Conference: “Art & the brain, or how our brain decodes art”

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

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Speakers:

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

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

Simon Thorpe's research cheerfully combines 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 record memories that may remain completely silent for several months or years in what are known as "grandmother cells," which constitute a kind of "dark matter neocortex."

Laetitia Delafontaine and Gregory Niel will develop experimental work on space, place, and its representation in relation to new media. They will address the specificities of cinematographic, digital, and virtual technologies and their impact on perception and behavior through the implementation of artistic proposals. How can we situate ourselves in a space that not only gives rise to several possible maps depending on the parameters we choose, but is also influenced by another space, virtual or mental, which 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 way of representing spaces.

Practical information:

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

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