Mind to Matter: 3-D Printing What the Brain Saw
Work in progress at Mersivity / MannLab
Toronto, 2026 · Work in progress, November 2026
The eye's photograph as a lithophane: white plastic whose thickness follows the brightness the brain decoded, so the picture appears only when held to a light.
What if the picture your brain gave back could be held in the hand? Mind to Matter takes the readings from our eye-as-a-camera and eye-exam rig and prints them: a lithophane of what the eye saw and what the brain decoded, a tactile report of a sitting's results with ridges and pegs you can feel, and a painted brain, where each cell of a brain-shaped mesh takes the colour the brain chose in VR and is printed as relief.
The first lithophanes and tactile plaques were printed in November 2026. The idea is as much about accessibility as art: a result you can touch needs no screen, no literacy and no explanation.
Paint your brain with your brain (concept): each cell of a brain-shaped mesh takes the colour chosen by the visual evoked potential in VR, then the whole thing is printed with colour as height.
Work in progress: this page gives a short summary only.
Team
Alexander Vicol, Steve Mann
Links
- No paper yet. This is a build in progress; first prints came off the printer in November 2026.
- Related project: Eye as a Camera
- Related project: Brain Data Visualization in VR/XR