SYMPOSIUM NEUROAESTHETICS

The symposium entitled Neuroaesthetics, held at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, is organized in collaboration with the non-profit Hertie Foundation. The symposium attempts to both initiate approaches by means of which art can access and draw inspiration from the neurosciences, and to facilitate ways for neuroscience to obtain novel means for articulating experimental results.

We hereby cordially invite you to attend the symposium at the ZKM.

The concept of neuroaesthetics was introduced to define artistic creativity at a neurological level, namely, as the expression of brain functions. Contemporary advances in innovative and technical media – understood as extensions of human sense organs – establish novel integrations of various sense organs. The neuroscientist Paul Bach-y-Rita spoke of sensory substitution, by which he meant each sense organ is potentially able to adopt functions of all other sense organs. Through the interaction of different brain regions, new chains of association are generated, which, in turn, generate creativity. Here, aesthetic experience may serve as a field of experimentation in the development of connections between different sensory perceptions: this allows the creation of creative processes.

The symposium centers on two basic themes. First, it will elucidate the significance of cultural neuroscience, namely, the impact of culture on the brain’s structure and the latter’s function for both science and the arts. Here, special emphasis will be placed on Asian cultural regions. Secondly, the concepts of neuroplasticity and synaesthesia will also be addressed.

Symposium speakers: Eckart Altenmüller, Olaf Breidbach, Joan Y. Chiao, Udo Dahmen, Helga Griffiths, Thomas Grunwald, Shihui Han, Arijana Kajfes, Shinobu Kitayama, Peter König, Warren Neidich, Israel Nelken, Fiona Newell, Alva Noë, Georg Northoff, Patricia Pisters, Tim Otto Roth, Reto Schölly, Shinsuke Shimojo, Julia Simner, Benjamin Staude and Peter Weiss-Blankenhorn.
 
A live streaming provides all those who are interested, but who are unfortunately unable to visit the ZKM to nevertheless follow the lectures. The symposium will be transmitted on the 22 November, 2012, from 2 p.m. and on 23 and 24 November, 2012, from 10 a.m. Please see: http://www.kaepsele-connection.de/index.php/en/neuroaesthetik.html

Further information on the speakers and the program may be found under the following address: http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/stories/storyReader$8185

Please register per e-mail to Ms. Thieroff: thieroff@zkm.de