“Mental Math of Cars”

Artist: Julia Fawcett, Department of Visual Arts, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Western University

Scientist: Megan Roussy, Department of physiological and pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Robarts Research Institute

In this piece, the goal is to present the spatial working memory deficit in a visual manner, creating a lens in which to look through to understand this memory deficit.

Using acrylic paint of canvas, different handling of the paints create the illusion of blurriness and confusion. The viewer understands that they must be looking at, or for, something, but can’t quite figure out the object.

This art is inspired by the spatial working memory deficit, seen in patients with ADHD and schizophrenia, for example. In briefer terms, the patient can have difficulties remembering things like where they parked their car, or mental math (to simplify and only name a few). This piece attempts to explain this concept visually and have the viewer search for tangible objects or patterns through this fog.