Sleep and the Senses
Artist: PJ Pivarshev, Painter
Researcher: Sara Bernardez Noya, Post-doctoral fellow, Sehgal Lab, University of Pennsylvania
Science Subject: Sleep
Sleep and the Senses
Paint on canvas
This collaborative project brings together five artworks, each exploring the relationship between one of the five senses and sleep quality. Through vivid imagery and symbolism, the paintings consider how sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch can influence the way we rest and recover.
Each artwork is paired with a concise explanatory panel that connects the visual experience to the science behind it. By combining evocative imagery with accessible information, the series encourages visitors to reflect on how their senses and surroundings shape sleep.
Together, the works invite viewers to become more aware of the connection between the body, the environment, and healthy sleep, offering both a visual experience and practical insight into habits that can support better rest.
PJ and Sara’s collaboration grew naturally from their work together in a lab studying the molecular mechanisms of sleep. Their shared scientific background, combined with their individual creative interests, allows ideas to develop organically through conversations and spontaneous brainstorming.
Sara leads the scientific research, drawing from current sleep studies to identify the key concepts behind each piece. PJ then translates those ideas into sketches, imagery, and visual symbolism that make the science more immediate and engaging.
Together, they bring research and creativity into the same process, using their complementary strengths to transform complex ideas about sleep into artwork that is both scientifically grounded and visually accessible.
Artist: PJ Pivarshev
I'm PJ, a painter & draftsperson. I've always asked questions and wanted to understand why & how things work, which drew me to study Biology in undergrad and eventually join a Neuroscience lab at Penn. As I've studied art history & aesthetics on my own, i've encountered plenty of fascinating mysteries about our relationship to art. How do we decide when something is beautiful or visually appealing? How do we direct our attention to different parts of an image and decide where to generate meaning? And how has this natural human process driven the progression of art history over the span of humanity?
My practice involves studying past art, looking at it from different perspectives, and recontextualizing it---to make it new again.
Researcher: Sara Bernardez Noya
I am Sara, born in a picturesque city in the northwest of Spain. As early as I can remember I was drawn to symmetry and harmony. What I couldn’t guess by then is that later in life I would be studying circadian rhythms and sleep. An unparalleled example of Nature’s synchrony.
How do the brain and body talk to each other? And even more, how does that serve us to feel good? Those questions motivated me to move from Spain to Switzerland, complete a PhD in Neuroscience in Zurich and now cross the Atlantic to keep digging into them at the Sehgal Lab. During my postdoc I look at how sleep is encoded in the brain when our body is sick, because yes! How good it feels when our brain puts our body to sleep to recover from disease!