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1. NATURE on "sk-interfaces"
2. cfp: Arts Program - Computational Aesthetics 08
3. Announcing Synaesthesia, Art, Science & Technology Discussion on the Leonardo Education Forum (LEF)
4. Re: Synesthesia
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From: jhauser@club-internet.fr
Subject: NATURE on "sk-interfaces"
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:29:05 +0200
Dear Yasminers,
we are all looking forward to more art critics in the science press, and
more science critics in the art press, aren't we somehow? ... honni soit
qui mal y pense... but it is interesting to read how NATURE resumes the
SK-INTERFACES exhibition, as part of the programme of Liverpool,
European Cultural Capital:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7181/full/451891a.html
The exhibitions runs until march 30, see:
http://www.fact.co.uk/news/?id=128
BBC tried hard to resume it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7218903.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/nightwaves/pip/jys6e/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/image_galleries/skinterface_fact_gallery.shtml?10
Amitiés,
Jens
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From: paul@paul-brown.com
Subject: cfp: Arts Program - Computational Aesthetics 08
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:58:55 +0200
Please circulate to colleagues, students and relevant lists.
Computational Aesthetics 2008 == Call for Artworks and Performances
http://computational-aesthetics.org/2008/
June 18-20, 2008, Lisbon, Portugal
Keynote Speakers: Pat Hanrahan, Stanford, CA and Ernest Edmonds, UT
Sydney
You are invited to participate in the fourth annual workshop on
Computational Aesthetics that will take place at the Hotel
Riviera in Lisbon, Portugal from 18-20 June 2008.
Computational Aesthetics bridges the analytic and synthetic and
integrates aspects of computer science, philosophy, psychology,
and the fine & performing arts. In particular it focuses on the
mathematical and information theoretic aspects of both
connectionist and symbol processing methods by humans and
computers.
Computational Aesthetics seeks to facilitate both the analysis
and the augmentation of creative behaviour. It investigates the
creation of tools that can enhance the expressive power of the
fine and applied arts and furthers our understanding of aesthetic
evaluation, perception and meaning. Invited talks will be given
by individuals involved in the technical, artistic and
theoretical aspects of this young field to help participants to
better understand what aesthetics is, what computer technology is
currently capable of delivering, and to appreciate what is
involved in the creative process.
Call for Artworks, Performances and Artist's Presentations
Members of the fine and performing arts community are invited to
submit work and presentations about their work for consideration
for the final program. Please note that full papers must be
received by the earlier deadline of 15 March 2008 (see website
for the cfp). The program organisers can provide some basic
computer systems and data-projectors to support artist's
contributions however installations and performances that require
additional support (or special technology) must include details
of how the submitter will provide, install and support the work.
Submissions will be reviewed by the Arts Program international
committee and accepted works will be included in a catalogue
section of the conference proceedings which will be published by
Eurographics and also appear in the Eurographics and ACM Digital
Libraries.
Please send proposals including: descriptive overview (proposed
catalogue entry) half page A4; images; sound samples; video;
time-based works; technical specification; artist's
resume/biography and artist's statement to the online portal
below by the deadline of 15 April. Any work that requires a
non-standard facility (codec, plug-in, etc...) must detail this
and give a location where this may be sourced. Submissions should
compose a pdf file as the descriptive overview (proposed
catalogue entry) and be accompanied by a single zip archive
containing all other files -or- the pdf should have links to
these.
Submit via:
http://www.computational-aesthetics.org/2008/ >
Arts Program
Important dates:
15 April 2008 Submission deadline - Arts Program
29 April 2008 Notification and catalogue draft - to you
2 May 2008 Approval of catalogue draft - from you
18-20 June 2008 Conference
Conference Chairs: Joaquim Jorge, INESC-ID, Portugal / Bruce Gooch,
Univ. Victoria, Canada
Program Chairs:
Technical Program: Douglas Cunningham, Univ. of Tübingen, Germany
Victoria Interrante, Univ. of Minnesota, USA
Arts Program: Paul Brown, Univ. Sussex, UK
Jon McCormack, Monash Univ., Australia
Curator
Local Arts Program: Adérito Marcos, Univ Minho, Portugal
Publicity Chair: Tobias Isenberg, Univ. of Groningen, The
Netherlands
Website:
http://www.computational-aesthetics.org/2008/
Further information: Paul Brown - paul@paul-brown.com - Arts Program
only please!
====
Paul Brown - based in OZ Dec 07 - Apr 08
mailto:paul@paul-brown.com == http://www.paul-brown.com
OZ Landline +61 (0)7 5443 3491 == USA fax +1 309 216 9900
OZ Mobile +61 (0)419 72 74 85 == Skype paul-g-brown
====
Visiting Professor - Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/research/creativity.html
====
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From: vkorakidou@yahoo.gr
Subject: Announcing Synaesthesia, Art, Science & Technology Discussion on the Leonardo Education Forum (LEF)
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:19:40 +0200
Synaesthesia, Art & Technology Discussion on the Leonardo Education Forum (LEF)
Following the Synesthesia Discussion on YASMIN List, during the month of February 2008, this discussion will continue on the Leonardo Education Forum on the topic of Synaesthesia, Art, Science & Technology.
To join or read the discussion, please register at:
http://artsci.ucla.edu/LEF/node/132
The LEF discussion is currently moderated by Veroniki Korakidou (PhD Researcher at the NT Lab of the Department of Communication & Media Studies of the University of Athens).
The LEF discussion is also part of the Leonardo Synesthesia and Intersenses Special Project launched in 1999 by Jack Ox and Jacques Mandelbrojt (www.leonardo.info/isast/spec.projects/synesthesia/synesthesia.html).
Current members of the Leonardo Working Group on Synaesthesia, Art, Science & Technology include : Roger Malina, Amy Ione (painter, writer), Paul Hertz (artist, independent curator), Cindy Keefer (Director of the Center for Visual Music in Los Angeles). All YASMIN Synesthesia discussants are invited to join.
We thank the YASMIN discussants led by Carol Steen, Co-Founder of the American Synesthesia Association (A.S.A.); including Greta Berman (art historian at the Julliard School); Cretien van Campen (moderator of the Synesthetics Netherlands website and author of the Leonardo Book Series book "The Hidden Sense"); Hervι-Pierre Lambert (member of Institut Nicod, ENS/EHESS, Paris); Pier Luigi Capucci (teacher at the Universities of Bologna and Urbino); Avishai Henik (faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the Negev Be'er-Sheva) Teoman Madra (artist); and also : Jeremy Hight, Joanna Hoffmann, Sean A. Day, Luigi Pagliarini, Antonio Feliz, Franck Ancel, Stewart Dickson and all other contributors.
Leonardo Education Forum invites all educators and students to join
the Forum and participate in the various discussion groups including ones
by the Bangalore Space and Cutlure Working Group, Smart Textiles, College Art Association Group and the new YOLE Young Leonardos Working Group and others.
For futher information on Leonardo Network: www.leonardo.info
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From: hplambert@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Synesthesia
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:12:51 +0200
Bonjour, dear Yasminers
Bonjour!
- I observe that a lot of messages in the section Synesthesia have no direct relations with the phenomenon of synesthesia but generally speaking with the relations between arts and the new field of neurosciences. I consider that to be very meaningful. The term synesthesia is used more as a metonymy for something much more extensive, which would include neuropsychology, neurobiology, cognitive psychology and what is called neuroesthetics.
- The idea of†that artists and writers are able to explore specific functioning of the cognitive system through their works†has nothing new. It is largely used by Semir Seki in Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain. Oxford University Press: Oxford. (1999).
Zeki who coined the term neuro-aesthetics illustrated every specialized cortical era by a painter. Fauvism was supposed to have explored the V4 era, specialized in the colour processing, and kinetic art would correspond to the specialization of V5. In his conference on the “Beautifulâ€, Jean-Pierre Changeux gives the example of Matisse as a neurophysiologist artist.
There is an excellent article called « Art and Neuroscience », written by John Hyman, on line (http://www.interdisciplines.org/artcognition/papers/15 ), from a conference on line about art and cognition organized by ENS/ CNRS/ Institut Jean Nicod in 2005. John Hyman reminds the idea that artists would be neurologists as studying the brain with their own techniques is just a modernized rewriting of Helmhotz’s theory of 1871. According to Helmholtz, artists were explorers of visual system. John Hyman quotes Helmholtz in a text of 1871:
"We must look upon artists as persons whose observation of sensuous impressions is particularly vivid and accurate, and whose memory for these images is particularly true. That which long tradition has handed down to the men most gifted in this respect, and that which they have found by innumerable experiments in the most varied directions, as regards means and methods of representation, forms a series of important and significant facts, which the physiologist, who has here to learn from the artist, cannot afford to neglect. The study of works of art will throw great light on the question as to which elements and relations of our visual impressions are most predominant in determining our conception of what is seen, and what others are of less importance. As far as lies within his power, the artist will seek to foster the former at the cost of the latter."
After this quotation, Hyman comments:
“In this passage, Helmholtz combines the idea that artists test and explore the visual system Most visual scientists have abandoned Helmholtz’s theory of vision. They no longer talk about sensuous impressions, or about the unconscious mind interpreting sensuous impressions. Instead, it is generally held that different parts of the brain are simultaneously performing various highly specialized tasks, reacting to form, or to motion, or to colour; and that somehow or other the results of these processes are combined to form a unified visual perception, although nobody is sure yet how this synthesis occurs.â€
The article is furthermore a devastating critique of V.S. Ramachandran’s ideas on neuroesthetics.
3
For relations between arts and neurosciences, and especaillya arts and neuropsychology, I would recommend some books or articles: :
- Rose, F. C. (Ed.), (2004). Neurology and Arts: Painting, Music, Literature. London: Imperial College Press.
Bogousslavsky, J., & Boller. F. (Eds.). (2005). Neurological disorders in Famous Artists. Basel: Karger AG.
Chatterjee, A. (2004). “The neuropsychology of visual artistic productionâ€, Neuropsychologia, (42) 1568-83.
4
Sorry for that, I would indicate some personal papers. But one was done in Leonardo Conference in Prague, called : « neuroaesthtics, neujrological disorders and creativityâ€, which begins by:
« Neurology of the arts or neuroaesthetics is a new branch of neurology especially concerned by neuropsychology of visual artistic production and cerebral localisation of musical perception and musical memory (Seki, 1999; Rose, 2004; Chatterjee, 2004; Bogousslavky & Boller, 2005). Among the different activities the new field of research is gathering, such as study of pictorial representation of neurological symptoms in the art history, diagnosis of artists’neurological diseases, this article will focus on the study of relations between cognitive disabilities for neurological disorders and artistic production by visual artists. Neurological deficits can change the work in content or in style, but can be used also as sources of inspiration, especially in the case of epilepsy and migraine. But some final diagnosis remain controversial as regards for instance the nature of the disease of Ravel, Van Gogh, or Giorgio de Chirico, (Bogousslavky & Boller, 2005) or even De Kooning!
. According to Anjan Chatterjee (2004) writing about the breakdown of the visual representations: “The work produced by artists who have suffered from brain damage can contribute to our understanding of these representations“(p.1568) and it is also the opinion of Bogousslavky and Boller (2005): »
Among more personal writings:
- Article, « Art et cerveau : vers la neuro-esthétique ? », in « Rencontre », Recherches en esthétique, Revue du C.E.R.E.A.P, n°12, 2006.
Cette revue reliée au Laboratoire d’Esthétique Théorique et Appliquée de l’Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne est dirigée par Dominique Berthet, dans le comité de rédaction : Ernest Breleur et Marc Jimenez.
- Colloque MutaMorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences, International Conference, Prague. A Leonardo 40th Anniversary celebration, Prague, novembre 2007.
Titre de l’intervention : “Neuroesthetics, Neurological Disorders and Creativity“ (La neuro-esthétique, désordres neurologiques et créativité)
- Article en ligne : « Littérature, arts visuels, neuroesthétique »,
http://www.epistemocritique.org/spip.php?rubrique22
Épistémocritique, revue d’études et de recherches sur les littératures et les savoirs, Université du Québec
- Intervention : « Dernières traces : l’ultime possibilité créatrice dans la maladie neurologique », Colloque Voyages Au Noir, organisé par le Centre des cultures et des arts de la Caraïbe et la délégation académique aux arts et à la culture, du vendredi 23 novembre au dimanche 25 novembre 2007, Martinique ( on line in the next months)
5
I am preparing an article for a conference on Besançon on memory at he ed of mars and one of my theme is on what Jonah Lehrer wrote on “Proust as an neuroscientistâ€
.The theme is nothing new as we saw with Zeki and even Lemholtz. And furthermore a lot of authentic scientists have wrotten on relations between Proust and neurosociences. . As early as the 9th of november 1998, a specialist of Proust, Yves Tadié had presented in front of the Académie des Sciences morals et politiques, pusblished in the Revue of the Académie an article about “Proust neurologueâ€. In his recension fo books and articles on it, there were, D.Shacter, Searching for memory, I. Rosenfield, Invention of memory, G. Edelman, Bright air, Bright fire, without speacking of Changeux and Vigouroux.
What would be original in what he wrote on the theme should be on the speculative explanation of involuntary memory by prions, - whitout entering in easy commentaries of bizarre errors on Proust’s work.
It is why in the article I compare this kind of new scientific fantasies with Narby’s explanation of memories in the nature. The well-know Jeremy Narby’s «hypothesis » in The cosmic snake: DNA and the origins of Knowledge postulates a link between the genetic code and shamanic knowledge, refering to a speculative hypothesis, that of Popp, Gu and Li. about biophotons like cellular language. In both texts, Narby’s and Lehrer’s you have the same importation of highly speculative theories connected to the genetic code to explain memory mechanisms. Of cause, my point of view is not to judge or condemn, but from an anthropological point of view, to describe phenomena of the contemporary imaginary.
Hervé-Pierre Lambert
Institut Nicod. EHESS
