Eutierria

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CONVERGENCE 6

DCART Exhibition 2023

Oil drum, plexiglass, steel, plants, acrylic, water pump, vinyl tubes, LEDs, magnets

(6’x14’’x14’’)

Alexis Pautasso * Jasmine Cakmak * Joseph Igiraneza * Carla Benea

Artwork

Art Statement

Cities have become our environment. They were built by us, for us, leaving us fully enveloped in their, often rigid, landscapes. But are cities truly a reflection of who we are? How do they affect us? We have built our cities distanced from Nature, and therefore away from “eutierria”, a term coined by Australian philosopher Glenn A. Albrecht, expressing the “positive feeling of oneness with the earth and its life forces where the boundaries between self and the rest of nature are obliterated and a deep sense of peace and connectedness pervades consciousness”. Nature is living and so are we, and our brains embody this connection. Just like the neurons in our brains create synapses with one another, the roots of a plant communicate with each other. The six layers of the cerebral cortex are full of these connections, and as plant life is affected by the characteristics of its environment, so is our health. As humans, the integration of nature into our built environment is crucial for survival. We are one with Nature. We must not drive it away, but allow it into our spaces and celebrate it for what it is – a protecting factor of our well-being and health, both mental and physical.

Les villes sont devenues notre environnement. Elles ont été construites par nous, pour nous, nous laissant entièrement enveloppés dans leurs paysages, souvent rigides. Mais les villes sont-elles vraiment le reflet de ce que nous sommes ? Comment nous affectent-elles ? Nous avons construit nos villes en nous éloignant de la nature, et donc de l’« eutierria », un terme inventé par le philosophe australien Glenn A. Albrecht, qui exprime le « sentiment positif d’unité avec la terre et ses forces vitales, lorsque les frontières entre soi et le reste de la nature sont effacées et qu’un profond sentiment de paix et de connexion envahit la conscience ». La nature est vivante et nous le sommes aussi, et notre cerveau incarne cette connexion. Tout comme les neurones de notre cerveau créent des synapses entre eux, les racines d’une plante communiquent entre elles. Les six couches du cortex cérébral sont pleines de ces connexions, et comme la vie des plantes est affectée par leur environnement, il en va de même pour notre santé. En tant qu’êtres humains, l’intégration de la nature dans notre environnement est cruciale pour notre survie. Nous ne faisons qu’un avec la nature. Nous ne devons pas la chasser, mais la laisser entrer dans nos espaces et la célébrer pour ce qu’elle est : un facteur de protection de notre bien-être et de notre santé, tant mentale que physique.

Biographies

Carla Benea

Carla Benea is a doctoral student pursuing her PhD in Neuroscience at McGill University, where she hopes to investigate neuroplasticity and how we can rewire our brains to treat mental health illnesses. She intends to become a clinician-scientist specialized in transcultural psychiatry and a global mental health advocate. Through travels to South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia, and her Romanian origins, she has learned firsthand how living connected with Nature is inherently human, and healing. A passionate dancer, Carla believes that through movement, we can reconnect with ourselves, and by extension, to Nature, consciously inviting it to be at the center of our everyday lives.

Carla Benea est étudiante au doctorat en neurosciences à l’Université McGill, où elle compte étudier la neuroplasticité et la façon dont nous pouvons remodeler nos cerveaux pour traiter les maladies mentales, souhaitant devenir une clinicienne-scientifique spécialisée dans la psychiatrie transculturelle et une porte-parole de la santé mentale. Grâce à ses voyages en Amérique du Sud, en Europe et en Asie du Sud-Est, ainsi qu’à ses origines roumaines, elle a appris que vivre en contact avec la nature est fondamentalement humain et thérapeutique. Passionnée de danse, Carla est convaincue qu’à travers le mouvement, nous pouvons nous reconnecter à nous-mêmes et, par conséquent, à la nature, en l’invitant consciemment au centre de notre vie quotidienne.

Jasmine Cakmak

Jasmine Cakmak is a PhD student in Neuroscience at McGill University. Using MRI technology, she studies the associations between our environment and neurodegeneration, trying to understand how the way we build our cities affects our brain health. She is especially interested in making MRI research more sustainable and accessible globally by developing new analysis tools to reuse clinical MRI images, and by teaching clinicians and researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa how to conduct robust clinical fMRI studies from the ground up. Outside of academia, she avidly enjoys and experiments in many forms of art including film, music, embroidery, and writing.

Jasmine Cakmak est étudiante au doctorat en neurosciences à l’Université McGill. À l’aide de la technologie IRM, elle étudie les associations entre notre environnement et la neurodégénérescence, en essayant de comprendre comment la façon dont nous construisons nos villes affecte la santé de notre cerveau. Elle s’intéresse particulièrement à rendre la recherche en IRM plus accessible en développant de nouveaux outils d’analyse pour réutiliser les images IRM cliniques, et en formant des cliniciens et des chercheurs d’Afrique subsaharienne à la réalisation d’études IRMf cliniques robustes. En dehors du monde universitaire, elle s’adonne avec passion à de nombreuses formes d’art, dont le cinéma, la musique, la broderie et l’écriture.

Joseph Igiraneza

Joseph Igiraneza is a diligent Fine Arts student majoring in Design, with a keen interest in user experience for education and productivity tools. Their diverse project experience spans book printing, UX research, and branding, showcasing a well-rounded approach to design. Currently, Igiraneza is exploring the intersection of systems design and the emerging influence of General Artificial Intelligence. Their design practice revolves around redefining the conventional design process. Instead of requiring users to adapt to systems, Igiraneza aims to create systems that intuitively understand and cater to users’ needs. This innovative approach demonstrates their commitment to enhancing the way people interact with technology, making it more accessible and user-friendly.

Joseph Igiraneza est un étudiant assidu en design, qui s’intéresse de près à l’expérience utilisateur pour l’éducation et la productivité. Leur expérience de projet diversifiée couvre l’impression de livres, la recherche UX et l’image de marque, mettant en évidence une approche bien équilibrée de la conception. Actuellement, Igiraneza explore l’intersection de la conception de systèmes et l’influence émergente de l’intelligence artificielle générale. Au lieu de demander aux utilisateurs de s’adapter aux systèmes, Igiraneza vise à créer des systèmes qui comprennent intuitivement les besoins des utilisateurs et y répondent. Cette approche innovante témoigne de leur engagement à améliorer la façon dont les gens interagissent avec la technologie, en la rendant plus accessible et plus conviviale.

Alexis Pautasso

Alexis Pautasso is a versatile creator practising art and design. In constant search of concrete solutions combining aesthetic and functional qualities, this ambitious designer remains humble in the face of reality and the unexpected. Attentive to the details of the rituals we engage with the objects that surround us, Pautasso seeks the creation of interactions between humans daily. His ease in communicating and his desire to share his enthusiasm led him to pedagogy. His professional experience in a Montreal lighting design company, Lambert & Fils, manifested itself in leading a creative laboratory and teaching design.

Alexis Pautasso est un créateur polyvalent pratiquant l’art et le design. À la recherche constante de solutions concrètes alliant qualités esthétiques et fonctionnelles, cet idéateur ambitieux reste humble face à la réalité et aux imprévus. Attentif aux détails des rituels que nous entretenons avec les objets qui nous entourent, Pautasso recherche la création d’interactions entre les humains au quotidien. Sa facilité à communiquer et son envie de partager son enthousiasme l’ont dirigé vers la pédagogie. Son expérience professionnelle dans une entreprise de design de luminaires montréalaise, Lambert & Fils, s’est concrétisée par l’animation d’un laboratoire créatif et l’enseignement du design.

Science

Neurodegenerative diseases are incurable; therefore, a major treatment strategy is prevention. In order to prevent these conditions, modifiable risk factors must be identified. One potential risk factor, air pollution, has been linked to 4.72% of deaths from Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and multiple sclerosis in Canada, and 15,813 cases of dementia in Ontario 1,2 . A 40% drop in average levels of toxic fine particulate matter at 2.5μm (PM 2.5 ) in some regions of the US led to 182,000 fewer dementia cases over a 10-year period, while an increase of 10% in other regions over the same period increased risks of dementia diagnosis by 8% 3 . Air pollution can have a disparate impact on specific communities (urban/industrial vs suburbs or rural), disproportionately exposing some populations to increased dementia risks with intersecting socioeconomic risk factors 4 .

We then face two issues: (1) neuroepidemiology is an underdeveloped field that requires new tools for growth, and (2) there are limited means for the prevention of the impacts of environmental factors on our brain health. Jasmine’s current research deals with creating AI tools to sustainably reuse images for population research. As well, changing the way we build our cities could have an effect on health. Poor city planning, such as residential proximity to major roads, can quicken the onset of dementia 5 . This may be related to an ignorance of the importance of nature to our health, and with narcissism, anthropocentrism, and ego. Narcissism is associated with feelings of self-importance, as well as lack of empathy. Highly narcissistic individuals have increased activation of their right anterior insula during empathy, as well as greater activation of the dorsal and ventral anterior cingulate cortex when viewing one’s own face in the mirror, suggesting higher emotional conflict 6,7 .

Our hypothesis is that ego, narcissism, and ignorance influence the way we have built and continue to build our cities. Our goal is to encourage individuals to chase growth, finding humble, new ways while also reconnecting with old resilient ways (such as those of indigenous peoples) to use the tools we have access to, promoting inclusiveness of nature in our built environments.

References

1. Chen, H. et al. Exposure to ambient air pollution and the incidence of dementia: A population-based cohort study. Environ. Int. 108 , 271–277 (2017).
2. Zhao, N. et al. Long-term ozone exposure and mortality from neurological diseases in Canada. Environ. Int. 157 , 106817 (2021).
3. Bishop, K., Ketcham, J. & Kuminoff, N. Hazed and Confused: The Effect of Air Pollution on Dementia. NBER Work. Pap. 24970 (2018).
4. Santos, N. V. dos, Yariwake, V. Y., Marques, K. do V., Veras, M. M. & Fajersztajn, L. Air Pollution: A Neglected Risk Factor for Dementia in Latin America and the Caribbean. Front. Neurol. 12 , 1198 (2021).
5. Smargiassi, A. et al. Exposure to ambient air pollutants and the onset of dementia in Québec, Canada. Environ. Res. 190 , (2020).
6. Fan, Y. et al. The narcissistic self and its psychological and neural correlates: An exploratory fMRI study. Psychol. Med. 41 , (2011).
7. Jauk, E., Benedek, M., Koschutnig, K., Kedia, G. & Neubauer, A. C. Self-viewing is associated with negative affect rather than reward in highly narcissistic men: An fMRI study. Sci. Rep. 7 , (2017).