The scientific studies of consciousness and neuroscience bring new approaches to perception-related questions. Chaired by Gordana Novakovic, curator of the Computer Science Department at UCL and founder of the Tesla Art|Science Group this panel explored work by artists who are investigating, exploring and questioning this research area.
Ghost with Jane Grant
Associate Professor (Reader) in Digital Arts at Plymouth University, UK
Ghost is a neuronally embedded distributed artwork merging ‘memory’ in the cortex and live ambient sound to form a dynamically rich and haunting sonic installation. Ghost is part of a body of sonic artworks including The Fragmented Orchestra, and Plasticity where groups of spiking neurons are used to explore some of the workings of the brain, to look at its plasticity, its malleability in relation to the external world. In sonifying these networks of neurons we externalize the internal, and in doing so set on course a series of complex networks stretched across vast and infinitesimal amounts of space. Jane is Associate Professor (Reader) in Digital Arts at Plymouth University, co-director of the research group art + sound where she runs the NeuroArts series of conferences and Principle Supervisor in the Planetary Collegium, CAiiA-Node. http://janegrant.org.uk/
No place with Kate Genevieve
Artist in residence at the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex (2011-2012)
Kate has been investigating the Sackler Centre’s research into conscious presence and interoceptive awareness through the creation of multi-sensory installations. She will talk about the digital performance NO PLACE, that employs immersive visuals, multi-sensory effects and binaural soundscapes to take participants on a journey that plays with their awareness of the environment and of their own bodies. She will also show her new project, an installation that combines eighteenth century illusion techniques with contemporary biosensor technology, to stage a visceral encounter with the audience’s heartbeat. http://www.kategenevieve.com
The Consciousness Field with Maria Lopes
The Consciousness Field is a travelling interactive installation where ideas about what consciousness is are collected. The pompoms represent the neurons of the human brain. The creator Maria Lopes gathers all the definitions of consciousness, conducts a frequency analysis and a word pattern emerges. She then compares these from place to place. Maria intends to have a giant Consciousness Field once she has taken the installation to several countries with definitions in different languages. The Consciousness Field is a piece of Experimental Anthropology where art and science interlay. http://www.theconsciousnessfield.com/