Art Salon | Mental Mapping: The Art of Exploring Connections

Join us at Gallery UMA to explore the exhibition “Mental Mapping” by artist Joshua Sariñana. Enjoy the artwork on display, plus a ‘behind the scenes” multimedia look at the artist’s process, live music, poetry and community discussion. Reserve your spot for the live music and discussion portion of the evening, where seating is limited.

Blending portraits, landscapes, and cityscapes into multiple exposure prints, Sariñana’s work explores the relationships between artificial intelligence, the brain, and social networks. Central to this exploration are interviews with the portrait subjects whose narratives are analyzed using large language models and machine learning technologies to unearth connections within and between their experiences. The questions probe how individuals mentally navigate various life contexts, including their natural surroundings, social and digital ecosystems, and creative spaces.

Live music at the event will feature flutist Yağmur Soydemir and pianist Pavle Zvekić. Yağmur and Pavle are highly esteemed classical and jazz musicians based in Boston. Both students of the Global Jazz Institute, they compose and perform music that fuses their cultural identity with modern experiences and connections through jazz.

Experience an arts salon at Urban Media Arts! More than a gallery reception, an arts salon is a deeper way to engage with an art exhibit. EVERYONE is invited and welcome, regardless of your background in exploring the arts. Due to space limitation, registration for seating (for music and discussion portion) is required.

This event is supported in part by a grant from the Malden Cultural Council, a local agency, funded through the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD, traces the underlying networks of the brain, and art, in a humanities context. He aims to consolidate and extend the traditional boundaries of these fields to a novel dynamic topology.

Sariñana obtained his degrees in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying dopamine’s effects on hippocampal circuit activity, reinforcement learning, and spatial navigation.

He uses network theory to navigate and conceptualize his transdisciplinary art, science, and socially engaged projects. Sariñana is currently a Cultural Ambassador for the Somerville Arts Council. In addition, he has received grants supporting his work from the Massachusetts Arts Council and the Cambridge Arts Council for his art and curatorial projects.

Sariñana photography emphasizes the transformation of internal representations and have been exhibited nationally and internationally.

Sariñana combines his media communications practice with his neuroscience and art background. He has provided his expertise to WIRED Magazine, MIT Technology Review, the Museum of Science, Boston, and as an invited speaker for the Neurohumanities series at Trinity College in Dublin. He is currently investigating the relationships between virtual spaces, artificial intelligence, and functional networks of the brain. Joshua Sariñana, PhD, traces the underlying networks of the brain, and art, in a humanities context. He aims to consolidate and extend the traditional boundaries of these fields to a novel dynamic topology.

www.joshuasarinana.com/

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Yağmur Soydemir is a concert flutist, composer, arranger, recording artist, and educator.

IG: @yagmursoydemir
Website: http://yagmursoydemir.com

“Yağmur Soydemir has been awarded eight times in solo flute, and chamber music competitions throughout Europe, and has performed in numerous concerts with symphony orchestras, her own jazz band, in big bands, and at various genre showcases in Europe and the US.

She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in “Flute Performance” from Nice Conservatory, France, as well as a Professional Diploma and a Master’s Degree in “Contemporary Performance (Global Jazz Concentration)” from Berklee College of Music, both pursued with a full-tuition scholarship.

Yağmur has volunteered in several community services, performed in outreach concerts, and also co-produced a humanitarian project titled “Earthquake Relief Project for Türkiye” which involved 80 musicians from 30 countries, which was released in cooperation with Berklee Productions.”

Pavle Zvekić is an accomplished Boston-based Serbian pianist, composer, and band leader.

IG: @pavlezvekic
FB: https://www.facebook.com/zvekic.pavle
Voodoo Baby Aliens IG: https://www.instagram.com/voodoo.baby.aliens/

Host or Publisher UMA - Urban Media Arts