From May 2017 to September 2018, Gill Brown collaborated with members of the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences as part of her PhD research at the University of the Arts London. The aim of this part of Gill’s research was to apply in practice the methodologies she had devised for the creation of editable and adaptable scientific conceptual figures, and to help the neuroscientists to generate such figures for themselves.
Three research scientists at the CNS – Dr Nisha Singh, Dr Yannis Paloyelis and Ms Barbara Santangelo – volunteered to work with Gill on the creation of conceptual figures for use in their upcoming journal articles. The collaboration as a whole was initiated and facilitated by Dr Mattia Veronese, with the support of Professor Federico Turkheimer. The resulting work formed a significant part of Gill’s final PhD thesis, Visual Elements and Visual Paradigms: Re-thinking scientific conceptual figures through graphic design. More information about Gill’s research can be found on her website.
The whole collaborative effort between Gill and the CNS was documented in full in the website Blog and all of the relevant entries are listed chronologically below, with links to the individual posts. A glossary of neuroscience terms that are used in the posts can be found on this webpage.
- 02Jun17 – Meeting between Gill and Nisha Meeting to discuss Nisha’s research and the conceptual figures used in her field.
- 19Jun17 – Meeting of the neuroimaging team Nisha presented some very preliminary results of her work.
- 20Jun17 – Meeting between Gill and Yannis Meeting to discuss Yannis’ research and the conceptual figures used in his field.
- 28Jun17 – A summary of issues raised The issues raised so far concerning the generation and use of conceptual figures.
- 28Jun17 – Visual elements Starting to collect the visual elements that make up the conceptual figures.
- 03Jul17 – The olfactory epithelium The range of visual representations of the olfactory epithelium
- 06Jul17 – A note on Dr Robert G Thorne How Dr Thorne creates his own conceptual figures.
- 10Jul17 – From anatomical to diagrammatic (1) Creating a continuum of conceptual figures from anatomical to diagrammatic.
- 17Jul17 – From anatomical to diagrammatic (2) Demonstrating the range of representations of more visual elements.
- 24Jul17 – Meeting between Gill, Mattia and Yannis Meeting to discuss the next steps for the collaboration.
- 26Jul17 – A note on Edward Tufte Edward Tufte has written extensively on information design.
- 01Aug17 – Rat brain gallery (1) Creating a range of images of a section of a rat brain.
- 01Aug17 – Rat brain gallery (2)
- 21Aug17 – Human brain gallery Creating another range of images, to test a portfolio-type website.
- 29Aug17 – Meeting between Gill, Mattia and Yannis Meeting to discuss the progress of the collaboration.
- 04Sep17 – Constructing an anatomical image Creating an anatomical image in Adobe Illustrator.
- 11Sep17 – Constructing a diagrammatic image Creating a diagrammatic image in Adobe Illustrator.
- 18Sep17 – Drawing a network Creating a blood network in Adobe Illustrator.
- 25Sep17 – Creating a ‘jigsaw’ image Experimenting with an image containing elements that can be removed or edited.
- 02Oct17 – Creating images with varying levels of detail Creating a range of images of a visual element
- 09Oct17 – From colour to greyscale Issues to consider when converting a colour image to greyscale.
- 20Nov17 – Meetings between Gill, Nisha and Yannis and between Gill and Mattia Meetings to discuss upcoming papers and the upcoming pilot workshops.
- 27Nov17 – Copying and copyright – Issues surrounding conceptual figures and copyright.
- 17Dec17 – Meeting between Gill and Nisha Meeting to discuss the conceptual figures needed for Nisha’s methods paper.
- 18Dec17 – Opening event for the Centre for Medical Engineering Presenting the work of the collaboration at the event.
- 08Jan18 – Rats as visual elements Creating a range of images of laboratory rats.
- 21Jan18 – Meeting between Gill and Nisha Meeting to discuss progresses on the conceptual figures for the methods paper.
- 11Feb18 – Constructing a conceptual figure using visual elements (1) The visual elements required for Nisha’s figures.
- 19Feb18 – Constructing a conceptual figure using visual elements (2) Combining visual elements.
- 26Feb18 – Meeting between Gill and Nisha Meeting to review the use of visual elements to construct a figure.
- 17Mar18 – Creating an illustrative figure Creating a more illustrative conceptual figure.
- 15Apr18 – Drawing data When would a drawing of an MRI scan be appropriate.
- 27Apr18 – Collections of visual elements Reviewing the visual elements collected to date.
- 08May18 – Combining Illustrator files to create a new image How to combine elements from two Illustrator files.
- 24May18 – A conceptual figure with no drawn elements Creating a conceptual figure using data screengrabs.
- 10Jun18 – Meeting between Gill, Barbara and Mattia Meeting to discuss a conceptual figures that shows dopamine synthesis.
- 12Jun18 – Meeting between Gill and Yannis Meeting to discuss a conceptual figure showing intranasal and intravenous delivery of oxytocin.
- 02Jul18 – Visual elements for a dopamine synthesis figure Creating the visual elements to construct a dopamine synthesis figure.
- 08Jul18 – Visual elements for an oxytocin administration figure Creating the visual elements to construct an oxytocin administration figure.
- 15Jul18 – Creating an adaptable anatomical torso Creating a range of images from one Adobe Illustrator file.
- 23Jul18 – Meeting between Gill, Yannis, Daniel and Robert Some do’s and don’t’s for constructing a conceptual figure from visual elements.
- 26Jul18 – Meeting between Gill and Barbara More do’s and don’t’d for constructing a conceptual figure from visual elements.
- 11Sep18 – What’s next for the collaboration Looking ahead to the possibilities.
- 21Sep18 – Meeting between Gill and Barbara A review of the creation of a conceptual figure to visualise dopamine synthesis.
- 29Oct18 – Demonstrating the adaptable visual elements Using animated gifs to demonstrate the adaptability of the visual elements.
- 24Nov18 – Adapting a file from the image library Creating a bespoke figure for an article or presentation.
Neuroscience & graphic design 