Silent Barn: Brooklyn’s Latest Collective
Trish MacKenzie — Stewdios/Science Shelf
-How long have you been living in Brooklyn?
5 years.
-What brought you here?
I am in a PhD program at NYU, the only school that would allow me to study neuroscience, genomics, and science writing
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-What do you find to be unique about the artistic community in Brooklyn?
It accepts a scientist who has no formal background or training in art
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-What are some of your inspirations—both in your art/career and just in your everyday life?
I love neurons and I love bioluminescent proteins and lipophilic fluorescent dyes, which are some of the tools that we use to visualize neurons. I also love homemade and custom made instruments, both the ones I use to record from neurons and the ones that make up the experimental music scene. I am still not sure how I am allowed to co-exists with sound scientists like G Lucas Crane and Daniel Fishkin. It is blowing my mind.
-Do you see yourself staying in Brooklyn? No .
-What’s a perfect Brooklyn day for you? Yoga at Greenhouse Holistic, record from n = 5 fast-spiking cortical interneurons from P70 mouse, stop by a show at silent barn on my way home from lab .
-What are the challenges inherent to being an artist in Brooklyn? I have no idea. Being a scientist in Brooklyn is challenging when you have to check on mouse babies in manhattan on the weekend and both the L train and the J/M are having service interruptions.