Visual Art and The Brain: At The Interface of Art and Science

New York Academy of Sciences

Speakers: Felice Frankel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; David Freedberg, Columbia University; Margaret Livingstone, Harvard Medical School; and V. S. Ramachandran, University of California at San Diego This event is sponsored by Science & the Arts at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and the New York Academy of Sciences, and is supported in part by the David Schwarz family and the National Science Foundation.

This one-day conference will explore the nature of the science­art interface, the inspiration this interface provides to scientists and artists alike, and the impact of such interactions in areas of research and other human endeavors.

The morning session will feature a discussion of the current knowledge of vision, why we perceive art in certain ways, and emotional response to art. The afternoon session will focus on the interface of art and science and will include discussions with artists or scientists whose work represent the beauty and power of science as well as those whose art dwells on social and ethical implications, often with anxiety and apprehension. Confirmed speakers include:

Felice Frankel, director, Envisioning Science Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of Envisioning Science: the Design and Craft of the Science Image.

David Freedberg: professor of art history and director of the Italian Academy at Columbia University, and author of a 1989 classic The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response.

Margaret Livingstone: professor of neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, and author of Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing.

V. S. Ramachandran: director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California at San Diego, and author of several books, including, mostly recently, A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers.

Additional speakers will be announced.

For more information go to: http://www.nyas.org/event/eventDetail.asp?eventID=4709&date=11/5/2005%2...