Consciousness has been an important subject in art for over a century, ever since Impressionism shifted artists' goals from the direct representation of the world to the expression of felt experience. This is an exploration of the nature of consciousness and its embodiment in many forms of contemporary art, including painting, sculpture, installation, video, film and new media. It accompanies an exhibition organized by the California College of Arts and Crafts. Essays by writers in the fields of art history, philosophy, cognitive science, theology and linguistics document the nature of consciousness, whilst over 100 illustrations reproduce works of art made since the 1970s by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Ad Reinhardt, Bill Viola, Yoko Ono, Gillian Wearing, Adrian Piper and Gary Hill. The volume also includes reflections on consciousness by such renowned scholars as William James, Thomas Nagel, the Dalai Lama, Francisco J. Varela, John R. Scarle, and Nobel Laureate Francis Crick.