At the age of nineteen, Stanley Rosenthal was introduced to Rinzai Zen by Professor D. T. Suzuki, since when (some sixty years ago) he has attempted to follow its teachings within the constraints of Western environments. Stan has described his experience and understanding of the process of art in a number of written works, drawing on scientific knowledge and contact with neuroscientists such as Emeritus Professor Charles Butter who wrote a foreword to his latest book. Over the last five years, Stan and Hugo Critchley have had many discussions about the brain processes underlying creativity, and this led to the commissioning of a film of Stan’s ideas and work to be shown at State of Mind.

Dr Jamie Ward, Department of Psychology, University of Sussex.

The Human Connectome Project aims to provide an unparalleled compilation of neural data, an interface to graphically navigate this data and the opportunity to achieve never before realized conclusions about the living human brain.

It allows users to navigate the brain in a way that was never before possible; fly through major brain pathways, compare essential circuits, zoom into a region to explore the cells that comprise it, and the functions that depend on it.

Mapping of the human connectome offers a unique opportunity to understand the complete details of neural connectivity (Sporns et al., 2005, Wedeen et al., 2008, Hagmann et al., 2007). The Human Connectome Project (HCP) is a project to construct a map of the complete structural and functional neural connections in vivo within and across individuals. The HCP represents the first large-scale attempt to collect and share data of a scope and detail sufficient to begin the process of addressing deeply fundamental questions about human connectional anatomy and variation. A collaboration between MGH and UCLA, the HCP is being developed to employ advanced neuroimaging methods, and to construct an extensive informatics infrastructure to link these data and connectivity models to detailed phenomic and genomic data, building upon existing multidisciplinary and collaborative efforts currently underway. Working closely with other HCP partners based at Washington University in St. Louis we will provide rich data, essential imaging protocols, and sophisticated connectivity analysis tools for the neuroscience community.

The scientific studies of consciousness and neuroscience bring new approaches to perception-related questions.  Chaired by Gordana Novakovic, artist-in-residence at the Computer Science Department, University College London, this panel of talks will explore work by artists who are investigating, exploring and questioning this research.

Time: 1pm

Jane Grant

Ghost is a neuronally embedded distributed artwork merging ‘memory’ in the cortex and live ambient sound to form a dynamically rich and haunting sonic installation. Ghost is part of a body of sonic artworks including The Fragmented Orchestra, and Plasticity where groups of spiking neurons are used to explore some of the workings of the brain, to look at its plasticity, its malleability in relation to the external world. In sonifying these networks of neurons we externalize the internal, and in doing so set on course a series of complex networks stretched across vast and infinitesimal amounts of space.

Jane is Associate Professor (Reader) in Digital Arts at Plymouth University, co-director of the research group art + sound where she runs the NeuroArts series of conferences and Principle Supervisor in the Planetary Collegium, CAiiA-Node. http://janegrant.org.uk/

Kate Genevieve

Kate is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex.  Kate has been investigating the Sackler Centre’s research into conscious presence and interoceptive awareness through the creation of multi-sensory installations.  She will talk about the digital performance NO PLACE, that employs immersive visuals, multi-sensory effects and binaural soundscapes to take participants on a journey that plays with their awareness of the environment and of their own bodies. She will also show her new project, an installation that combines eighteenth century illusion techniques with contemporary biosensor technology, to stage a visceral encounter with the audience’s heartbeat.

Kate is an artist and director who works with moving image, sound and the human body to create immersive environments for audiences that explore the interaction between embodiment and perception.  Kate founded Chroma Collective in 2010, a group of artists, animators and technologists brought together by an interest in investigating the human body in relationship to technology and the environment.

 Maria Lopes

The Consciousness Field is a travelling interactive installation where ideas about what consciousness is are collected. The pompoms represent the neurons of the human brain. The creator Maria Lopes gathers all the definitions of consciousness, conducts a frequency analysis and a word pattern emerges. She then compares these from place to place. Maria intends to have a giant Consciousness Field once she has taken the installation to several countries with definitions in different languages. The Consciousness Field is a piece of Experimental Anthropology where art and science interlay.

Maria is an artist/ anthropologist with an interest in neuroscience. In 2009 she declared: ‘Cartesian Dualism is Dead: Cogito et Sentio Ergo Sum’ (I think and feel therefore I am). Maria has exhibited and curated in London and New York. Born in 1977 in Portugal. Moved to London in 1996.

“Consciousness: The Final Frontier” will leap right into the leading edge of consciousness science, discussing recent advances and new insights into the brain mechanisms underlying the most familiar and yet the most mysterious aspect of our existence.  Speakers are drawn from the Sackler Centre and beyond.

Time: 3pm, June 30th

Anil Seth: “Am I a Figment”

Nothing seems more real than our experience of our own bodies, but then again nothing is quite what it seems. Dr. Anil Seth shows how our conscious self is just another fiction of the brain  He will talk about rubber hands and phantom limbs, show how out of body experiences are possible, and describe how to do cutting-edge neuroscience in your living room with the help of some off-the-shelf video game equipment.

Peter Naish: “What can Hypnosis tell us about Consciousness?”

Sarah Garfinkel: “Guided by your heart: How cardiac timing influences conscious experience”

Dave Carmel: “We see with our brains, not with our eyes”

You know that picture of a cube that looks like either side of it could be in front, and they can switch? There’s a whole bunch of images like that, called ‘bistable stimuli’, and consciousness researchers find them really interesting (not so much the cube, which is sort of old news – but some of the others are way cooler; I’ll be showing several of them). What do these images have to do with consciousness? Think about it: Nothing changes in the picture (i.e., in the outside world), but the way we see the picture (our awareness) does change. So if we figure out how the brain chooses which way to interpret the picture, we’ll get some idea of how the brain creates conscious perception. In this presentation I’ll describe how I get at this using transcranial magnetic stimulation: Sending powerful magnetic pulses into people’s brains to  disrupt their activity (temporarily, honest!), and see what this does to visual awareness.

The film beautifully shows that in our brains, as in our conscious experience, we find a symphony.