the lab book

The Lab ProjectFull Programme of Events25 July 2015 to 21 August 2015Kingsgate Project Space

g step #1: The Symposium

11.15 - 12.15pmIntroductory Session:Multisensory Perception and Synaesthesia

25 & 26 July 2015

Saturday 25 JulyKingsgate Project Space

Speakers: Dr. Michael Banissy & Chang Hee Lee

3 - 4.30pmDiscussion Panel 2:Body, Vision and New Technology

12.30 - 2pmDiscussion Panel 1:The Science and Culture of Sensing Sound

4.30 - 5pmBeing Slime Mould: model-ling sensory environmental responses [an illustrated experiment]

2, 3 & 4pmMovement Workshop

Speakers: Christiana Kazakou, Gaynor O’Flynn, Dr. Ana Tajadu-ra-Jimenez and Dr. Maria Chait

Speakers: Madi Boyd, Rachel Bed-der, Giles Askham and Professor Kate Jeffery

Sunday 26 JulyKingsgate Project Space

Speaker: Heather Barnett

Join movement directors Katie Grube and Nicola London in a movement workshop to connect to your proprio-ceptive senses and a more “embodied” cognition.Sessions will last ± 20min.

A playful take on the format of an academic conference, this two day event will gather scientists, curators, creative practitioners and members of the public to dis-cuss the possible entanglements between art and science through the subject of multisensory interac-tions.

Chang Hee Lee, Essence in Space, 2013

All events free of charge. Booking not required but recommended. More information on how to book can be found on our website: thelabproject.tumblr.com

g step #2: The Experiments27 July - 13 August 2015

2 - 5pmOpen Studio

Saturday 8 AugustKingsgate Project Space

During the second phase of the project, Kingsgate Project Space will be transformed into a studio space where artists can conduct their experiments.

Tuesday 4 AugustKingsgate Project Space


6.30 - 8pmReading Group #1: On Sensing Art

6.30 - 8pmReading Group #2: Embodied Architecture

Cover image: Yen-Ting-Cho, MovISee, 2014-present

Participating artists:

Join our four participating artists for an afternoon of experimentation and workshops.

Rose Pickles Vivienne Du Yen-Ting Cho

The Lab Book: Visitors and participants of the project are all encouraged to keep a personal lab book throughout the entire run of the exhibition and events programme. The cover and pages dedicated to each of the individual events will be available for pick-up from the project space or for download on this website. In our gallery space there will also be blank, graph and tracing paper for insertion to make notes and document the process.

g step #3: The Final Exhibition14 - 21 August 2015

6 - 8pmExhibition Opening

Friday 14 AugustKingsgate Project Space

Rose Pickles, Vivienne Du & Yen-Ting Cho

7 - 8.30pmHaptic Visuality Salon

Thursday 20 AugustKingsgate Project Space

Speaker: Dr. Tereza StehlíkováKingsgate Community Centre. Booking recommended via Eventbrite. 11 - 3pm

Multi-Sensory Extravaganza


Event organised in collaboration with Portugal Prints. The gallery will be closed during the event.

11 - 1pmExperimental Drawing Workshop

Monday 17 AugustKingsgate Community Centre

The Lab Project25 July - 21 August 2015thelabproject.tumblr.com

Kingsgate Project Space110-116 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JGJoin us online: www.facebook.com/thelabproject15@TheLabProject15, #labproject

Workshop for older generations art enthusiasts.

Supported by:

Drop in and explore the final exhibition. Taking themes of space, movement and documentation, we will work together to make a drawing on the floor of the gallery.

2 - 5pmFamily Workshop

Press Release

The Lab Project25 July - 21 August 2015 Kingsgate Project Space | Free Entry

Final Exhibition: 15 - 21 August 2015 Preview: Friday 14 August, 18.00 - 20.00

The Lab Project is an experimental, month-long exhibition and events programme exploring the interactions between art and science. Over the course of three phases involving collaborations with scientists and members of the public, artists will engage in research and experiment with their practice through a series of workshops and knowledge exchange. Focusing their explorations around questions of sensory perception, multisensory integration and synaesthetic associations, each artist will produce or further develop a stimulating sensory and participatory piece for the final exhibition. The Lab Project has emerged as part of Testbed, an annual initiative run by Camden Arts Centre’s Front of House Volunteers.

The project will take place over three phases:

g step #1: The Symposium [25 & 26 July 2015] A playful take on the format of an academic conference, this two day event will gather scientists, curators, creative practitioners and members of the public to discuss the possible entanglements between art and science through the subject of multisensory interactions. Aimed at a non-specialist audience, these talks and activities will allow researchers, academics and practitioners to introduce their work to a wider public and to engage in cross-dis-ciplinary dialogue. The first day will focus on new media and technologies and their role in shaping how we perceive the world around us. The second day will explore the possibilities offered by sensory learning in the gallery space. The talks will be accompanied by a series of all-ages, family friendly workshops in the afternoon.

Speakers include: Dr Ana Tajadura-Jimenez, Chang Hee Lee, Christina Kazakou, Dr Eleni Ikoniadou, Heather Barnett, Professor Kate Jeffery, Madi Boyd, Dr Maria Chait, Dr Michael Banissy, Rachel Bedder

g step #2: The Experiments [27 - 13 August 2015]

During the second phase, Kingsgate Workshops will be trans-formed into a studio space where the artists can conduct their experiments. Conceived as a mini-residency programme, Rose Pickles, Vivienne Du, Yen-Ting Cho and Yiyun Kang will each develop a work project or work inspired by an idea or thought process triggered in step #1. On Saturday 8 August, the Gallery will be open to members of the public and visitors will be able to observe the artists’ prog-ress through steps 1 and 2. The visiting public will also have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the final piece by participating in workshops led by the participating artists to test out new ideas and inform their practice.

g step #3: The Final Exhibition [15 - 21 August 2015]

This experimental project will culminate in a week-long exhibition, with each artist creating a final piece that visitors can enjoy onw multiple sensory levels. On arrival at the gallery space, ‘lab assis-tants’ will advise on the procedures of the visit and give visitors some background on the overall process. Breaking the rules of the traditional gallery space, visitors will be invited to take part in a fully interactive experience. They will navigate their own journey through a multisensory landscape featuring immersive installa-tions, performance happenings and participatory encounters with cutting edge technology.

Participating artists: Rose Pickles, Vivienne Du & Yen-Ting Cho

Rose Pickles studied Maths, Physics and French at A-level and went on to complete a BA in Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. After graduating she moved to Paris, initially working for an Architectural practice but ending up working with a film/theatre collective. In 2011 she returned to London to do an MA in Art and Science at Central Saint Martins on an AHRC scholarship. Her final piece was selected for Axi-

webs MAstars. Following her MA she worked as a Set Designer for an immersive theatre company while studying Art Direction at the School of Communication Arts 2.0. She now works as an Art director at a London Advertising agency. Rose has exhibited at various places including The British Library, The BFI and European Planetary Science Conference at UCL.

Vivienne Du has recently graduated with an MA in Art & Science from The University of the Arts, London: Central Saint Martins and previously completed a Fine Art Degree from Nottingham Trent University. She has curated and exhibited work in both Nottingham and London alike, including the Old Truman Brewery and Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf. Her work featured last year with the In the Woods Festival of art and music, Kent.cargocollective.com/Vivienne-Du

Dr. Yen-Ting Cho is is a designer, artist and researcher with expertise in interdisciplinary digital design methods, including architecture, interac-tion design, and animation. He has a PhD in Innovation Design Engineer-ing (IDE) from the Royal College of Art (RCA), London; and a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University. He was awarded Film Study Center Harvard Fellowships for three years and his animation practice has received awards internationally. He has worked at INVIVIA (Cambridge, MA), and designed interactions for Microsoft Surface, GSD and the Guggenheim Museum, New York. He was a visiting tutor in IDE at the RCA where his doctoral research was on Cubic Film: Interdisciplinary Development of a Digital Participatory Moving Image Medium. Yen-Ting Cho leads his London-based digital design studio, and he is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Creative Industries Design at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. www.choyenting.com

About Testbed

Organised by Camden Arts Centre’s Front of House Volunteers, Testbed is a project supported by the centre and Kingsgate Work-shops Trust. It aims to develop and nurture young artists, curators, art educators and administrators of the future. The Testbed 2015 team: Aleksandra Berditchevskaia, Anouska Samms, Charlotte Juhen, Georgina Appleton, Isabelle Morgan, Louis Flothmann, Neftali Carreira Velez, Sara Angelucci, Silvia Iacovcich, Tara Wellesley

The Lab Project25 July - 21 August 2015Kingsgate Project Spacethelabproject.tumblr.com@TheLabProject15, #labproject

Public Information

g step #1: The Symposium25 & 26 July 2015, 10 - 6pm, Free entryBooking recommended (through Eventbrite) g step #2: The Experiments27 July - 13 August 2015During the residency period, the space will be closed to the public but an open day will be held on the 8 August. A series of events will run alongside: dates and times can be found on our website. g step #3: The Final Exhibition15 - 21 August 2015, open daily 12 - 6pm, Free entryPreview: Friday 14 August 18.00 - 20.00 Press view: 17.00 - 18.00The gallery will be closed on Tuesday 18 August until 3pm. Kingsgate Project Space110-116 Kingsgate Road, London NW6 2JG

Join us onlineFacebook: www.facebook.com/thelabproject15Twitter: @TheLabProject15thelabproject.tumblr.com For more information and images please contact: [email protected]

Project supported by:

Saturday 25 July 2015

Introductory Session:Multisensory Perception and Synaesthesia

Chang Hee Lee is a designer whose work mostly revolves around industrial design. Using different products as mediums, he pursues a variety of design experimentations with the desire to broaden possible future design channels. Of particular importance in his work is the relationship between design and consumer culture, a theme he investigates to understand what types of design we find acceptable. His current design research focuses on synaesthetic experience in relation to designed artifacts. His experiments in this field have led him to investigate a variety of sources such as fic-tional gadgetry, immateriality, mental images, participatory design, neuroscience and so on. He is a current PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art. He has been selected by the Design Council as one of the 70 most talented emerging designers in the UK as part of their “Ones to Watch” list.www.changheelee.com

Chang Hee Lee, Essence in Space, 2013

Michael Banissy is the Director of the Non-Invasive Brain Stimula-tion Lab at the Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths (University of London). Prior to this he was based at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (University College London) where he had previously completed his PhD in Psychology. His lab integrates approaches from cognitive neuroscience and experimental psychology to investigate research questions relating to emotion and face rec-ognition, synaesthesia, prosopagnosia, self-other processing, empathy, creativity and music. He has published widely on these subjects in peer-reviewed scientific journals and his research has been featured in the broader culture through interviews with BBC Radio 4, the Tate Channel and the Wellcome Trust Packed Lunch series.www.banissy.com



Discussion Panel 1:The Science and Culture of Sensing Sound

Ana Tajadura-Jimenez is a Research Fellow at the UCL Inter-action Centre (UCLIC). She completed her graduate studies in Telecommunications Engineering at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain), and her PhD degree in Psychoacoustics at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg (Sweden). Her research is grounded in questions relating to embodied psycho-acoustics, human multisensory perception, emotion and new media technologies. Her most recent project, The Hearing Body, which investigates how sounds affects body representation has been written about in the Telegraph and Mail Online as well as the popular science publication New Scientist. She has presented her work as part of events held at the Science Museum, Royal Institution, Barbican, the Wellcome Collection and the London Royal College of Arts.

Photo by Antonio Caballero

Christiana Kazakou is a multidisciplinary artist based in London. Her artistic practice explores the interconnectedness and open-ended dialogue between art and science by combining scientific concepts, laws and theories from different disciplines with arts practice. Her interests lie in abstraction, curiosity and those complexities that have the ability to influence perceptions lurking beneath ‘known’ definitions. She is a core member of Random Order, a collective of four artists using sound as the primary medium for their work. They investigate sound’s potential to relate to the environment and open up both universal and individual stories and histories. The collective have previously worked on projects with GV art gallery, the Southbank Centre, Central Saint Martins and various Art & Sound festivals.www.christianakazakou.comwww.randomordercollective.com

Gaynor O’Flynn is a multi media artist working in voice, music, art, film & installation art. A pioneer in interactive, inter-disciplinary practice she established her company and collective ‘beinghuman’ in the 90s. Based in the beinghuman warehouses in Somerset & East London, beinghuman creates innovative events, exhibitions, performance, and interactive work. In recent projects Gaynor has used sound to control visual projections of circles of light, for example the unique work “Kora”, where voices of Tibetan nuns were used to create a light projection in real time, showcased as part of Kathmandu International Art Festival. She has worked in collaboration with a variety of cultural organisations including the BBC, British Council, Serpentine Gallery, Institute of Art and Ideas and made a number of festival appearances in recent years both as a speaker and performer. She is currently working on interactive music, tech and performance works for Spitalfields Music Festival and Mehboob studios in Mumbai.www.gaynoroflynn.comwww.beinghuman.com

Maria Chait is a Reader in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience at the Ear Institute, UCL. She completed her PhD at the Uni-versity of Maryland, followed by a short postdoc at Ecole Nor-male Supérieure, Paris before coming to London. Her lab uses behavioural and functional brain imaging methods to investigate

how listeners use sounds in order to learn about, and interact with their surroundings. Examples of specific themes the group are interested in include the salience of sounds in complex auditory environments and perceptual limits of selective attention to sound. Maria’s research is aimed at understanding the neural processes by which auditory sensory information is converted into a percep-tual representation.


Discussion Panel 2:Body, Vision and New Technology

Madi Boyd graduated from the sculpture department of the Slade School of Fine Art (2005). She specialised in creating large-scale sculptures fused with digital projections. During her degree, she won the Gissings undergraduate scholarship as well as an exchange to the highly competitive Cooper Union School for the Advancement of Art and Science, New York City, where she studied sculpture under the renowned artist Hans Haacke. Madi uses sculpture, light and digital media to create experiential environments that play with depth, perception and the connection between seeing and knowing. Her training as a sculptor has led her to investigate the sculpting of light: for her, a pitch-dark room serves as a blank canvas. Sculpting physical space as if it were matter, she uses perceptual ambiguity to create environments that perform.www.madiboyd.com

Giles Askham is an artist, curator and Senior Lecturer in Computer Animation and Multimedia at London Metropolitan University. He founded Peterborough Digital Arts in 2003 and curated its award winning programme for two years. He has written extensively for publication, including a recent essay for Playware, an exhibition held at Laboral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial, Asturias,

Madi Boyd, The Point of Perception, 2009-2013

Spain. He has received a number of awards, including an inter-national scholarship for the artists’ residency program Interactive Screen 07 at the Banff New Media Centre, Canada. His curatorial and artistic practice broadly explores the territory mapped out by human computer interaction (HCI). He is interested in the possibil-ities that technology affords us to communicate, interact, and play with one another and its potential to aid a collaborative, creative process. www.askham.org

Rachel Bedder graduated from University of Reading in 2013 with a degree in Art & Psychology. During her time at university she worked on research projects with the Active Vision Laboratory and studied visual arts at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Rachel cur-rently works as a Dementia Research Assistant at UCL, and will be returning to postgraduate study in cognitive neuroscience at UCL in October. She is the science curator for the AXNS collective, an inter-disciplinary curatorial group working at the intersection between art and science. They have organised a variety of events including exhibitions, panels and workshops that engage the public with science and techology using diverse formats, including augmented reality apps and interdisciplinary group hacks that are currently taking place in The Cube Gallery in Shoreditch.axnscollective.org

Kate Jeffery is the Director of the Institute of Behavioural Neurosci-ence at UCL. After training as a doctor in her native New Zealand, she completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Edin-burgh. Her research is focused on the question of how information is represented by the brain and specifically how the cognitive map of our surrounding environment allows for self-localisation and spatial navigation. Kate’s lab explores these subjects using a combination of electrophysiology and behavioural methods. At the level of single neurons, they investigate how spatially sensi-tive cells encode information about complex environments. The lab recently secured a five-year Wellcome Investigator Award to continue their work on navigation in multicompartmental, three-di-mensional spaces.

The Lab Project25 July - 21 August 2015thelabproject.tumblr.com


Being Slime Mould: modelling sensory environmental responses [an illustrated experiment]

Being Slime Mould sets out to test human capacity for com-munication and cooperation in comparison with a single celled organism, the slime mould, Physarum polycephalum. Whilst it has no brain or central nervous system, the slime mould demonstrates primitive intelligence and an impressive capacity for collective action and adaptive behaviour. This illustrated talk, experiment and discussion will explore bodies of intelligence, model organ-isms, and sensory environmental responses - by following some simple biological rules we will observe what complex behaviours may emerge.

Heather Barnett is an artist, researcher and educator working at the intersections of art and science, often collaborating with scientists, artists, participants and organisms. Employing imaging technologies and biological systems, projects include microbial

The Physarum Experiments: The Maze (film still)

portraiture, cellular wallpapers, performing cuttlefish, and an ongoing ‘collaboration’ with an intelligent slime mould. She is a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellow and Lecturer on the MA Art and Science at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.www.heatherbarnett.co.uk


Sunday 26 July

Movement Workshops

Suggested Reading Material for Explorative and Creative Somatic Practise compiled by Nicola London:1. Lecoq, J. et al. (2009) The moving body; teaching creative theatre. London: Methuen Drama.2. Lecoq, J. and Bradby, D. (ed.) (2006) Theatre of movement and gesture. London: Routledge.3. Ewan, V. and Green, D. (2013) Expression of human condition.London: Methuen Drama. (Performance books).4. Free, J. (.) and Ramsay, N. (.) (2004) Holistic bodywork for performers:a practical guide. Marlborough: Crowood Press.5. Jones, E (1953) Sigmund Freud: Life and Works (Vol.1). London: Hogarth Press Jo.6. Murray, S. (2003) Jacques Lecoq. London: Routledge.7. Olsen A (1998) Body Stories: A guide to experimental anatomy.London: University Press of New England.8. Vaughan, F.E. (1979) Awakening intuition.Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press.9. Evans, M (2009) Movement Training for the Modern Actor.Routledge: London

Katie Grub and Nicola London, Movement Workshops, The Lab Project, 2015

Nicola London started dancing at a young age and attended Italian Conti Associates at 16 where she started training in Musical Theatre and Drama. At 18 Nicola moved to London to carry on her training at London Studio Centre where she studied various forms of contemporary (Cunning, Graham, Limon, Contact Improvisation, Release Technique) and Jazz (lyrical, commercial) choreography and musical theatre. She graduated in 2011 with a BA in Theatre Dance, receiving the Elizabeth West award for Choreography and Contemporary Dance. (Nicola’s work blends her background in contemporary dance with Body Mind Centring, yoga and child development and education). Whilst completing her MA Movement at Central School of Speech and Drama, Nicola has worked on a cross-disciplinary collaboration with MA Animation students at CSM, leading workshops on Laban movement and character embodiment. Her current area of investigation is in how touch and the space we inhabit affect the way we relate to the world.

Katie Grube has been active in both performance and sports from childhood. She received her BFA from the University of Windsor in Canada and moved on to work as an actor in theatre and television. In 2008 she completed her RYT 200hr yoga certification with Reflections Yoga in NYC and began teaching yoga and most recently worked with semi professional athletes in their off-season training (ice-hockey and basketball) on alignment, balance, flexibility and strength training. During her time at Central School of Speech and Drama Katie has worked (with BA Acting students on movement fundamentals and stamina, and) as a Movement Director (at Rose Bruford College). (Recent) projects with Arcola Theatre include an intergenerational piece for the Glastonbury Festival, Shangri-La, and (the upcoming production of) Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle, performed with large-scale puppets in Queen Elizabeth Park. Katie’s current area of investigation is in Actor Movement Pedagogy.


Artist

Rose Pickles

“My practice is a combination of installation and performance. I make installations that act as a set for both live and recorded performances. My current work evolved from my research into performance and the difficult issue of its documentation. There is no substitution for seeing a performance live, no amount of documentation can compensate for actually being there. My work questions whether, if the documentation and event are so dispa-rate, and all the viewer is seeing is the documentation, does it matter if the event ever actually took place?

My research into the neurology of vision has led to the work concentrating primarily on sight. The subjectivity of sight makes it ideal for experimenting with deception. Historical and cultural influences have given us a familiarity with visual art that allows us to build up a sort of visual language that makes it easy to make visual assumptions. This creates expectation, and expectations create illusions; we see what we expect to see and not necessarily

Rose Pickles, Hope is the thing with feathers, 2013

what is actually there. I aim to undermine expectations, requiring the viewer to look again and perhaps see differently. The work aims to be doubly deceptive, a possibly fictitious event seen through expectant, subjective eyes.”

Rose Pickles studied Maths, Physics and French at A-level and went on to complete a BA in Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. After graduating she moved to Paris, initially working for an Architectural practice but ending up working with a film/theatre collective. In 2011 she returned to London to do an MA in Art and Science at Central Saint Martins on an AHRC scholarship. Her final piece was selected for Axiwebs MAstars. Following her MA she worked as a Set Designer for an immersive theatre company while studying Art Direction at the School of Communication Arts 2.0. She now works as an Art director at a London Advertising agency. Rose has exhibited at various places including The British Library, The BFI and European Planetary Science Conference at UCL.


Vivienne Du explores the relationship between physical space and psychological behaviour, investigating the balance between finite physics and indeterminate psychology, [body and mind] co-exist-ing in both tandem and polarity. Physical space is often measured, deciphered and prescribed through defined constraints. Du sees space as matter which cannot be easily divided, penetrated or conventionalised into dimensional brackets.

She believes space to be tenuous, formless and in flux, subject to mental interpretation and suggestion. She considers the human condition within architecture and its relational impact and per-ception of space; when altered and manipulated. Thus, through a series of site-specific installations, Du reconfigures existing spatial constructs and invites the spectator to take an active engagement into the habitual customs and notions of space.

Often based around locations of transition or transience, she employs space as an architectural form of ‘the void’. Corridors, passageways and thoroughfares do not operate as places for

Artist

Vivienne Du

Vivienne Du, Degrees of Separation, 2015

natural pause, they exist in an odd form of continuum which she desires to interrupt. Uniting the variables of situation, environment and spectator, Du’s practice seeks to enable an understanding of mental space and self-locus.

Vivienne Du has recently graduated with an MA in Art & Science from The University of the Arts, London: Central Saint Martins and previously completed a Fine Art Degree from Nottingham Trent University. She has curated and exhibited work in both Nottingham and London alike, including the Old Truman Brewery and Barge-house, Oxo Tower Wharf. Her work featured last year with the In the Woods Festival of art and music, Kent.cargocollective.com/Vivienne-Du


Yen-Ting Cho is an artist and designer who works primarily in digi-tal media. Cho’s practice derives from training in experimental film and architecture, and he is committed to finding creative potential by connecting different disciplines. By creating inspiring situations and breaking the passivity of the spectator, Cho seeks to give control to viewers and enable them to construct their own ways of seeing. Creating art is a live experience: to be able to participate, as well as to interact with the work is important.

Cho’s work connects the movement of humans with various data. By doing so, new sequences are created which reveal relation-ships between motion and visuals. By focusing on structure and content, he finds that movement becomes the means to create and disrupt time and space.

His work directly responds to the surrounding environment and uses participants’ individual interested subject as a starting point. The results reveal the sedimentary relative movements through

Artist

Yen-Ting Cho

Yen-Ting Cho, MovISee, 2014 - present

shooting time and are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and interpretations become multifaceted; multi-layered images are created in which the fragility and instability of our reality is questioned.

Dr. Yen-Ting Cho currently lives and works in London and Taipei. He is a designer, artist and researcher with expertise in interdis-ciplinary digital design methods, including architecture, interac-tion design, and animation. He has a PhD in Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) from the Royal College of Art (RCA), London; and a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University. He was awarded Film Study Center Harvard Fellowships for three years and his animation practice has received awards internationally. He has worked at INVIVIA (Cambridge, MA), and designed interactions for Microsoft Surface, GSD and the Guggenheim Museum, New York. He was a visiting tutor in IDE at the RCA where his doctoral research was on Cubic Film: Inter-disciplinary Development of a Digital Participatory Moving Image Medium. Yen-Ting Cho leads his London-based digital design studio, and he is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Creative Industries Design at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. www.choyenting.com


• “oculocentrism”, • “the authority of the visual”,• “over-polarization of sight”,• “visual culture / visual arts”:

Current academic jargon suggests a superiority of sight over all the other senses. The advent of the modern museum during the nineteenth century is set to have significantly changed how we perceive and engage with art. Museums have become places of control over our senses where bodily experience and engagement with the materiality of the work of art are mostly forbidden in favour of an objective and distanced form of contemplation.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in studying and reassessing the roles of other senses in our experience of art. Sensing is no longer conceived as a merely mechanical process but is increasingly understood as also being shaped by cultural, environmental and social factors. Taking as a point of departure Clarisse Classen and David Howes’ text “Mixed messages. Engaging the senses in art”, we will discuss how today’s institution tackles this issue and might propose other types of engagement

Tuesday 4 August 2015

Reading Group #1: On Sensing Art

Michelangelo Antonioni, Lo sguardo di Michelangelo, 2004

with art. We will also look at the possibilities offered by sensory learning and how this could be implemented in the gallery space.

This reading group is for people of all levels and backgrounds. It is not necessary to have any prior knowledge of the subject, however we encourage all who attend to contribute to what we hope will be a lively discussion. Please register via Eventbrite to receive a copy of the texts prior to the session. The texts will be sent via email to all those who register. There will also be copies available to pick up during the session.

Selected reading:g Howes, David, and Constance Classen. “Mixed messages. Engaging the senses in art.” In Ways of Sensing: Understanding the Senses in Society, 17–36. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.

Suggested readings:g Alvarez, Andrew. “Please Touch: The Use of Tactile Learning in Art Exhibits.” Paper presented at the J. Paul Getty Museum Symposium, “From Content to Play: Family-Oriented Interactive Spaces in Art and History Museums,” June 4-5, 2005.g Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. ‘Part 2’ of Eye and Mind. In The Mer-leau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader: Philosophy and Painting, edited by Galen A. Johnson, 123-130. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1993.

Further readings:g Lauwrens, Jenni. “Welcome to the revolution: The Sensory turn and art history.” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 7 (2012): 1-17.g Morgan, Jennie. “The Multi- Sensory Museum.” Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU, Vol 60 (1), (2012): 65-77.g Mitchell, W.J.T. “Showing seeing: a critique of visual culture.” Journal of Visual Culture, Vol 1(2), (2012): 165-181.


Tuesday 11 August 2015

Reading Group #2: Embodied Architecture

How would our experience of space be different if our vision was taken away? This Reading Group will open up a discussion on architecture and the senses, specifically focusing on the current tendency of architecture to prioritise vision over the other senses with an emphasis on appearance rather than the lived and embod-ied experience.

Using key texts by Juhani Pallasmaa as a departure point, we will explore the way in which architecture interacts with all of the senses and thus will present a challenge to the dominance of vision. Juhani Pallasmaa is an architect and theorist who argues that architecture should be an an art form beyond the eye. He pro-claims an architecture based on a fuller recognition of the human body that engages the full range of the senses, incorporating elements of touch, sound and smell.

Despite a primary focus on the suggested reading, attendees will have the opportunity to reflect on their own sensory experiences in relation to the built environment. The discussion will also touch on questions about what greater effect an embodied architecture might have on human wellbeing and the existential experience of human perception of space, memory and time.

Joshua David Lynch

This reading group is for people of all levels and backgrounds. It is not necessary to have any prior knowledge of the subject, however we encourage all who attend to contribute to what we hope will be a lively discussion. Please register via Eventbrite to receive a copy of the texts prior to the session. The texts will be sent via email to all those who register. There will also be copies available to pick up during the session.

Selected reading:g Juhani Pallasmaa, “Part 2,” in The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, 2nd ed. (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), pp. 40–73.g Juhani Pallasmaa, “Architecture and the Seven Senses,” in Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture, ed. Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Perez-Gomez Alberto (William Stout Publishers, 2007).

Additional reading:g Sophia Bannert, “Dark-Itechture,” Architects’ Journal (AJ), 21 November (2014).

Suggested listening:g Blindfold Critique by Joshua David Lynch (https://blindfoldcritique.wordpress.com/category/blindfold/) g 4’33 by John Cage Larry Larson, iPhone App,” 2014. (http://johncage.org/4_33.html)

Artist

Vivienne Du

As part of the Stage 2 programme of The Lab Project, Vivienne Du produced a series of ‘filters’; drawings she made by tracing the gallery space itself. At the open studio, Du invited visitors to match up these linear filters to real space. As a result, the viewer was required to actively scrutinise their environment with a more discerning eye in order to complete the exercise. Extending our physical awareness through the task of prolonged viewing, allows us to notice characteristics about our surroundings that we may have otherwise missed. These filters act as merely a framework or guide that the viewer may use to then explore the space further at their own volition. No one perception of space is the same, as our spatial judgement is a constant process that may lead to methods such as drawing in an attempt to physically manifest what that “filter” may be.

Drawing has recently become an integral component of Du’s studio practice, and provides the obvious channel for technically depict-ing her installation designs, as well as offering an opportunity for projecting far beyond the realm of real space, and deconstructing the site on another level.


Thursday 20 August 2015

Haptic Visuality Salon

Artist and filmmaker Tereza Stehíková presents an evening of films and discussion, exploring the use of the haptic within a diverse collection of film and video work, considering the multi-sensory and immersive effects that can be created through the moving image.

Haptic visuality encourages the spectator’s whole body to experience the cinematic image, creating a relationship of active involvement. Focusing on filmic examples, this salon will also draw on the links between cinematic haptic visuality and recent research in neuroscience that probes the mechanisms underlying mirror-touch synaesthesia and “embodied” cognition.

Tereza Stehíková

‘The haptic image is in a sense, ‘less complete’, requiring the viewer to contemplate the image as a material presence rather than an easily identifiable representational cog in a narrative wheel.’ Donato Totaro, ‘Deleuzian Film Analysis: The Skin of the Film’, Off Screen

Tereza Stehíková is an artist working primarily in moving image. She holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art, where she researched the tactile language of film. She is currently engaged in a cross-disciplinary research, exploring how the moving image can be used to capture and communicate multi-sensory experience and embodied memory. Stehíková is also a senior lecturer at the University of Westminster and a research coordinator at the RCA. She a founder of Sensory Sites, an international collective gener-ating collaborative exhibitions and research projects that explore sensory perception and bodily experience. She also co-founded Artesian, a journal for committed creativity. terezast.com

Reading List:g Barker, Jennifer M. The Tactile Eye. California: University of California Press, 2009g Marks, Laura U. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. London: Duke University Press, 2000g Marks, Laura U. Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media. London: University of Minnesota Press, 2002g Marinetti, F.T. The Manifesto of Tactilism, http://peripheralfocus.net/poems-told-by-touch/manifesto_of_tactilism.html, 1921g Švankmajer, Jan, Touching and Imagining: An Introduction to Tactile. Art. London: I.B.Tauris, 2014

Viewing List: g Castaing-Taylor, L., Paravel, V., (2012). Leviathan, France, UK, USA.g Spray, S., Velez, P., (2013). Manakamana, Nepal, USA.g Švankmajer, J, (1996). Conspirators of Pleasure, Czech Repub-lic, Switzerland, UK


Thursday 20 August 2015

Haptic Visuality:A Neuroscience PerspectiveWhat is it that makes moving image so emotionally resonant for us? Haptic cinema is said to engage the viewer in an embodied encounter with what is seen on screen, “tricking” our perceptual systems into multisensory experience through the primary input of vision. A number of neurobiological mechanisms exist that can be hi-jacked in order to make this cinematic trick so effective. Some potential candidates include mirror neurons (including potential links with empathy), synaesthetic associations and embodied memory systems, described below. Mirror neurons are cells that were first described in the 90s by Italian neuroscientists investigating the neural signalling that allowed simple actions such as grasping to be imitated or exe-cuted. Their experiments generated a lot of excitement because they found nerve cells in a specific part of the brain, which were active not only when monkeys performed a certain action but also when they observed other monkeys performing that same action. The term mirror neurons stems from the idea that these cells could form the basis of a neural mechanism for integrating and differenti-ating perception and action in order to allow us to “mirror” actions performed by others and relate them to our perception of self. The mirror neuron system has thus been postulated to support feelings of empathy through the process of simulation or self-projection when we see others going through an action/emotion. While such theories and the relevance of these cells in explaining complex human behaviours continue to be debated within the neurosci-entific community, it’s possible that they could be involved in contributing to haptic visuality effects.

[Vittorio Gallese et al., “Action Recognition in the Premotor Cortex,” Brain 119, no. 2 (1996): 593–609; Laurie Carr et al., “Neural Mechanisms of Empathy in Humans: A Relay from Neural Systems for Imitation to Limbic Areas,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 , no. 9 (April 29, 2003): 5497–5502.]

Synaesthesia refers to phenomenon whereby stimulation of one sensory modality automatically generates a percept of another sense. For example synaesthetes may report seeing colours or experiencing tastes when they read certain letters/words. While all of us can understand basic synaesthetic associations such as the “rounder” sound of a name like Bouba as opposed to the “more angular “Kiki”, such associations are completely involuntary in true synaesthetes and are remarkably consistent over time. A relatively common form of the phenomenon is the so-called mirror-touch synaesthesia where an action observed on another is actively felt by the individual, and this phenomenon has also been linked with empathy. The experience can be induced in non-synaesthetes by priming the somatosensory areas of the brain for activity. Common haptic visuality techniques include close-ups of body parts being touched and slowly guiding the eye of the viewer over the image, almost causing a sensation of stroking of the image with the gaze. It is possible that the neural mechanisms that cause this haptic visuality perception are shared with those that produce sensations of mirror-touch in synaesthetes.

[Nadia Bolognini et al., “Induction of Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia by Increasing Somatosensory Cortical Excitability.,” Current Biology : CB 23, no. 10 (May 20, 2013): R436–37; Michael J Banissy and Jamie Ward, “Mechanisms of Self-Other Repre-sentations and Vicarious Experiences of Touch in Mirror-Touch Synesthe-sia.,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7, no. MAR (January 2013): 112;Michael J Banissy and Jamie Ward, “Mirror-Touch Synesthesia Is Linked with Empathy.,” Nature Neuroscience 10, no. 7 (July 2007): 815–16.]

It’s important to remember that aside from our biology, art can trigger emotional responses in individuals that defy conventional explanations. Each of us is the product of our biological predis-positions and specific individual experiences over time. Such uniquely autobiographical episodic memory can be triggered by sensory inputs to powerfully reconnect with a personal moment experienced in the past. The experimental psychologist Endel Tulving first suggested the idea of memory being embedded within the context of personal embodied experience in the early 70s. He separated memory into two major categories, namely episodic and semantic memory where semantic memory describes the

things that we can declare that we remember. When haptic visual-ity employs certain common cultural or sensual imagery, it might thus be triggering very personal memories that will generate an embodied feeling through episodic memory.

[E. Tulving and D. M. Thomson, Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Pro-cesses in Episodic Memory, PSYCHOL.REV., vol. 80, 1973.]

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