Mental Mapping explores how internal networks, such as memory, perception, and emotion, shape the way we experience and navigate the world. This exhibition delves into the intersections of neuroscience, creativity, and visual storytelling.

Reception: April 24, 2025, 6:30-8:30 PM

Artist Talk: June 10, 2025, 6-8 PM

Location: The Somerville Armory
191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA

Admission is free.

Joshua Sariñana served on the National Book Foundation's 2024-2025 Science + Literature Selection Committee. This program celebrates exceptional fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books that combine science and technology with literature, emphasizing diversity in authorship and subject matter.

Joshua Sariñana served as a guest panelist for the 2025 Local Cultural Council (LCC) grant for the Somerville Arts Council, contributing to the Film and Interrelated Media panel. The panel aimed to evaluate and allocate funding to creative projects that enrich the cultural landscape of Somerville. As part of his role, Sariñana reviewed grant applications and engaged in discussions to assess the artistic quality, community impact, and feasibility of proposed projects.

Joshua Sariñana’s latest research, Neural Synchrony of Minds and Machines: Hippocampal Mechanisms to Advance AI and Virtual Networks, has been published in Leonardo, the leading peer-reviewed journal on the intersection of science, technology, and the arts. Read the Paper »

Spark, With Nora Young, by CBC Radio explores how neuroscience and technology intersect to enhance our understanding of memory. Joshua Sariñana explains how memory engrams—networks of neurons encoding experiences—can be visualized and artificially activated using advanced techniques like optogenetics.

This Roundtable discussion explores the intersections of neuroscience, art, artificial intelligence, and memory through a collaborative discussion featuring a choreographer, designer/artist, an environment and community organizer, and neuroscientists. The conversation highlights Joshua Sariñana's Mental Mapping project, which visualizes the connections between our internal cognitive networks and external environments by using photography, storytelling, and AI tools.

The podcast episode of Culture Matters at the Urban Media Art studio features Joshua Sariñana discussing his project Mental Mapping: The Art of Exploring Connections, which bridges neuroscience, visual art, and AI to examine how individuals connect their internal experiences with their external environments.

Joshua Sariñana’s article in MIT Technology Review analyzes the work of filmmaker Suneil Sanzgiri, whose art addresses themes of historical trauma, memory, and colonization. Sariñana explores how Sanzgiri leverages both digital tools, like 3D scanning and physical manipulation of 16mm film to examine the geopolitics of his ancestral home in Goa, India, and the lasting impact of colonial histories.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD, December’s Artist of the Month, is a neuroscientist-turned-artist whose work bridges the gap between cognition, space, and visual storytelling. With a background in neuroscience research at MIT, where he studied brain networks and memory, Sariñana integrates scientific principles into his artistic practice. Read the Interview

Joshua Sariñana, PhD, showcased his Holga photography at the 10th Annual Somerville Toy Camera Festival at the Nave Gallery from September 9 to October 7, 2023. Using the iconic low-tech Holga camera, Sariñana’s work explores themes of memory and perception, embracing the imperfections and unpredictability of toy camera photography.

In his presentation at the Museum of Science’s Youth Internship Program, Joshua Sariñana presents Exploring Connections, discussing how neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI), and art interact, focusing on the hidden networks that shape our internal and external worlds. He highlights the parallels between brain function and AI and the roles of motivation and experience in shaping our cognition and behavior. Explored are how art and AI can reveal hidden patterns and challenge conventional perceptions.

Curated by award-winning photographer Joshua Sariñana, Through These Realities is a powerful photography and poetry exhibition that challenges the dominant narratives perpetuated by mass media. This collaborative project brings together the voices and visions of six photographers of color—Adam Cordelle, Andrew Harris, Kenia Arbaiza, Wandy Pascoal, Xudong Liu, and Paul Sayed—paired with the evocative words of six poets of color—Kesper Wang, Isabella De Palo Garcia Perez, Durane West, Alysia Williams, Mayank Chugh, and Cesar Sanchez Beras.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD ’11, combines his neuroscience background with art and storytelling to foster public engagement with science and elevate underrepresented voices. As highlighted in his MIT News alumni profile, Sariñana’s work focuses on creating connections between science and the public through interdisciplinary projects.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD, serves as the curator of Through These Realities, a Somerville Arts Council-supported project that pairs poets and photographers of color to explore themes of racial and social justice through art. Inspired by a James Baldwin quote critiquing the American media’s role in distorting reality, the project challenges mainstream narratives by empowering people of color to share their perspectives. Poets and photographers collaborated to create visual works influenced by poetry to validate the experiences of communities of color and highlight their everyday realities.

Connecting with Joshua Sariñana, we discussed the ways he has joined the photographic arts with the field of science since his 2016 Griffin Exhibition, Prosopagnosia, the right vs. left brain myth regarding creativity, and the importance of programming to purposefully create diversity and inclusivity when working toward racial and social justice.

This WIRED interview between Joshua Sariñana and Sinead Bowell explores the digital afterlife. They discuss the interplay between neuroscience, technology, and memory, discussing how advancements in understanding and manipulating memories could impact science, medicine, and identity. Joshua Sariñana highlights the potential of technologies like AI and neurotechnologies to reconstruct, externalize, and even upload memories, raising ethical concerns about privacy, equity, and data bias.

From December 6, 2021, to February 28, 2022, The Poetry of Science was exhibited at MIT’s Rotch Gallery, presenting a dynamic blend of poetry and photography that highlights the experiences and contributions of scientists of color. Directed by Joshua Sariñana, PhD, this multimedia project merges art and science to challenge traditional narratives and foster positive associations between communities of color and the sciences. Each work pairs portraits of scientists, visually embedded into natural landscapes, with poetry that explores their research, motivations, and lives.

The Poetry of Science interview on GBH, hosted by Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, features Joshua Sariñana and Makinde Ogunnaike discussing their interdisciplinary project that combines poetry, photography, and science. The initiative explores the personal and professional lives of scientists, using poetry as a medium to make complex scientific ideas accessible and emotionally resonant. Sariñana emphasizes how the project bridges gaps between abstract scientific concepts and human experiences, inspired by James Baldwin’s reflections on art and truth.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD ’11, merges his expertise in neuroscience, photography, and storytelling in The Poetry of Science, a public art installation advocating for racial and social justice. Supported by a Cambridge Arts Council Art for Racial Justice Grant, this multimedia project pairs scientists of color with poets of color to create collaborative works that celebrate their contributions and amplify their voices. Through portraits by Vanessa Leroy and poetry inspired by the scientists’ work, the project fosters a deeper understanding of science and promotes positive associations with communities of color.

In response to systemic racism and the lack of representation of people of color (POC) in media and art, Joshua Sariñana, PhD, co-created The Poetry of Science with poet and editor Linsey Jayne. This multidisciplinary project combines poetry and photography to amplify the voices and experiences of POC, countering negative stereotypes with positive representations.