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Card-Making
PUBLICATIONS
The Weight of Knowing: AI, Genetic Prediction, and What We Choose to Become
Imagine you have a doctor's appointment to find out your first child’s gender—whether it will be a boy or a girl—you’re excited and nervous. You wait for the results. "It's a girl!" the doctor informs you, and tears of joy leave your eyes, until you hear the change in the doctor’s voice; the smile drops slowly, bracing for what comes your way, and suddenly you hear something that feels like a mirage in your ears: “Your baby girl will be disabled. She has Spina Bifida”— a cond
Inshaal J.
7 min read
United by Sea
Beep Beep the echoes of machines in hospitals scattered across the world. This sound like the ocean waves that pull us in, And pull us out. Healthcare is a system created to be equal to all to the naked eye yet this “system” cannot “dry” the tears of a mourning mother in Texas whose 7 month old son is washed away in the sea of doctors as she is unable to pay the bill of 1.1 million dollars for a chance to save her son Neonatal healthcare is the sea their child drowns in.
Aadrika Shakya
2 min read
What does eye-tracking research reveal about how people actually look at paintings, and does where we look predict what we find beautiful?
Consider this painting by Johannes Vermeer, a dutch artist who painted the “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. This one’s called “The Art of Painting”, which is a very fitting name considering this article. Take note of where your eyes first landed. Perhaps the painting in the background between the two people, or the book that the woman is holding? Was I right? If I was, it’s not because I am a witch or a telepath, but rather, because of eye-tracking research records. Here is the
Nymphea Bishnoi
7 min read
Can architecture and public art in a neighbourhood measurably improve residents’ mental health?
Background For centuries, architecture has been valued for providing shelter. However, as infrastructure abilities continue to advance, architecture also begins to earn appreciation for appealing visuals. Recently, we’ve seen a rise in public art. When we hear this phrase, ‘public art’, people may have different things come to mind: some imagine the iridescent illustrations on the walls while others picture the surreal sculpture near a grand entrance, but almost always, the i
Caelyn K.
4 min read
If AI-generated art can trigger the same reward-pathway as human-made art, does that make it “real art”? Or does the psychological value of art lie in the means rather than the ends?
Take a look at this drawing. This is a “bust-up commission” of a character in an “anime art style”. Would you say a price around 40$ would be reasonable, under the assumption that an artist actually drew this? Most likely, you would say yes, or at the very least say something about the artist and/or their price, but at least have some good comments towards the process it took to reach this image. However, you must realize that all I had to do to receive this image was type
Kaylee Nathania
6 min read
The Anatomy of Addiction: Why Science Views Compulsion as a Brain Disease, rather than a Moral Failing
Historically, addiction has been viewed as a failure of one’s character or, simply, a lack of willpower and control in a person - a narrative heavily influenced by societal stigma. Due to this, instead of therapeutic solutions, punitive measures are taken against the individual, leading to isolation and massive obstacles to receiving medical care. However, modern neurobiology presents a vastly different reality. The initial decision to use a substance can be voluntary; howeve
Hafsa Inam
4 min read
Evolutionary Aesthetics Within Landscapes
Across the world’s communities and cultures, landscape preferences remain remarkably consistent, even among places that have never made contact with one another. This striking consistency can be explored through the world of evolutionary aesthetics, a field that uses Darwinian evolutionary studies to understand why some things appeal to humans and not others. Researchers studying this topic often look at beauty, art, sights, sounds, and shapes to connect aesthetic preferences
Vivienne Lynch
4 min read
Amenity or Necessity? Reevaluating the Role of Art Therapy in Hospital Care
Hospitals are facilities where both physical and mental patients seek treatment, yet not every form of treatment is considered part of essential clinical care. Art therapy is one such example: it is often treated as a supplementary service rather than a necessary part of a patient's treatment plan, and as a result many hospitals do not include it as a consistently funded clinical service. But this raises an important question: should art therapy still be considered an optiona
Harshita Vohra
5 min read
Why Your Favorite Song Gets Old: The Science of Aesthetic Fatigue
Remember that overplayed song you now skip, or the Instagram aesthetic that became exhausting? There’s a name for this feeling: "aesthetic fatigue." It is the decline in pleasure from repeated exposure to art, music, or visual culture. But while the digital age has made this exhaustion feel overwhelming, it is not a new phenomenon. For over a century, researchers and curators have studied a nearly identical problem in the hallowed halls of art galleries: Museum Fatigue. Unde
Alisha Zia
4 min read
How Sound Shapes Vision: The Neuroscience Behind How Auditory Input Influences Visual and Creative Expression
Can what we hear actually change the way we see, imagine, and create? Have you ever noticed how listening to an intense movie soundtrack can make a simple scene feel terrifying? Or how playing a favorite playlist while walking down the street can suddenly make ordinary passersby feel like characters in a music video? We tend to think of our senses as neat, separate channels: eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, and skin for touching. But inside the brain, reality is far more bl
Sri Aradhya Kandrakota
5 min read
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