NeuroNarratives at Waag Futurelab, Amsterdam

What happens when artists and neuroscientists explore the brain together?

This October, NeuroNarratives comes to Waag Futurelab in Amsterdam, bringing together artist–scientist collaborations developed at the intersection of neuroscience and artistic practice.

The exhibition invites visitors to encounter neuroscientific questions through experiential artworks, new forms of collaboration, and public dialogue, and will be accompanied by a symposium on Saturday on art-science collaborations, where the Art of Neuroscience winners of 2026 will be announced.

📅 2–4 October 2026, 10:00-18:00
📍 Waag Futurelab, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam
🎟️ Free entrance

Participating Artists and Scientists
Armand Lesecq (Artist) – Haoyu (Nina) Zhou (Scientist)
Eleni Kamma (Artist) – Maartje de Jong (Scientist)
Kurina Sohn (Artist) – Leila Salvesen (Scientist)
Marina Orlova (Artist) – Anaïs Notario Reinoso (Scientist)
Sounak Das (Artist) – Olivia Carruba (Scientist)

Exhibition Curation
Kalliopi Ioumpa, Ydwine Zanstra

NeuroNarratives Organizers
Paloma Maldonado, Yulong Huang, Kalliopi Ioumpa

Visit our event pagse for more information and symposium RSVP

Save the date and stay tuned!

BAPS 2026: Art-science collaboration workshop

Invited workshop at Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences Annual Meeting 2026

In May 2026, NeuroNarratives was presented at the annual meeting of the Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences at Ghent University through the workshop Being a Body among Machines: Human Breathing and Heartbeat. I was delighted to serve as curator and moderator of the workshop, bringing together the artistic and scientific perspectives that shaped the session.

The workshop explored interoception—our perception of internal bodily signals such as breathing and heartbeat—through both scientific and artistic perspectives. Participants were introduced to how these physiological signals can be measured and brought into conscious awareness, creating a shared space to reflect on the relationship between the body, perception, and technology.

During the session, biometric sensors captured participants’ breathing and heartbeat in real time. These signals were then translated into the movements and sounds of a custom-built mechatronic sculpture, allowing biological rhythms to take on a physical, mechanical form. By bringing scientific measurement into dialogue with an interactive artwork, the workshop invited participants to experience familiar bodily processes from a different perspective.

The workshop marked one of the first public iterations of this ongoing NeuroNarratives art–science collaboration and provided a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas with researchers across the psychological sciences. Many thanks to the Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences for the invitation and to everyone who joined us for the workshop and discussion.

The Social & Moral Brain Seminar, SMB 2025

Less than a year ago, my dear colleague and friend Eva Vives and I came up with the idea of organizing a seminar to bring together researchers in social and moral psychology and neuroscience. What started as a spark of enthusiasm and a bit of craziness soon turned into something real. With the trust and support of our PIs Emilie Caspar and Lara Bardi, and together with our wonderful organizing team — Kai Shaman and Mathias Van der Biest — we began building this dream. And last week, we made it happen!

We’re still thrilled that the Social & Moral Brain Seminar came to life and that so many of you had a great time both scientifically and organizationally. We hope you left Ghent with inspiring ideas and lovely memories.

On a personal note, I was very happy to see so many familiar and new faces coming together again. It wasn’t only to bring researchers from different fields together to share their work on social and moral cognition. For me, it was also to create space and moment to reflect on how we think about ourselves and others, how we act morally, and how science connects us as humans. Most importantly, we shared time, conversations, and laughter, building new relationships and strengthening old ones. Perhaps we’ll meet once more at a future seminar, or maybe not, but the time we shared already makes me love my work even more and reminds me what it means to feel human in what we do.

We truly hope you enjoyed the Social & Moral Brain Seminar and the beautiful city of Ghent, which I loved so much. And most importantly, thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to the seminar, to our scientific committee, to our funding supporters, and to all the friends, colleagues, and collaborators who made this possible.

And finally, my heartfelt thanks to the organization team who made this work enjoyable! ✨❤️🫂

ICON 2025 Symposium

I was delighted to co-organize a symposium at the International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON 2025) on 17 September 2025. The symposium, From Adaptive to Maladaptive: Rethinking the Malleability of Pavlovian Bias in Decision-making, brought together researchers studying how Pavlovian influences on behaviour can shift between adaptive and maladaptive forms across different contexts.

The symposium featured complementary perspectives on the behavioural and neural mechanisms underlying Pavlovian biases in decision-making, including work on reward learning, action selection, and cognitive control. It was a great opportunity to bring these approaches together and to exchange ideas about when learned environmental cues support adaptive behaviour and when they may instead contribute to maladaptive decision-making.

Many thanks to my co-organizer and all speakers for their excellent presentations, and to everyone who joined us for the stimulating discussion.

Social & Moral Brain Seminar

Over the past months, my friend Eva Vives and I have been busy organizing something very exciting: the first edition of the Social & Moral Brain seminar!

This international conference will bring together researchers in psychology and neuroscience to explore topics such as morality, social influences, learning, empathy, emotions, and brain synchrony. The program will feature keynotes, talks, and poster sessions — all hosted at the GUM Museum, Ghent University, on 16–17 October 2025.

Because of this big project (among other things!), our beloved Friday Social Club is taking a short break in September and October. But we’ll be back in November with fresh energy, new discussions, and of course, coffee and sweets.

We’re really looking forward to welcoming everyone — whether at the seminar in October or at the Social Club later this year. More information will be updated soon! :)