also able to use this information to generate simulations of scenarios that may happen in the future. This abstract representational system is one of the few things that are uniquely human, and most likely plays a large role in the brain’s ability to produce a coherent representation of the self. Our recent work has looked at age‐related changes to this system, and our lab is also interested in the neural differences between simulating general events (e.g. catching a bus) compared to specific events (e.g. your 21st birthday).
Lia Kent MacKillop
Lia Kent MacKillop is a photographer and sculptor currently completing a BFA (Hons) at Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland, New Zealand.
Lia was born in London, but has since childhood travelled extensively between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Aotearoa / New Zealand. Her nomadic background has contributed to her focus on travel and space in aspects of her work, and she also draws inspiration from landscape, animals, death, and metamorphosis.
Lia’s photographic works, mainly in colour using analogue processes, are large‐scale landscapes produced through medium and large format film. She is presently exploring themes of nature and culture observed at night‐time, using long exposure times. She is also passionate about her sculptural practice, and has created animal forms working with materials that range from wax to bronze using various media, as well as taxidermy. A fascination with cinematic methodologies has burgeoned in her work, where she uses composure, time, and reflection to explore slippages betwixt and between myth and reality, familiarity and function.
Lia has exhibited at Plaything Gallery, Auckland, and in 2009 was awarded the Elam Prize for meritorious work in Undergraduate Photography as well as the Jean Hamlin Memorial Scholarship for her photographic and sculptural work with animals.
Juliette Cheyne
Research Fellow
Synaptic Function Research Group
Juliette Cheyne is a Research Fellow in Dr Johanna Montgomery's lab in the Physiology Department. Her research focuses on the hippocampus, which is a region of the brain that is crucial for learning and memory. She is particularly interested in the connections (synapses) between brain cells (neurons), which are known to undergo changes (synaptic plasticity) when learning occurs. Juliette studies the formation of synapses and the changes in strength of synapses that occur in response to neuronal activity. She is interested in the role that different synaptic proteins play in these processes. The hippocampus is one of limited regions of the brain where new neurons are generated throughout life. Juliette is also interested in how these new neurons become synaptically connected into neuronal networks.
Juliette uses fluorescence microscopy to examine the expression levels of synaptic proteins in newly generated and mature neurons. She also studies the electrical properties of live neurons using a technique called electrophysiology where she records from individual neurons. By recording from pairs of neurons she examines the properties and plasticity of the synapses that connect the two neurons. Juliette has presented her work at international conferences including the Forum of European Neuroscience and has published in international journals including Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience and the Journal of Neuroscience.
Timothy Chapman
Timothy has a multidisciplinary practice through which work is formed by a fascination with the objects, actions and activities of contemporary society. The subject matter of this work is often concerned with social concepts of gender identity and masculinity, as well as the dislocation between domestic ideologies and wider social realities. The vantage point of the child, and the objects and activities of play, are often used as entry points into these conversations, and humour helps to lubricate what can otherwise be difficult issues to access.
The techniques of making used in Timothy’s practice are also appropriated from his surroundings. Mould‐making, casting, plastic fabrication, ceramics, needlework and photography are some of the techniques utilised to locate his work within a multifaceted society. Video is also used regularly within Timothy’s practice, its speed and ease often utilised as a tool for drawing or experimentation. Again, mainstream forums such as YouTube are borrowed to provide a contextual bearing for the work.
Timothy graduated with a BFA with first class honours from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 2008. He has taken part in the Elam Art Upfront Foyer Project, has shown work at the George Fraser Gallery in Auckland, Enjoy Gallery and Square ² moving image gallery in Wellington, and recently completed a solo show at Laundromat Art Project Space in Tauranga. His work has also been featured in Pulp and No Magazine.
www.timothychapman.wordpress.com
Veema Lodhia
PhD Student
Psychophysics / Cognitive Laboratories
Perceptual processing in autistic spectrum disorders: Our everyday environment is acoustically complex. At any given moment, we might be surrounded by auditory objects such as a radio playing, birds chirping in the distance, or a group of people speaking; all of these elements could be occurring simultaneously. Our central auditory system not only has to encode incoming auditory information but separate concurrent sounds, locate sound objects in relation to space and identify sound objects. This process is known as auditory scene analysis.
My PhD research combines the use of high‐density electroencephalography and a particular type of Dichotic Pitch (DP). DP is produced by the binaural fusion of two patterns of broadband noise with the central auditory system. We can vary the location and pitch characteristics of the DP stimulus by manipulating the interaural lag and frequency bandpass of the time‐shifted component. Thus, allowing us to measure various binaural auditory processes and their related electrophysiological components.
My project is specifically investigating auditory mechanisms related to local/ global processing and bottom‐up/ top‐down processing in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) /Asperger’s. Visual studies have identified impairments in global and top‐down processes that are related to specific difficulties observed in ASD individuals. If the auditory system is parallel to the visual system, we should see the same kind of impairments in global /top‐down mechanisms as seen in visual ASD research.
Alexander Hoyles
Interested in a dynamic investigation of the function of the everyday within a new grand narrative, Alexander Hoyles (originally from Birmingham UK), has exhibited work in the George Fraser (Public Space, Im/perfection), The Wallace Trust Gallery (Urbid Morbia), and The Film Archive (Vegetable Memory) among other venues.
His work mainly centres round reinterpretation of scientific and theological philosophies, and has manifested itself in everything from large scale kinetic sculptures to anachronistic photographic installations. Being a practitioner of photography for roughly 10 years, Alexander has exhibited his photographic works several times in small scale exhibitions during this time, as well as building a personal portfolio.
While working towards his Fine Arts degree, his practice has veered more toward Sculptural, Video and Performative work and as such, he is currently dabbling in many techniques that might be suited to conveying his ideas sculpturally, including: Mould Making, Plastic Casting, Woodwork, Metalwork, Sewing, Lighting, Electronics and Mechanics.
“My practice seeks to investigate systems of modelling and understanding within the confines of academia. Through the construction of abbreviated replicas/models of systems, an effort is made to transplant theories and rules from one academic field to another creating alternative ‘cross‐readings’ for everyday processes and extraordinary events alike.”
Utilizing knowledge from Chaos theory and the natural sciences, Alexander's works become abstract mappings of open systems, demonstrating the mechanics of anything from diffusion in a liquid to subtle changes in weather patterns. These works are created using a variety of process‐based machinations, which act in themselves as models on an alternate scale of the dynamism within a studied system – for example processes mimicking the particulate motion of paint through water‐soaked paper, used to created a painting.