The Reading Brain
"The Reading Brain" is a colorful, organic brain-like sculpture, which flickers real-time mapping of brain activity produced by dyslexic children reading, recorded in MRI scans facilitated by Dr. Guinevere Eden, Director of the Center for the Study of Learning at Georgetown University.
Audiences are encouraged through signage to dance underneath the orbs. Colorful decals placed on the floor indicate the three regions of the brain used to process language and help decode for the visitor how that particular region helps support reading. As visitors enter the space and move throughout the installation, the light in the orbs overhead begins to move quickly. If three visitors are occupying the same hemisphere at the same time the three corresponding regions overhead not only move quicker but begin to incorporate more statured colors. As all six regions are occupied the entire installation shifts to only warm tones of red and orange. The shift in color, saturation and speed is used to visually reinforce that the more we read the more our neural networks activate and the smarter we become.
"The Reading Brain" is a celebration of all children and all of which makes us different and unique from one another, while igniting curiosity about the mechanics of our brains through the reading process.
