News + Media
A collection of news articles, blog posts, and media featuring the work of Joshua Sariñana.
I was a recent guest on CBC Radio’s Spark. We discuss using various technologies to visualize and manipulate memories, highlighting the role of how “engrams” are stored in neural circuits, and the neural-psychological aspects of false memories. I also touch upon the relationship between photography and memory. Spark Podcast>>
The Art of Unearthing History
MIT Technology Review
My recent MIT Technology Review article, covering the work of artist Suneil Sanzgiri. I explore the intersection of art and geopolitics, memory and film, and how technology reveals unseen layers of the collective past. MIT Technology Review>>
Presented are the visual representation of scientists as integral parts of the natural landscape, embedded into the very foundation of reality that they study, observe, seek to understand, and create. Accompanying each image is original poetry that sheds light on the awesome power of the sciences and their unique role in the lives of each scientist.
Makinde Ogunnaike and Josh Sariñana talked about how they turn physics and neuroscience into art and poetry, and the intersection of physics and religious faith. Learn more about The Poetry of Science
What happens to our digital data after we die? Futurist Sinead Bovell talks with Joshua Sariñana about the emerging space known as the digital afterlife from three different angles; what happens to our data, how can it take on a life of its own, and what does it mean to be digitally immortal. WIRED Magazine >>
In An Instant is a documentary short that explores the fragility of our memories and how they are influenced by the digital age. The film delves into the resurgence of analog devices, particularly instant film cameras, which have shown increased popularity within the past ten years.
I am exhibiting my piece at the Somerville Toy Camera Festival September 7-October 7, 2023. Stop by the Nave Gallery opening on September 10th from 3-5 PM.
“Smell goes straight to your cortex as a perception, which is really fast and which suggests it's super powerful,” says neuroscientist Joshua Sariñana. “When you're navigating a first-person game with a VR headset on, and there's a smell, you will associate that smell to that place very rapidly.”
Joshua Sariñana (PhD ‘11) has always asked big questions. “I wanted to understand consciousness,” Sariñana says of studying neuroscience at MIT. “Where do we begin? Why is there something versus nothing at all?” His voracious curiosity has led Sariñana to traverse various disciplines in his intellectual career, from philosophy and psychology to written and visual arts.
Racial bias is well documented in photography—consider, for example, photographers’ inability to capture and expose darker skin tones with film. Within the emulsion of film, the chemicals that recapitulate light, is inherent social bias. There’s a distinct prejudice within the algorithms of our digital imaging technologies. Mainstream media are bereft of, or misrepresent, people of color. In my own experiences, I am often the only Brown person, or person of color, in the room when attending exhibition openings. Last year’s protests in response to the murder of George Floyd and the rampant anti-Asian hate crimes, along with my own struggles, motived something within me to be proactive.
I caught up with the multi-faceted Joshua Sariñana to talk about his new project with the Somerville Arts Council, titled Through These Realities, that will seek six local poets and photographers of color, who will create a series of images, inspired by prompt-guided poetry from poets.
{A}TEMPORAL Exhibition
Cambridge Art Association
My piece features Jessica TranVo and is showing at the Cambridge Art Association. The exhibition is up from January 16 to February 9, 2024. Stop by the Kathryn Schultz Gallery to view the work.
Sariñana applies his knowledge of how the brain works to help broaden people’s perspectives. Constantly witnessing media images of violence toward people of color “is physiologically and emotionally detrimental to our nervous system,” he says.
Museum of Science - AI and the Brain
I had the opportunity to engage with the young minds from the Youth Internship Program at the Museum of Science, exploring the similarities between neuroscience and artificial intelligence as they relate to the changes in our brains during adolescence: reward and decision-making processes. See the slides >>
Perceiving Pathways is a series of interviews, looking at artists who have exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Through These Realities challenges the narratives of mass media that invalidate the experiences of people of color through the interactions of images by six photographers of color. May 2, at 6 p.m. will be the opening art reception for Through These Realities which is a photography and poem exhibit curated by award-winning photographer Joshua Sarinana.
A couple of my pieces are exhibiting at the Unbound Visual Arts Arthaus Gallery in Alston for Latinx Heritage Month. The exhibition opens on September 22 and runs through November 17, 2023.
Although he originally wanted to be a physicist, a love for psychology and philosophy landed Joshua Sariñana PhD ’11 in neuroscience. “I wanted to study consciousness at multiple levels—the behavioral, physiological, and the genetic—how the brain communicates information from single neurons to larger networks of the brain. Trying to connect all these different systems at once, there’s only a handful of places that you can actually do this type of research, MIT being one of them,” explains Sariñana, a science communications manager, award-winning photographer, and writer.
The Poetry of Science is a project aimed at addressing the lack of representation for People of Color (POC) in both poetry and the sciences. Their session at Lit Crawl Boston 2021, “Poetry+Science: New Realities,” will be their first demonstration of the similarities between the sciences and humanities. Joshua Sariñana, their director, was able to answer a few questions about Poetry of Science ahead of June 10.
A thought-provoking conversation with neuroscientist, artist, and writer Joshua Sariñana unwrapping the journey of creative thought and scientific exploration that led to his project Mental Mapping: The Art of Exploring Connections. Though equipped with a robust understanding about how the mind works through his training in neuroscience, Joshua understands that science alone cannot fully explain the complex relationship we have with our external environment.
News + Media
A brand new art project from Dubai-based Gulf Photo Plus wants to encourage people to slow down and appreciate the art of storytelling.
The winning entries in the annual iPhone photography awards have been announced, chosen from thousands of entries submitted from around the world.
The winners were selected from thousands of entries submitted by iPhone photographers from over 140 countries. More than 50 prizes were also given in categories such as Portrait, Still Life and Abstract. Here’s a selection of the best entries.
Photography contests -- from the Sony World Photography Awards to the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest to the CBRE Urban Photographer of the Year competition to the iPhone Photography Awards -- give us a glimpse into moments big and small across the globe. We might not have been there to experience them, but thanks to the professional and amateur artists who submit their images, we can take a peek into the sublime and mundane bits of human life around the world.
The 2015 iPhone Photography Award winners prove that great photography is in the eye, not the camera.