Interview with Joshua as told to Tori Weston
Please tell us about your background and how you came to Somerville.
I’m originally from California and moved to Cambridge for graduate school at MIT, where I researched the connection between brain networks, learning, and memory. Currently, I live in Malden, but I come to Somerville by way of my socially engaged art projects. A few years ago, I directed a project called Through These Realities, supported by the Somerville Arts Council, bringing local photographers together to create a series of images inspired by local poets' original work. I’m also part of Somerville’s Cultural Capacity Plan, which collects feedback from the city’s creative and cultural communities to make sure their voices help shape Somerville's future. I’ve also exhibited work at the Nave Gallery for the Somerville Toy Camera Festival.
Your work combines art and science, how does one inform the other?
My neuroscience background also plays an important role in my art. I’ve spent 10 years figuring out how cognition, art, technology, and neural activity relate. In chasing this question, space, representation, and narrative have been consistent themes in my work.
As a researcher, I was figuring out how dopamine helps store spatial memories in brain networks. I became more deliberate in combining my network understanding of space with how I use space in my photography, figuratively and literally. My work often connects diverse artists and scientists, emphasizing visual and internal representations to tell their stories. My current project uses film photography and AI to visualize the participants' cognitive maps. The goal is to show how participants think about and see themselves throughout Somerville. If anyone wants to learn more and participate, please reach out!
At what age did your creative journey begin?
Maybe somewhere between my teens and my thirties. As far as I can remember, I’ve wanted to learn how to use tools to bring what was in my head to connect to the external environment. I was 18 years old when I first started out in a NASA lab
studying sugars on meteorites to see if they could be a source for starting life on Earth. I was in my 30s when I had my first solo exhibition. As a teenager, I really enjoyed woodworking. In my experience, seemingly unrelated creative fields share overlapping features, such as experimental processes, developing a vision of the results, and storytelling.
Who or what inspires your work?
My son is a big inspiration.
How does one find your work?
I have a website that has more information about my photography, art projects, and my writing. Instagram is also another way to see my work.
More Artists of the Month from 2023
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About the Artist of the Month
This program is inspired by the Nave Gallery’s “Featured Artist” program, which ran from 2005 to 2009.
SAC’s Artist of the Month program is a way for us to celebrate the enormous wealth of talent in our city, by shining a spotlight on a different creative Somervillian each month.
This program has been put together by a whole raft of people: Coordinators Jenn Harrington (2013-2014) and Kellie Veiga (2013), Gilmore Tammy (2017) and Somerville Arts Council board members Matt Kaliner, Tim Devin, Valeria Amato, and Michael J. Epstein, Bill House (2019-2020), Charan Devereaux (2019-2025), Tori Weston (2019-2025) and Andrea Read (2022-2025). Current coordinators, are Kerrie Kemperman (2019-), Seth Garcia (2025-), and Ben Cuba (2026-).
Know of a great Somerville based artist who should be recognized, please nominate the artist for consideration. We seek artists who contribute to the community through their strong work and community collaborations. Artist should either reside in the City or contribute to the City’s vibrant art scene.