Lessons of the Living Brain
A visual haiku series inspired by Lisa Feldman Barrett’s “Three Lessons About the Brain”
These poems were distilled from Lisa Feldman Barrett’s talk Three Lessons About the Brain (UC Irvine, 2024). This series translates complex neuroscience into emotional language — using watercolour as metaphor for flux and ink for structure.
It represents my ongoing exploration of the counterintuitive idea that our brains construct our reality — even how we perceive ourselves, our moods, and our emotions. Each haiku captures one of the brain’s quiet miracles — quiet because they happen subconsciously, continuously, and often unnoticed: balance, prediction, connection, and meaning-making.
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Process & AI Diligence Statement
All poems and artworks in this gallery were co-created using ChatGPT (for text and concept development) and DALL·E (for watercolor-style illustration). Curation, creative direction, and composition by Kathy Warde for Quillshadow.
Process overview:
Listened to Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett’s talk, taking notes.
Used ChatGPT to generate a plain-language summary from the transcript.
Asked ChatGPT to write a haiku series inspired by the talk’s key insights.
Combined previously generated DALL·E images and haikus, asking ChatGPT to design each composition in my preferred style - “found thoughts in watercolour and ink” style, like pages from a poet/scientist’s personal notebook.
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