top of page

for Jenny Walsh

 

"Spin glass is inspired by head direction cells, which are brain cells that create our sense of direction. Head direction cells continually map the direction the head is facing as we move around. When the head turns, new head direction cells fire, registering your new direction and linking it to your new perception." 

Collaborating with Kate Jeffery, a professor of Behavioural Neuroscience at University College London and Jeremy Keenan, technician. Spin Glass represents a head-direction network that is controlled by the head movements of an exploring mouse. With the animal’s movements, light activity shifts through the network such that the active neurons always signal the direction of the mouse’s head, thus forming its sense of direction.

Spin Glass was recently exhibited at the Cavendish SciArt Exhibition in Cambridge and will be exhibited at FENS Forum of Neuroscience in Berlin on the 7th - 11th July 2018.

 

The accompanying music was based on a sample produced from rubbed crystal glass, modulated to make notes of different pitch. These notes were then combined to make chords, with each chord matching a direction. Because the sense of direction forms a continuous circle, the chords were formed as a circular scale, enabling the music to continuously and smoothly follow the movements of the head and the activation of the neurons.

bottom of page