Creative Brain Week 2024 | Dublin & Online

Date

Monday, March 4 - Saturday, March 9, 2024

Event Details

Creative Brain Week is a Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) innovation at Trinity College Dublin, presented in association with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and with support from Creative Ireland and the Atlantic Institute.

Creative Brain Week 2024

Explores the themes of "Attention, Connection and Love" through art, science and activism:

Attention, how does it work, what do we pay attention to, what happens if attention changes?
Connection, how are we connected and what to? What connections do people ignore and can connection be nurtured?
Love, (and when it isn’t enough)—how do neuroscientists and artists understand love, and is love enough to build care systems? What difference does it make?

Our themes enable artists and scientists to bring the best knowledge and expertise from across disciplines, to addressing the challenges of non-communicable diseases like Alzheimer's, and complex issues like brain health, poverty and environmental impacts.

Featuring exhibitions and talks by scientists, artists and innovators Creative Brain Week takes place across the digital and physical campus of Trinity College Dublin and out into the heart of the city between March 4-9, 2024.

Launch evening: welcomes audiences, live and online, bringing them up to date with activity inspired by and developing from last year’s event—March 4th.
Presentations: explore "Attention, Connection and Love" as a framework to make connections between knowledge developing across disciplines and cultures—March 5th-7th.
Creative exhibition: wraps around the event presentations—March 4th-9th.

Come to take a deep dive into new ideas and innovative approaches from around the world addressing the most critical of issues.

Speakers and Events

You can view is a flavor of some of this year's exciting speakers and innovative displays below. To see the full program please visit the Creative Brain Week website.

Susan Magsamen is the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab), Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics, a pioneering initiative from the Pedersen Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her body of work lies at the intersection of brain sciences and the arts, exploring how our unique response to aesthetic experiences can amplify human potential. Her book ”Your Brain On Art” with Ivy Ross was a New York Times bestseller in 2023.
Marshmallow Laser Feast are an experiential art collective, whose work reinterprets the idea of human perception and experience. Employing a wealth of creative disciplines and underpinned by research they invite audience to navigate with a sensory perception beyond the everyday. What is the difference between where you end and the world starts?
My Brain Robbie a fantastic initiative to help keep little brains healthy, whose journey from France to Argentina by way of Dublin continues to show how artists, scientists, activists and collaborators of all kinds can make the world a little better.
Sue Mayo is a theater maker, facilitator and researcher working across art forms, who specializes in participatory and collaborative work. Her project Breaks & Joins is a wide ranging participatory project about repair—how we repair ourselves, our stuff and our communities, and how we live with what can’t be mended, and break what must be broken.
Inaugural awarding of The Pratchett Prize. Inspired by the life and work of author Terry Pratchett this award acknowledges the contribution of a scientist, artist, activist, or person living with the condition who collaboratively or separately, works to reduce the impact of Alzheimer's. In the spirit of Terry Pratchett’s literary and personal work the “adjudicating wizards” awarding the prize seek humor and wit in art and science, kindness and creativity and curiosity, playfulness, attention and dedication in equal measure.
Contributions from the authors of an unique five-part Lancet Global Special announced on the impact of arts on non-communicable diseases and brain health conditions, launched in Carnegie Hall during the UN General Assembly by Sir Jeremy Farrar Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization.
2024 also brings the first Creative Brain Week satellite events—thematically connected, locally informed programs in Brisbane, Gaborone, Cairo and Chennai. Each is backed by a local or national university, connected to cultural organizations and led by an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and the Atlantic Institute.

About Creative Brain Week

Creativity is everyone’s asset, a critical skills for the coming century, which can be nurtured and enhanced. Now entering its third year Creative Brain Week has rapidly achieved local and international significance in its examination of how brain science and creativity collide.

This annual week of events explores and promotes the relationships between creativity and the brain in areas including social development, technology, the arts, entrepreneurship, brain health and physical health. A pioneering event illustrating innovation at the intersection of arts and brain science, including creative approaches to health and wellbeing across the life course, it will share experience and knowledge from academic and public practice.

By showcasing innovation at the intersection of neuroscience and the arts, Creative Brain Week helps raise national and international awareness of the powerful relationship between brain health and creativity, and stimulates research into how creative practice might mitigate the negative effects of poverty, low education and disease on brain functioning and quality of life.