Numero Cromatico

How our brain innovates thinking (HOBIT) is the event organized by Numero Cromatico for the Brain Awareness Week 2021. Numero Cromatico is a non-profit association and research centre established in Rome in 2011. The project focused on the relationship between art and neuroscience and the importance of a hybrid approach to artistic and scientific research to be promoted through free webinars. Further, it aimed at raising awareness among the community of both experts and non-experts on the most recent discoveries on the human brain and their importance in various fields of knowledge as well as daily activities. Alongside the six online appointments, we also organized an online workshop for 13 and 14-year-olds from the Istituto Omnicomprensivo in Orte (Viterbo). The event took the name of Origami Lab. Numero Cromatico hosted six webinars of a duration of about an hour and a half. External speakers were also invited, namely Massimo Salgaro and David Freedberg. All the proposed activities, despite the difficulties due to COVID-19, had an excellent response, successfully involving different target audiences, with an average of about 40 participants for each appointment. The response of participants was very positive and active: at the end of each talk, participants seized the opportunity to ask a few questions to the speaker. We reckon that HOBIT could become an annual event with a growing number of appointments, activities and topics to discuss. This first experience within the Brain Awareness Week fills us with pride and paves the way for future projects and collaborations, corroborating our hybrid and transdisciplinary approach to artistic and scientific research.

The participation in Brain Awareness Week strengthened Numero Cromatico’s role in promoting on an international level a scientific approach to art research. Also, the participation of university researchers broadened the public interested in our activities. The events spoke to the world of art and science about the many new possibilities offered by recent neuroscientific discoveries.