Brainmedia

"Will we ever be able to see the brain at work? Can we observe thinking and feeling as if we were watching a live broadcast in the human head? Brainmedia uncovers past and present examples of scientists and science educators who conceptualise and demonstrate the active human brain guided by new media technologies. Drawing on original archival material, Brainmedia outlines a new history of "live brains" and argues that practices of and ideas about mediation impacted the imagination of seeing the brain at work. In five illustrated case studies, Flora Lysen shows the conceptual but also practical assembling of brains and media: illuminated brain models in the 1920s and 30s; staged brainwave recordings from the 30s to the 40s; live brains on television and conceptions of brains as television in the 40s and 50s; EEG feedback circuits and the rise of real-time interfaces around 1970; and "brain-to-brain" synchronisation research in the 21st century. By combining examples of scientists examining brains in laboratories and examples of public demonstrations and exhibitions of brain research, Brainmedia casts new light on popularisation practices, placing them at the heart of scientific work