Cathy's Art Diary

Clever exhibition at the Francis Crick Institute looking at how the human and animal brain works. The show explained complex information relatively simply in a series of booths with a mix of pictures and av material. Each section also had QR codes to link to more detailed research going on at the Institute itself. I particularly interested in the section on sleep and how it is a time for your brain to repair and build memories. Closed 20 June 2025

Informative exhibition at the Science Museum looking at the history of the study of how nerves and the brain relate to thoughts’ behaviour and mental health. It began with a grizzly preserved nervous system from the 1650s varnished onto a dissecting table but rapidly moved on to the work which John Wesley did on the use of electricity to treat nervous disorders. I loved a painting of a woman being treated in her home surrounded by her family with her chair on upturned glasses to control the flow of the current. It also looked at how the complaint of nervous exhaustion grew more prevalent at the end of the 19th century which led to the study of the link between nerves and behaviour and how psychiatric drugs were discovered after the Second World War with the depression being seen as a chemical imbalance. My favourite object though had to be the souvenir picture of Pavlov’s dogs! They all looked very happy!