Art and Mind Symposia
A series of private dinners (by invitation only)
GV Art is a contemporary art gallery in London which aims to explore and acknowledge the inter-relationship between art and science, and how the areas cross over and inform one another. Art and Mind, in close collaboration with GV Art, is hosting a series of private dinners for people with a direct involvement in the art and science dialogue. Several meetings had occurred between members of the group before GV Art's director, Robert Devcic, offered his gallery as a venue for the dinners. These were then given the name 'The Art and Mind Symposia'. After the first two events, we decided to invite members of the group or special guests to provide a short address (15 minutes maximum) to kick-start a conversation around the table. A small fee is asked of attendees to cover costs.
As these presentations and the following conversations seemed to be of great interest, I thought they should in some way be recorded and have therefore produced this page which will give some information on the events.
Articles on events giving a summary of the talks and conversations, starting with Symposium 9, will be published shortly. Meanwhile I will list the guests, their websites and information on the speakers along with an abstract of the presentation.
Garry Kennard
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Art and Mind Symposium 10
Neural hermeneutics 8 May 2012
Professor Chris Frith www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/Frith
Christopher Frith is professor emeritus at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London and a Niels Bohr Visiting Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. His primary interest is in the applications of functional brain imaging to the study of higher cognitive functions in humans, although he is also well known for his earlier seminal work characterising the cognitive basis of schizophrenia.
Chris writes:
Even when we are talking face-to-face, we cannot get inside each other’s minds to check whether our interpretation of what was just said corresponds to what was intended. Given this insurmountable problem, how is communication possible? Neural Hermeneutics is about the mechanisms, instantiated in the brain, through which people are able to understand one another.
Symposium guests:
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Art and Mind Symposium 9
Art, Neuroscience and Reception 13 March 2012
Professor Martin Kemp www.martinjkemp.com
This presentation will deal with issues of reception and expectation when looking at works of art. The expertise of others is a major social influence on our everyday decisions and actions. Many viewers of art, whether expert or naïve, are convinced that the full aesthetic appreciation of an artwork depends upon the assurance that the work is genuine rather than fake. Rembrandt portraits provide an interesting image set for testing this idea. Recent scholarship has determined that quite a few non-Rembrandts exist. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, viewing of portraits, assigned as ‘copy’ rather than ‘authentic’, has evoked stronger responses in the brain regardless of whether the portrait was actually genuine. It is proposed that the activation of brain networks, rather than a single cortical area, supports the view that aesthetic judgments are multi-faceted and multi-dimensional in nature.
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Art and Mind Symposium 8
'Not waving but drawing: Art as attempted communication' 31 January 2012
Garry Kennard www.garrykennard.com
Painter, writer and founding director of Art and Mind, Garry Kennard is co-host of the Art and Mind Symposia.
Gary Kennard writes: 'My presentation is a radical redefinition of what we call art, its purposes and failures. A great deal of the confusion that enters into conversations about art can be elucidated if all art is seen as part of the human continuum of attempted communication. I am indulging in 'art' writing this. We all use 'art' all the time in our everyday lives - that is, we try to communicate feelings, ideas and information by using all the media available to us for such transactions. We are in fact nervous systems madly trying to make an effect on other nervous systems. What we call 'fine art' is merely the exclusive and often obscure and ineffective tip of a process we all indulge in all the time'.
Symposium guests:
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Art and Mind Symposium 7
'Thought experiments: why magical thinking means more than we know'
22 November 2011
Marina Warner http://www.marinawarner.com
Marina Warner has an international reputation for her writing which includes not only criticism and history but novels, short stories and studies in art, myths, symbols and fairy tales. She writes on her web site (at http://www.marinawarner.com):
‘My critical and historical books and essays explore different figures in myth and fairy tale and the art and literature they have inspired, from my early studies of the Virgin Mary and Joan of Arc to more recent work on the Arabian Nights. My fiction runs parallel to this, as I often draw on mythic or other imaginary predecessors to translate them into contemporary significance to re-vision them. Stories come from the past but speak to the present (if you taste the dragon’s blood and can hear what they say). I need to write stories as well as deconstruct and analyse them because I don’t want to damage the mysterious flight of imagination at the core of storytelling, the part that escapes what is called rational understanding. I hope, I believe that literature can be ‘strong enough to help’, to borrow Seamus Heaney’s wonderful comment about poetry.’
Marina has a new book on the way - 'Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights', copies of which will be available on the night.
Symposium guests:
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Art and Mind Symposium 6
'Parallel themes in visual neuroscience and the visual arts' 13 September 2011
Professor Steven Dakin http://www.dakinlab.org/DakinLab/Main.html
Steven Dakin writes:
'My thesis is that visual artists operate as "blind neuroscientists" who perform their experiments on canvas, their work illustrating the neural mechanisms of human visual perception. I contend that an evaluation of contemporary art at this level complements current criticism which focuses on the craft and history of a painting, which many viewers find unsatisfactory. In this presentation, l shall use examples from the work of Joan Miro, Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley and Mark Rothko.'
Symposium guests:
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Index: (click on a title for the event details)
Symposium 1 Ruth Padel 2 November 2010
Symposium 2 David Dexter 11 January 2011
Symposium 3 Ian McGilchrist 1 March 2011
Symposium 4 Chris French 10 May 2011
Symposium 5 Arthur I Miller 12 July 2011
Symposium 6 Steven Dakin 13 September 2011
Symposium 7 Marina Warner 22 November 2011
Symposium 8 Garry Kennard 31 January 2012
Symposium 9 Martin Kemp 13 March 2012
Symposium 10 Chris Frith 8 May 2012
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Symposium 5 'Creativity in science and art' 12 July 2011
Professor Arthur I Miller www.arthurimiller.com
Arthur I. Miller is emeritus professor of history and philosophy of science at University College London.
'Creativity in science and art'
Creativity: What is it? How does it happen? Arthur Miller says:
How does the mind transform incoming sensations into knowledge? This is the key problem faced by cognitive science. The kind of knowledge I will discuss tonight is insights in art and science that have led to dramatic breakthroughs such as Einstein's theory of relativity and Picasso's development of Cubism. To explore this I use correspondence, manuscripts, drafts and whatever else is available from artists and scientists as data for cognitive scientific theories such as Jean Piaget’s genetic epistemology, gestalt psychology, concepts from cognitive science which include long term and short term memory, metaphors and visual imagery, and the concepts of ‘beauty’ and ‘aesthetics’. I have combined elements of these theories into what I call the ‘Network Model of Thinking’. I will also venture into Carl Jung’s analysis of dreams.
Symposium guests:
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Art and Mind Symposium 4
'Meaning and Randomness' 10 May 2011
Professor Chris French www.gold.ac.uk/psychology/staff/french/
Chris is Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. His main research interest is the psychology of paranormal beliefs and of ostensibly paranormal experiences. Chris sent details of his talk:
'Meaning and Randomness'
On Seeing Things That Are Not There
. . . . One consequence of our evolutionary history is that we are prone to a number of cognitive biases that may well underlie our predisposition towards supernatural and paranormal beliefs. Because we are poor at recognising randomness and often see meaning and significance where there is none, it is not surprising that such beliefs are so prevalent and persistent.
Symposium guests:
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Art and Mind Symposium 3 'Two worlds in one brain' 1 March 2011
Dr Iain McGilchrist www.iainmcgilchrist.com
The way our divided brains shape experience, and how it casts light on problems in the history of culture and philosophy’.
Iain McGilchrist's latest book is 'The Master and his Emissary'.
'Why is the brain divided? In this groundbreaking book, based on a vast body of recent experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues that the left and right hemispheres have differing insights, values and priorities. Each has a distinct 'take' on the world - most strikingly, the right hemisphere sees itself as connected to the world, whereas the left hemisphere
stands aloof from it. This affects our understanding not just of language and reason, music and time, but of all living things: our bodies, ourselves and the world in which we live. . . . . but, McGilchrist argues, the left hemisphere has become so far dominant that we are in danger of forgetting everything that makes us human . . . '
We had the raw nerve to ask Iain to condense this into a 15 minute presentation, a formidable challenge which he
bravely accepted.
Symposium guests:
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Art and Mind Symposium 2 'Unlocking the hidden secrets of the brain' 11 January 2011
David Dexter http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/people/d.dexter/
David Dexter is reader in Neuropharmacology in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience and Scientific Director of the Parkinson's Disease Society Tissue Bank.
David told us about his research into Parkinson's disease in his talk entitled ' Unlocking the hidden secrets of the brain'.
Symposium guests:
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Art and Mind Symposium 1 'Imagining and writing nature' 2 November 2010
Ruth Padel www.ruthpadel.com
Ruth's title for her presentation was 'Imagining and writing nature'. Ruth introduced and read from her own work - particularly from her book 'Darwin - a life in poems' and from her latest novel 'Where the Serpents Are'.
Ruth is currently Poet in Residence, UCL Environment Institute. Her next book, 'The Mara Crossing', out January 2011, is a mosaic of poems, threaded with prose, on migration from cells to souls: flora, fauna, human history, diasporas, immigration today, and transmigration.
Guest Rob Kesseler wrote afterwards: 'Many thanks for inviting me along and hosting the meal on Tuesday night. It was a really good opportunity to catch up with old friends and make news ones. I went away with Darwin's words 'endless forms most beautiful and wonderful' resonating in my mind and visions of snakes writhing in my dreams.
Symposium guests:
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