The state of human decay, a traumatic scenery is frequently visualized by painters in medieval times with “inside-out” contemplations about various creatures such as angels, demons and others residing inside the skull compartment floating out in proximity to the mortality scene, symbolizing the departure of the soul. Contemplating being a photographer in medieval days and a neuroscientist these days, in “Inside-Out” photography project I express my visual contemplations regarding this imaginative contemplations at the time.
The early civilizations lacked adequate means to obtain knowledge about the human brain. Their assumptions about the inner workings of the mind, therefore, were not accurate. Early views on the function of the brain regarded it to be a medieval form of “cranial stuffing” of various sorts. Egyptians performed following death the practice of extraction as much of the brain tissue as possible with an iron hook before the mummy preservation procedure. Most functions were attributed these days to the brain were assigned then to the heart.
Though we know these days very little about high functions of the brain, we know that intelligence, cognitive functions, all sensory modalities (vision, auditory, tactile and motor controls as well as language articulation) reside in the brain. The localization of these functions in the brain was established too, and serves in neurosurgical interventions. Actually, brain clinical death is the end of vital life.
“Inside-Out” project contemplates the various medieval perceptions of brain vital departure.
