Art & Science Discussion Series

The “Talk Talk” Talk

Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 6:30 PM

Admission: $5

Moderator: Robert Zott

Panelists: Suzanne Dikker, MJ Caselden, Anne Gilman

OffLINE at CENTRAL BOOKING hosts the latest panel in our Art & Science Discussion Series on Thursday, October 20 at 6:30 pm. The “Talk Talk” Talk is a panel discussion on the art & science of communication accompanying the “Talk Talk” exhibition. In a world of sounds, one of the first ones that travels through our consciousness is our own. We can experience the process, the vibrations, the positioning of the mouth to elicit highs and lows that project our desires, pain, joy. The words are not enough, the whole body gestures, all are participants to create meaning in the delivery. What is emitted in the end is the power of communication. We are a species born with the capacity of complex speech patterns, of vocal communication. How we employ it is ultimately up to us.

Suzanne Dikker, PhD is a research scientist at NYU and Utrecht University. Her research merges cognitive neuroscience, education, and performance art in an effort to understand the brain basis of human social interaction. Together with media artist Matthias Oostrik and other collaborators from both the sciences and the arts, she uses portable EEG technology in a series of crowd-sourcing neuroscience experiments / interactive brain installations to investigate the role of brainwave synchronization between two or more people in successful communication.

MJ Caselden is a creative technologist, sound designer, and electronic musician. He has been making electronic music since 2005. MJ’s artwork often explores new ways to control sound, incorporating custom interactive instruments and software. He has worked as an electronics design engineer for companies like Beats by Dre and littleBits Electronics in partnership with Korg, and his artwork has been featured in TimeOut NYC. His design work has ranged from wearable wireless biosensors for dancers, to robotic creatures controlled by drum machines.

Anne Gilman is a Brooklyn-based artist working in varying formats that map information, thought and emotion. Her work has been included in exhibitions throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe and featured in Bomb Magazine, Guernica Magazine, Publishing Perspectives, and the Spanish-language magazine, Literal. Honors include awards from the Chenven Foundation, Edward Albee Foundation and MacDowell Colony.

Robert Zott is a NYC-based artist and musician whom The New York Times called “An eighteenth-century polymath”. His media ranges from conceptual objects to photography, video, computer music and guitar-based songwriting. Zott studied physics at Albany State University and computer music at RPI and the MIT Media Lab. His most recent work entitled “Baroque Blues” is an ongoing series of objects, music and video slideshows inspired by the Delta Blues, and he was recently featured in Blues Matters Magazine (UK).