Pooneh & Joana: Week 1

Introduction to Pooneh

Pooneh is a physician, an award-winning cognitive neuroscientist and a clinical hypnotherapist. While studying her PhD, she worked on both human and animal projects. She has substantial expertise and certifications in neuromodulation. Pooneh has done extensive research with brain stimulation, and is especially interested in the neuroscience of smell and the self. Pooneh likes to think about questions like:

- Humans can make use of body odor subconsciously in order to identify whether a potential mate will pass on favorable traits to their offspring, so does body scent attractiveness in men and women exist?
- What about pheromonal influences and chemical cues to individual Identity?

And yes, she believes PERSONALITY SMELLS!

Pooneh is also an artist. She is certified in modern painting and calligraphy. Currently, she works as a postdoctoral researcher at Northwell Health. She works and lives in New York.

Introduction to Joana

Joana Ricou is a visual artist; she also day-jobs as a Product Manager at Knewton LLC and is an associated member of the Center for Philosophy of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.

Joana works in the intersection of art and science as an artist and educator. She collaborates with galleries, schools, and museums internationally, having worked with the Andy Warhol Museum, Harvard University, the Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh and Ponce Museo de Arte (Puerto Rico) among others. In 2012, Joana received a fellowship from the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and a Spark award from the Sprout Fund. She worked for 8+ years as creative director of Regenerative Medicine Partnership in Education, developing innovative experiences for science education across media.

Recently, Joana has been exploring the microbiome as subject matter and artistic medium. Other self portraits is a series of portraits created using the actual microbiome of the subject and of their environment.  Other self portraits (microbialart.tumblr.com) can be experienced online, as an installation and as a participatory performance that invites viewers to consider their other selves, the parts of their body which are not human, and reflect upon the connection they form between all of us.  In 2015, Joana received a commission from the Eden Project and the Wellcome Trust to support this work and, in 2016, from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.