Disabled Artists Create Mind Art with Their Brains with Winsor and Newton

Chinese ‘Mind Art’ Project Raises Awareness for Disabled Rights

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Winsor & Newton, a fine arts materials supplier founded in 1832 has always been dedicated to the mix of science and art and is now using that blend of interests to help raise awareness for an underrepresented subset of people. There is an estimated 83 million Chinese people with Disabilities who have access to very little national support. To raise awareness and support, Winsor & Newton teamed up with artist Jody Xiong.

The project is called ‘Mind Art’, art and science mingle as mental prowess and self expression are used to create abstract masterpieces with the help of nueroscience and Winsor & Newton paints.

For the project, sixteen people with disabilities were invited to strap into a headset containing a processing unit that connects electronic signals from the brain to set off paint filled balloons in an quadrangle of canvases. The participants could set off paint explosions with self chosen pigments of paint. With enough concentration, neural signals are sent and the paint filled balloons are detonated in an explosion of color and movement. The result is a beautiful and abstract splatter showing that its not always whats on the outside, but whats on the inside that makes us artists.

Touring twenty-two cities in China, the ‘Mind Art’ Exhibition has raised about $130,000 to support charities working with disabilities through sales of the art work. The exhibition was viewed by approximately fifty thousand people each week.