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My name's Ralph Helmick,
and I'm a sculptor.
I was asked if
there was some way
to create an artwork
that could help
guide a visitor from
the street level up
to the third floor main
entrance to the Institute.
What's behind me is
what we ended up with.
100 gold leaf unique
sculptures of neurons.
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They're made out of a matrix
of stainless steel and bronze.
And they range in size from over
3 feet long to about 12 inches
tip to tip and suspended
very, very precisely.
I came up with 5 different
cell bodies, different kinds
of dendritic forms.
And so I made kits of
parts of different sizes
that I could then
customize and assemble.
And I developed these
forms in consultation
with people at the lab.
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I chose gold leafing, because
it catches light so beautifully.
And one of the
experimenters here,
they said they actually use
gold in one line of inquiry
in neuroscience.
The title of this piece is
Schwerpunkt and that's a German
word one of the definitions
of which is 'focal point.'
When one views it
from a sweet spot that
is just as one's about to enter
the main office of the McGovern
Institute, one can look down
toward the entry and all
these hundred neurons
optically collapse
into a graphic image
of a brain hemisphere.
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That optical phenomenon
is called anamorphosis.
I think in Greek that translates
to reformation or re-creation.
For me, this is a
metaphor for the discovery
that goes on in the building.
Maybe a metaphor for
the elegant design
of many of the experiments
that are taking place here.
What they do here is so
profound on a practical level,
and maybe in a way that
art is not practical.
I hope that Schwerpunkt
could recall or evoke
that sense of discovery.
I think as a culture
we're hungry for surprise,
we're hungry for
optical phenomenon.
We're hungry for a
positive experience.
That's what I'm
trying to do here,
is something that elevates us.
And I think every
researcher in this building
is doing research that seeks
to elevate our culture.
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