As someone constantly questioning, brainstorming, reimagining and trying to make meaning and sense of the world; life continues to be a wild ride! There are certain moments in life that offer “things you just can’t unsee”. One of these moments of illumination happened to me in Venice last Spring at “Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea”, part of Fondazione Prada’s long-term neuroscience initiative. This exhibit literally has me questioning everything! Before the exhibit, I thought I knew at least parts of my own mind. But the exhibit took us on multiple deep dives into the rabbit holes of neuroscience, mental health, and medical research and the mash-up of hallucinogenic thoughts that drive our behavior. And now that I realize how yanked around we are by our conditioned minds, how our thoughts (many are just false constructs) manipulate behavior and what a bunch of buffoons we are to treat our mental wellness with such disregard. I now see mental health as the root cause of so much that ails us.
One thing that really stuck with me was the ethical question of using our knowledge of neuroscience to teach animals to communicate with humans. I mean, imagine being able to talk to your pet or the animals in the forest. That would be amazing, right? Understanding through language the lives of other species could stretch the boundaries of our own unique sensory bubbles and glean how other species understand, experience and share their surroundings. We are really close to figuring out how to flip this switch to turn on the neurological pathways, but then, you start to think, what happens when we teach chimpanzees and gorillas or our dogs to speak? What will they say to us? Will they speak for the other species we have mistreated and start suing us for exploitation? Will they start organizing and forming labor unions? Will they demand better living conditions and salaries? The confines of how we perceive and sense the world would be blown open. The mind boggles.
And it's not just about animals — the whole concept of artificial intelligence and what it is teaching us about human learning and how it is blowing open boundaries we did not realize were confining us in the first place. Our current obsession with Chat GBT and the like prove how fast we need to grapple with the moral and ethical questions of AI. Are we creating something so powerful that it will take over our lives? Will we eventually just create machines with our own brains programmed into them to survive the human holocaust? I mean, let's face it, we're not exactly known for taking care of the planet or each other.
And to really open our minds to new possibilities, we combined this exhibit with the Biennale’s "Milk of Dreams", exploring the power of the creative imagination, dreaming new realities, and imagining new modes of coexistence. Immediately, when one enters they are nose-to-trunk with Katharina Fritsch’s Elephant. Awestruck by the beauty and majesty of the elephant standing in the entrance hall that our conditioned brains expect a Greek God — a human sculpture to stand flexing his power, but here instead we meet and look into the eyes of the elephant; one of the most generous, kind, caring, intelligent life forms now on the extinction list. This powerhouse perspective check piece sets the tone for the journey through the “Olympics of the Art World”. The Biennale's curator, Cecilia Alemani said we need to remind ourselves “that as mortal bodies, we are neither invincible nor self-sufficient, but rather part of a symbiotic web of interdependencies that bind us to each other, to other species, and to the planet as a whole”. She spent years slowly curating, talking to artists from all over the world and it really shows in the exhibit. It was both spiritual and political, and stretched the mind with new ways of feeling, seeing, relating, reimagining and understanding human boundaries, our responsibilities to each other and the planet, and questioning what life would look like without us.
But, here's the thing, visiting the Biennale post Covid was also a celebration of coming together and connecting with people from all over the world. In a time when we're so isolated and polarized, it was a reminder of the joy of sharing ideas, spending time together, storytelling and celebrating different perspectives, and the joy of travel. And let's be real, we could all use a little more of that.
So, why do I keep circling around this brain~bending Biennale and neighboring exhibits? Our brains are complex and mysterious, animals may one day talk to us shifting how we perceive the world, and we're on the brink of a technological takeover. But, we also learned that the power of imagination and coming together can change the world. So, let's all go out there and start imagining a better future and connecting with each other. Who knows, we might just surprise ourselves.
You are the most beautiful writer. Your essay made me long to have been able to experience every sight , every sound, every idea with you. Time is not infinite. Please take me with you on this magic carpet ride.