IU School of Informatics hosting public lectures by researchers who explore the human mind using both media arts and science
October 15, 2007
(INDIANAPOLIS) Whether you prefer the objective foundations of hard science or the interpretive nature of digital art, the IU School of Informatics presents two lectures with appeal to both left- and right-brain types. A world-renowned interactive video artist, and a widely published psychology professor will give separate, free lectures Wednesday, October 24 on the IUPUI campus.
Suzanna Becker, professor, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, will discuss Modulatory and Memory Functions of the Hippocampus: Linking Memory, Stress, Mood and Neurogenesis, Oct. 24, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM, at Ruth Lilly Auditorium (Room 0130) in University Library, IUPUI.
Scott Snibbe, an interactive media artist, will present Body, Space, and Cinema, Oct. 24, 7:00-8:30 PM, at the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex (Room IT 152), 535 W. Michigan St., IUPUI. Both the Becker and Snibbe lectures are open to the public.
Snibbe will present interactive works that incorporate reactive video projections, large-scale tracking of humans and vehicles, and Blow Up, which amplifies human breath as a large field of wind. He will discuss the philosophical divide between language and visceral perception that motivates his creation of interactive media art.
Prof. Becker will share how the hippocampus (a region of the brain) is crucial to episodic memory formation and setting the context for ongoing behavior, and its role in a range of behavioral and mood states. She will also explain how the hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to the deleterious effects of chronic stress and is therefore implicated in several psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia.
Prof. Becker will also give a talk entitled Hippocampal Coding of Space and Time, Monday, October 22, 4:00 PM, at the Psychology Building (Room 101), Indiana University Bloomington.
For more information contact Neal Moore.
