Mind into Matter: How Susan Aldworth turns Brain Scans into Art

“Of all the parts that make that man, which one holds the soul?” -Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein.

Biology tells us our soul is found in our DNA, a culmination of behavioral traits over generations of natural selection. Psychology suggests that it is our trauma that builds our state: how our experiences change our fundamental ideologies and modes of existence. Religion declares that our souls are a supernatural intrinsic state of matter that the laws of science and nature cannot explain. Descartes asserted, “I think, therefore I am,” while Shakespeare’s characters declare, “I am not what I am.” So what determines a person’s soul? Is it their brain chemistry? The arrangement of arteries in the brain? Or learned behaviors?

Whatever the case, this is the dilemma that plagues the medical system: As a care provider, there is an ever-present danger of falling into the monotonous grind designed by an impersonal medical system. To them, it's Name, sex, DOB, history, symptoms. Name, sex, DOB, history, symptoms. Name, sex, DOB…Patients are left feeling dehumanized as if their entire souls could be read on a computer screen or a piece of paper, while doctors are physically exhausted and driven to robotic decisions. Do care providers have a responsibility to peer into the soul of each patient? How can they with only fifteen minutes and a brain scan?

Susan Aldworth, a multimedia artist based in Great Britain, works to bridge the gap between the physiological and metaphysical through her poignant art pieces dealing with the substance of the soul. Her favorite, and most recent, piece, Transience, faces the question of self head-on with a series of etchings of brain slices. Referring to the piece, she says, “I am more proud of it than anything else because it is the most accurate portrait of someone; nature and nurture and the physicality of it.”

She didn’t start out using art to translate medical imaging into humanity, however. Aldworth started her journey, fittingly, with a philosophy degree from Nottingham University before pursuing an arts degree at The School of Art, Architecture, and Design in London. In many of her pieces, she uses philosophical concepts in order to convey complex dialogues behind personhood. An example of this is her series, Cogito Ergo Sum, a philosophical concept coined by Descartes that directly translates to “I think, therefore I am”. Initially working as a graphic designer, she became inspired to start creating her signature interdisciplinary artwork after getting a CT scan and watching her own thoughts appear on the computer screen. To her, CT scans were a way of “showing [herself] in a way [she] had never encountered before.” Many people don’t have the opportunity to see their own brain, but after sitting in on hundreds of brain scans, Aldworth is mesmerized by the sheer amount of physiological differences between brains. It’s like a face, and while these differences may cause a difference in personality, it acts as a “democratizing force” in which everyone is stripped down to their unique cerebral structure. 

Fascinated by the CT scans, Susan Aldworth built on these principles in her series Cogito Ergo Sum, in which she draws snapshots of her own life around crudely scientific MRI scans. The juxtaposition between medical images of her brain and her own artistic creativity challenges the viewer to consider every human in a medical image as someone greater than their condition. She stresses the importance of using a person’s lived experiences to develop their humanity rather than looking at a list of symptoms. It’s a question of “nature vs. nurture”, but also a question of “what is the soul made of, and can it be seen?” Whatever it is, Aldworth’s piece captures what the soul does and imagines what a soul would look like: the physical qualities of the brain and the immaterial qualities of a person’s lived experiences. 

Oftentimes, a person’s soul is hidden by crude medical methodology, and the artist’s job is to explore these souls as a product of lived experiences. Aldworth says a relationship must be built between the doctor, patient, and artist in order to expose a story. She takes on this role in her exhibit, Out of the Blue, a collection that was created to tell the stories of people living with epilepsy. The title actually carries a double meaning: the pieces were physically blue-colored; the collection featured cyanotypes, a type of sun-printing with a signature blue hue. However, the title also plays on the idea that seizures happen “out of the blue”, as in, with seemingly no warning. Another part of the exhibit had the testimonies of those suffering from epilepsy written on underwear to symbolize the stigmatized and hidden stories of those patients. To her, many stigmatized states of being, such as health, are simply “another way to be human”.

There are so many ways to be human, brought on by differing lived experiences. The best way to be human, though, is to extend empathy towards people society has stigmatized. After all, the soul is something that cannot be captured only by CT scans, MRI imaging, and their medical records alone. It is something intrinsic that deserves to be seen past just medical imaging. 

Special thanks to Susan Aldworth for taking the time to interview!

Link to Susan Aldworth’s website and exhibits: https://susanaldworth.com/