Katie Caron - "Neuron Forest (installation)" and "Branching Structures"

Katie Caron has always been compelled to create work inspired by the nature’s geometries, particularly the self-similar, branching fractals in our brains: neurons. These discrete nerve cells are composed of dendrites, a series of radiating appendages that gather input from other neurons. Katie is struck by their visual movement, how they creep as they change form and communicate through neural pathways. These neural circuits interconnect to form a large-scale network in the 

brain—creating human consciousness, identity, and life as we know it.

Neurons were discovered in 1887 by Santiago Ramon y Cajal, father of modern neuroscience. Since then, researchers have probed and mapped the brain with a vast array of sophisticated methods and technologies, from MRI scanners to molecular devices to unveil a beguiling architecture. Our perspective of the invisible world of the brain is entirely dependent upon the nature of these hidden processes, exclusively mediated by the technologies we have invented to image what takes place at an almost impossibly small scale and in the dark.

These mediated images reveal chaotic systems and uncanny beauty. We can observe the brain’s familiar branching fractals in roots, electricity, rivers, and especially biology such as passages in the lungs, networks of arteries, and the nervous system. Intriguingly, in the  body,  neural fractals exist between dimensions. They can be considered objects with a dimensionality that is not an integer, meaning they are not three-dimensional like a cube or two-dimensional like a square. By existing between dimensions, the fractal networks can reach throughout the body’s volume without filling it up. Katie investigates these dimensions between through formal exploration and material practice and seeks to give form and understanding to human consciousness using new scanning technologies from neuroscience and the world of design.