Lecture: “Art & the Brain, or How Our Brain Interprets Art”

As part of the 21st annual Brain Awareness Week, March 11–17, 2019.
Aimé Schœnig Student Center, Richter Campus – Rue Vendémiaire, Montpellier.

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Speakers:

• Simon Thorpe, Research Director at CerCO – the Toulouse Center for Brain and Cognition Research;
• Laetitia Delafontaine, artist and professor at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier – MoCo;
• Gregory Niel, artist and professor at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier – MoCo.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? How long does it take the human visual system to process a complex natural image?

Simon Thorpe’s research seamlessly blends neurophysiology and psychophysics, computer modeling, and theoretical work, leading him to study the mechanisms of memory in humans and machines, which “aim to understand how we can store sensory memories that can last a lifetime.” The hypothesis here is that humans can store memories that may remain completely dormant for several months or years in what are called “grandmother cells,” which constitute a sort of “dark matter neocortex.”

Laetitia Delafontaine and Gregory Niel, for their part, will develop an experimental project exploring space, place, and their representation in relation to new media. They will examine the specific characteristics of cinematic, digital, and virtual technologies and their impact on perception and behavior, as elicited through the creation of artistic works. How does one situate oneself within a space that not only gives rise to multiple possible maps depending on the parameters one chooses but is, moreover, shaped by another space—virtual or mental—that profoundly alters the ways in which places relate to one another? This also raises the question of the position of the viewer or the viewed, in relation to new media and their modes of representing spaces.

Practical information:

Aimé Schœnig Student Center
Rue Vendémiaire – Tram Lines L1, L3, and L4 Rives du Lez
Email – Facebook

An event presented by the COSA group – COnnexion Science & Art.