Breakerhead brochure with Giant Walkthrough Brain description
On September 12th and 13th, 2014, the Giant Walkthrough Brain is presented in the Dome Theatre at TELUS Spark, Calgary’s innovative science centre. The show is part of the annual Beakerhead festival which highlights art, science, and engineering across the city of Calgary.
In collaboration with science communicator and TV host Jay Ingram, the LINDSAY Virtual Human team has created a 3-dimensional, highly illustrative model of the human brain. In the 1970s, this idea was put forward by neurosurgeon Joseph Bogen, who proposed to build a neuroscience museum as a giant walkable brain. The Giant Walkthrough Brain is a live stage performance, with Jay Ingram as the fantastic story teller and The Free Radicals band presenting original music through a tour of fascinating findings, facts, and science (with some fiction) around the function and structure of the human brain.
Tatiana Karaman, Douglas Yuen, Dylan Dobbyn, and Justin Kelly — students in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary, have created the computer models and animations from which they constructed an incredible journey through a 3-dimensional, artistically rendered model of the human brain, enhanced by walkways, tunnels, info displays, and other features to create a true walkthrough experience.
The original brain models are provided by Zygote Media Group. The Giant Walkthrough Brain project received financial support from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC).
See the UToday story for more details on the show and on how modern information technology enhances science education and communication projects like the Giant Walkthrough Brain.
Also, don’t forget to check out the Beakerhead 2014 program guide.
Story:
- Jay Ingram, science communicator, book author, tv host
Music:
- The Free Radicals: Dr. Trevor Day, Steve Dodd, Ben Jackson, Garth Kennedy, Josip Vulic
3D Model Design:
- Dr. Christian Jacob, design team lead
- Tatiana Karaman, 3d modelling: brain, navigation pathways, on-stage “Brain Navigator”, M.Sc. student, Computational Media Design
- Douglas Yuen, 3d navigation, slide show and movie integration, M.Sc. student, Computer Science
- Dylan Dobbyn, 3d modeling: neural networks, synapse, BHSc student, Bioinformatics, Bachelor of Health Sciences,
- Justin Kelly, 3d modeling: dendritic growth models, M.Sc. student, Computer Science