[ISEA2013] Panel: Jane Grant – NeuroArts-Noise

Panel Statement

This panel will consider ‘noise as the glue between internal and external experience, a link between sensing and cognition, memory and perception’. Noise may be considered as a residue of memory, temporarily rupturing the present. For many, noise is the result of overstimulation manifested as ringing in a space that is some place and no place. Noise is the kick that enables physical systems to explore potential dynamical possibilities. Noise is the underlying endogenous stimulation of the brain, a platform for cognition but also a place of danger where cultural and political manipulation may happen. This panel will bring together artists and neuroscientists to interrogate the roles of noise, including multi-/bi-stability and stochastic resonance in biological dynamical systems. Recent research into these areas show that our perception of the world already converges multiple forms of what might be considered as reality, converging and diverging at every synaptic moment. NeuroArts brings together artists, scientists and philosophers to share ideas and present and their work. The conference is an interdisciplinary exploration and interrogation of the field, an exchange of ideas between artists, writers, experimenters and theoreticians. Rather than examining artistic practice to illustrate and understand concepts in Brain research, NeuroArts emphasizes how research into perception and cognition are influencing artistic and cultural practice. These ideas are multi-scale; from the level of the cell to the small cellular network – up to the scale of interacting humans and human-environmental interaction. The panel is coordinated by Jane Grant and John Matthias, directors of the art and sound Research Group at Plymouth University, UK and convenors of three previous NeuroArts events.

  • Jane Grant, Plymouth University, UK