麻豆传媒

C茅rebro 鈥� Mais vasto que o c茅u/, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, to 10 June

A FEW steps inside the Gulbenkian Foundation鈥檚 latest exhibition, a crowd of visitors halts, entranced. There is a faint collective 鈥淲ow鈥� as they look up. In a twilight space, an enormous video screen shows a slice of human brain, but with its long, looping pathways and layers of nerve cells shimmering in gold.

Colours change, the viewpoint slowly shifts and zooms, explores fine tangles of dendrites and the curves of axons before returning slowly to the big view.

It takes a minute to see that this isn鈥檛 a real brain slice; it is a video of a hyper-real, microetched representation of the brain, computer-generated by neuroscientist Greg Dunn and physicist Brian Edwards. They call the work Self Reflected. In its idealised perfection we see what a wonder the brain is, and how astonishing it is that these soft loops and tangles are what creates the feeling of being 鈥渕e鈥�.

The exhibition, C茅rebro (Brain), is off to an extraordinary start. Its curator, Rui Oliveira, a neurobiologist at Portugal鈥檚 , tells me that he wanted to bring arts and science together to create an 鈥渆motional, sensorial and intimate environment that would make people feel amazed and instantly engaged鈥�. He has succeeded, because what follows is an exhibition that continually renews our wonder at what science reveals.

Laid out in elegant diagrams on pale grey surfaces in an intimately lit space, there is plenty to read on three big themes: the brain鈥檚 origins and complexity; the emergence of the mind; and the future of the brain in AI and robotics. But the wonder comes from the many exhibits that 鈥渆nable people to experience their own brain in action鈥�, as Oliveira puts it.

鈥淭he viewers鈥� brainwaves become a collective 鈥榖rain orchestra鈥�, which creates a wonderful musical piece鈥�

For example, I play a game of telekinetic Mindball against a stranger. We sit at opposite ends of a long table, wearing brainwave monitors. A tiny ball sits on the table, its movements driven by magnets controlled by our brainwaves. The goal is to roll the ball towards your opponent. I focus hard, but my adversary radiates peace. The ball rolls to me and it is over. I learn too late that 鈥渢o win you must be calmer than your opponent鈥�. Perhaps meditators have found their sport.

At the exhibition鈥檚 heart is the chance to see your brain working creatively. Electroencephalogram headsets let you see your multiple brain rhythms in coloured bars and within a rotating schematic of your brain on a giant screen. Simultaneously, all the viewers鈥� brainwaves are translated into a soundscape mixed into a music base, so that the collective 鈥渂rain orchestra鈥� creates an emergent musical piece. It is wonderful.

We learn, too, that our short-term memory isn鈥檛 so great when we come up against Ayumu, a chimp living at the Primate Research Institute in Japan鈥檚 Kyoto University. I could recall the locations of five digits on a screen easily. Seven was tough; at nine, Ayumu鈥檚 skills were far superior.

The show occupied me for 3 hours: it had plenty to teach about the brain and even more about keeping our brains amazed. Sadly, the exhibition鈥檚 organisers say there are no plans to tour.