Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Art-Science Divide - where does brain science fit in?

Tonight Erinma is presenting at this event...

The Art-Science Divide – where does brain science fit in?

Join us for a lively public discussion on the ‘two cultures’ and whether we can ever cross the great ‘art-science’ divide.

The panel will be Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell (Manchester), Dr Mark Lythgoe (London), Dr Erinma Ochu (Manchester) and Dr Lizzie Burns (Oxford). The discussion will be hosted by Professor Graham Collingridge (Bristol)

There will light refreshments for everyone and an opportunity to view some works inspired by science and a chance to sculpture something inspired by your evening!

Time: 6.00pm till 8.00pm
Date: Wednesday, 16th April, 2008
Venue: Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Road, Manchester
Further information: events@bna.org.uk, or tel: 0151 794 5449

Tickets are free but must be ordered in advance

Supported by the European Dana Alliance for the Brain,
the British Neuroscience Association and the Medical Research Council

2 Comments:

Blogger MSF said...

Morning. Just a couple of comments/ reflections on last night, which was interesting but a little frustrating... It was (maybe necessarily) quite a shallow engagement with the topic and there were lots of assumptions made by people on every side. Damien Hirst does NOT have a total free rein, for instance, he too is constrained by the theories and constructs of art history and practice, and of course, what will sell.

The idea that science is objective and art subjective is a tenuously supported one, and I think that seeing that both use metaphors a lot is an interesting and mutual starting point to explore from. The language used might benefit from being more both/and and less either/or on all sides.

It seemed like a lot of people there were "science" people and from the uni(s), so maybe not a very balanced representation.

I'd have been as interested in looking at other influencing factors - left or right handed, mac or PC user, male or female, wears glasses or not...

Lastly we wondered why we were sat around cafe-style tables when we didn't have time to talk around them?

None of this was Erinma's control btw/ I'm guessing, but just thought I'd mention it...

17 April, 2008 08:58  
Blogger The Manchester Science Group said...

Hello - i can understand your frustrations - i don't think artists are one thing or scientists another. Just that because we are ALL subjective, science needs to adopt the scientific method in order to be objective in gathering and analysing data. I think the title referring to brain science was always gonna favour having the science slant. The point i was trying to make through demonstration rather than a lecture - perhaps not very eloquently - is that we are human, have brains and the way that we experience the world means that the boundaries are manufactured.

I was happy to see the cafe style tables - and tried to get people working on something before the event kicked off - with the storycubes - but many people weren't up for it - which is why i thought - okay choose people who will be up for it.

18 April, 2008 00:29  

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