Untitled Document

7 October – 22 November 2011
Private View Thursday 6 October 2011
GV Art Gallery, 49 Chiltern Street, Marylebone, London W1U 6LY

‘If revolt is to come, it will have to come from the five senses’ Michel Serres

Sense of Taste by Ken and Julia Yonetani is inspired by the 1618 painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder of the same name. One of a series on the five senses, it depicts a new world based on unfettered consumption of luxury goods, at a time when expanding markets, colonisation and agricultural revolutions were feeding the increasingly lavish and abundant tables of the European upper class. Nearly 400 years later, Ken and Julia Yonetani’s Sense of Taste ponders our obsession with sensual and material pleasures, reconnecting our sense of taste to the environmental impacts of what is on the dinner table. The exhibition comprises two main works, Sweet Barrier Reef and Still Life, the first made out of sugar and the second made entirely from salt. In both works, sugar and salt become metaphors for human desire, colonialism, and a culture of hedonism, as well as the essential link to reconnect us back to a spiritual world of nature and magic.
Sweet Barrier Reef focuses on the event of bleaching coral — the process leading to coral death. River waters containing high levels of suspended sediment (nitrogen, phosphorus and herbicides) cause coral death and bleaching. This sediment often comes from harvesting sugarcane, and is known to be one factor leading to bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef.

Still Life: The Food Bowl brings us back to the environmental cost of agricultural production and links up with historical associations of salt — as a powerful, sacred substance that maintains life by enabling food preservation, but also induces the death of ecosystems. Salinity is a major problem for the Murray-Darling basin, known as Australia's 'food bowl' as it produces up to 90 per cent of Australia's fresh food.

For press enquiries and images, contact:
GV Art via media@gvart.co.uk
or call 020 8408 9800

Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit
Invited Speaker Series 2011/12
Department of Psychology
Goldsmiths, University of London

SEMINARS ARE HELD ON TUESDAYS AT 6:10 PM IN ROOM LG01 OF THE NEW ACADEMIC BUILDING, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, unless otherwise noted. Maps and directions can be found at www.gold.ac.uk. All talks are open to staff, students and members of the public. Attendance is free and there is no need to book in advance.

NB: You are strongly recommended to register (at no cost) with the APRU’s “Psychology of the Paranormal” email list to ensure that you are informed of any future changes to the programme.

4 Oct: Dr Simon Singh & Alan Henness
Science writer & Sceptical activist
Battling Bogus Medical Claims

18 Oct: Dr David Barrett (NB: This talk will take place in the Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre in the Whitehead Building)
Writer
The Church of Scientology – a Scientific or an Esoteric Religion?

22 Nov: Dr Susan Blackmore
Psychologist, lecturer and writer
A 21st Century Séance

29 Nov: Prof Amina Memon
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London
Making the best use of video identification parades and meeting the
needs of vulnerable witnesses

10 Jan: David Allen Green
Lawyer and writer
Two Types of Evidence – Scientific vs. Legal Proof

24 Jan: Dr Jason J. Braithwaite
Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, University of Birmingham
Neurocognitive Correlates of the Out-of-Body Experience in the
Non-Clinical Population

7 Feb: Dr Rupert Sheldrake
Biologist and author
The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry

21 Feb: Andy Lewis
Blogger and Developer of the Quackometer website
The Persistence of Delusion: Why do Some Alternative Medicines
Thrive and Others Die?

6 Mar: Dr Miguel Farias
University of Oxford
Faith in Science? The Psychological Functions of Believing in Science

20 Mar: Prof Richard Wiseman
Department of Psychology, University of Hertfordshire
Something Interesting...

Item 3

Visual Cortexes: Brain-Art Competition Shows Off Neuroscience's Aesthetic Side

To highlight the artistic effort neuroscientists pour into their research images, a nonprofit group held a friendly competition. We review the top entries and winners

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=brain-art-shows-off-neuroscience-aesthetic-side

Item 4

Writing Partners

a new project headed by science writer Rita Carter

Rita Carter, the renowned science writer ('Mapping the Mind', 'Exploring Consciousness', 'Multiplicity', 'The Brain Book' etc.) and a collaborator with Art and Mind since its inception, has launched a new project for aspiring non-fiction writers to get their ideas into professional shape. She has brought together a very experienced team of writers to take part in this. She has written this short introduction to the idea -

Do you want to write a book about your ideas or research? Six well-known science authors, including Rita Carter (“Mapping the Mind”), Piers Bizony (“Space:50”) and Donna Dickenson (“Bodyshopping”) have joined up to help academics (and others) who want to write for people beyond academia. They also offer a consultancy service to Universities and research institutions seeking to maximise the impact of their scientific work.

The new website is at - www.writingpartners.co.uk

Item 5

The Master and his Emissary

by Iain McGilchrist

available at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-His-Emissary-Divided-Western/dp/030014878X

It may have come to your notice that this book came out recently. I believe it is of enormous interest to those who follow Art and Mind themes. To my mind this book is one of the most important recent contributions to our understanding of human culture and shows how the brain sciences can have a profound and necessary contribution to make in this field.

But don't listen to me . . .

Why is the brain divided? The difference between right and left hemispheres has been puzzled over for centuries. In a book of unprecedented scope, Iain McGilchrist draws on a vast body of recent brain research, illustrated with case histories, to reveal that the difference is profound - not just this or that function, but two whole, coherent, but incompatible ways of experiencing the world. The left hemisphere is detail-oriented, prefers mechanisms to living things, and is inclined to self-interest, where the right hemisphere has greater breadth, flexibility and generosity. This division helps explain the origins of music and language, and casts new light on the history of philosophy, as well as on some mental illnesses. In the second part of the book, he takes the reader on a journey through the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought and belief of thinkers and artists, from Aeschylus to Magritte. He argues that, despite its inferior grasp of reality, the left hemisphere is increasingly taking precedence in the modern world, with potentially disastrous consequences. This is truly a tour de force that should excite interest in a wide readership.

`A landmark new book ... it tells a story you need to hear, of where we live now.'
--Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times 'Culture', 29th November 2009

'Few books this year can match this one in breadth of erudition, scope, and ambition ... a highly stimulating read.' --'Best Books of 2009' choice, Barnes & Noble

`This is a very remarkable book...clear, penetrating, lively, thorough and fascinating...splendidly thought-provoking... I couldn't put it down.' --Professor Mary Midgley, The Guardian

'...beautifully written, erudite, fascinating and adventurous...tells us about...rapidly evolving technologies and experimental work in fascinating and lucid detail.'
--Professor AC Grayling, Literary Review

Art and Mind News