Brainwave: it could change your mind
Presenting Sponsor
Schedule of Events
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Sat, Feb 4 Sold Out |
Sean Scully + Anjan ChatterjeeAbstract Cognition Painter Sean Scully engages with neurologist Anjan Chatterjee on the role art plays in cognitive enhancement and how it relates to identity and memory. Ticket includes: 2:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries & 2:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase
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Sat, Feb 4 Sold Out |
Laurie Anderson + Dean BuonomanoBrain Bugs Performance artist Laurie Anderson explores the fallibility of our brains – everything from why we forget our shopping lists to the cause of the 2008 market crash with neuroscientist Dean Buonomano, the author of Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives. Ticket includes: 5:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries & 5:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase
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Wed, Feb 8 |
Jane Pauley + Sebastian SeungWelcome to Connectome Sebastian Seung, a dynamic professor at MIT, is on a quest to discover the biological basis of identity. Seung explains to broadcaster Jane Pauley his belief that our identity lies in the pattern of connections between the brain’s neurons, which change slowly over time as we learn and grow. The connectome, as it’s called, is where our genetic inheritance intersects with our life experience. It’s where nature meets nurture. Ticket includes: 6:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries, 6:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase & 8:30 p.m. Book signing |
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Sat, Feb 11 Sold Out |
Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche + Marsha LucasMindfulness, Meditation and Memory How can we master our minds in order live more fully? Neuropsychologist Marsha Lucas learns from Shyalpa Rinpoche and his new book Living Fully: Finding Joy in Every Breath what tools we need to experience genuine inner freedom, uncorrupted by endless craving for something better. Ticket includes: 2:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries & 2:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase; 4:30 p.m. Book signing
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Sat, Feb 18 |
Heather Knight + Dave CarmelJust Trial and Error: Conversations on Consciousness Heather Knight, the creator of socially intelligent robot performances and sensor-based electronic art, engages with Dave Carmel from NYU's Center for Neural Science after a screening of the new film Just Trial and Error.
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Wed, Feb 29 |
Kurt Diemberger + Philip LiebermanMind the Altitude Alpinist Kurt Diemberger sits down with Philip Lieberman to explore how memories are shaped by extreme environments and how the brain copes with the effects of altitude. Ticket includes: 6:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries, 6:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase & 8:30 p.m. Book signing
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Sat, Mar 3 |
Rivka Galchen + David LindenMemory and Identity Novelist Rivka Galchen sought to enter the mind of a psychiatrist in her first prize-winning novel (Atmospheric Disturbances) that addressed memory and identity. Here with Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David Linden, she ventures into her own mind, in particular her memory in search of her literary influences. Ticket includes: 5:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries, 5:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase & 7:30 p.m. Book signing
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Sun, Mar 4 |
Scott Shepherd + John KubieMemorizing the Great American Novel Actor Scott Shepherd knows all 47,094 words in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby off by heart. And in the right order. He has 'read' the work countless times as part of Elevator Repair Service's highly acclaimed dramatic presentation of Gatz, shortly to be revived at the Public Theater. The neuroscientist John Kubie explores the process of memorization and how it affects interpretation and his ability to recall his shopping list. Ticket includes: 5:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries & 5:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase
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Wed, Mar 7 |
Lewis Black + Barry Gordon, M.D., Ph.D.What's My Line? Comedian Lewis Black and Johns Hopkins neurologist Barry Gordon, M.D., Ph.D. discuss the implications of short-term memory loss for an actor after the New York City premiere screening of Gaylen Ross's film Caris' Peace. Ross with collaborator Rebecca Nelson create a wrenching documentary which tells the story of Caris Corfman, a brilliant actress whose brain operation robbed her of her ability to learn, recall, and recite lines. Unlike dementia sufferers who gradually lose awareness of their deteriorating condition, Corfman was swiftly forced to recognize that her career was over. This film captures what it is like to live trapped in the past, with only the thinnest slivers of the present. |
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Wed, Apr 11 |
Joshua Foer + Daniel KahnemanAs Time Goes By US Memory Champion Joshua Foer and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman debate how memory works as a function of time. Ticket includes: 6:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries, 6:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase & 8:30 p.m. Book signing
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Sat, Apr 14 |
Diane Ackerman + Todd SacktorUsing and Losing Language Writer Diane Ackerman's literary husband Paul West "had a draper's touch for the unfolding fabric of a sentence, and he collected words like rare buttons." In 2003, West suffered a stroke that left him with global aphasia: an inability to produce words or to understand words spoken to him. Her book One Hundred Names for Love documents her remarkable process in helping him repair his brain. Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of two dozen highly acclaimed works of nonfiction and poetry, including the best-selling A Natural History of the Senses. Ticket includes: 2:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries, 2:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase & 4:30 p.m. Book signing
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Mon, Apr 16 |
Eric Kandel + TBAThe Age of Insight Nobel Prize-winner Eric Kandel exquisitely bridges science, medicine, and art to show how the unconscious was exposed during Vienna 1900. At a time when Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Alois Riegl, among others, were all living in the same city, they were all also simultaneously exploring the unconscious mind. Ticket includes: 6:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries, 6:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase & 8:30 p.m. Book signing and celebration
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Mon, Apr 23 |
Ruth Reichl + Paul RozinThe Madeleine Syndrome Proust's evocation of childhood conjured by the tasting of the scalloped madeleine has become the template for remembrance of things past. But why does taste bring forth memories of such emotional power? Gourmand Ruth Reichl seeks to analyze our taste buds with psychologist Paul Rozin, who returns to Brainwave after his conversation with chef Mario Batali in Brainwave 2009. Ticket includes: 6:15 p.m. Mnemonic Art Tour in the galleries, 6:45 p.m. Karma Chain on the spiral staircase & 8:30 p.m. Book signing
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About the Karma Chain
As a prelude to the staged program, we are planning to stage a simple game of 'telephone' prior to the session to demonstrate the fallibility of oral transmission and the nature of short-term memory. Each ticket holder will stand on one of the steps of the 108-stepped spiral staircase of the Museum. The guest speaker stands at the base, whispers a short phrase they have prepared to the visitor on the first step, and the phrase would spiral up through the line until it reaches the ear of the scientist. The conversationalists will only reveal the original phrase and the result phrase when on stage in the theater, thus starting the conversation about memory.
About the Mnemonic Art Tour
Take advantage of a short tour of some paintings in the collection that function as mnemonic devices. The iconography in these paintings serve to reference specific passages in the sutras. That is why most of these works were not meant to be revealed to those who were not already initiates. The tour will include two types of paintings: narratives such as the life of the Buddha, and mandalas which are complex two-dimensional diagrams of one's multi-dimensional state of mind.
We will be announcing dates for further conversations as well as the following films. They are all about memory, so don't forget to join us in the Spring! And to be sure you don't, sign-up here to receive updates.
Brainwave Films
Just Trial and Error: Conversations on Consciousness
(US Premiere)
2010, UK, Alex Gabbay, 62 min.
$14, with post-screening live discussion sessions
Wednesday, February 15 – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 18 – 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 18 - 4:00 p.m. (Post-screening discussion with roboticist Heather Knight + neuroscientist Dave Carmel)
Wednesday, February 22 – 7:00 p.m.
What do art and science have to say about consciousness? Perhaps no aspect of the mind is more familiar or more puzzling than consciousness – it is something that has defied definition. Yet our conscious experience of self and the world is what shapes us and our history.
In an attempt to understand consciousness, filmmaker Alex Gabbay invites sculptor Antony Gormley, eminent neuroscientists Prof. Brian Butterworth and Dr. Beau Lotto and internet entrepreneur Twain Luu—whose study of the 'global brain' makes fascinating reading—to explore its meaning and how it affects their area of work. View Just Trial and Error Official Trailer here >>
Caris' Peace (New York City Premiere)
2011, USA, Gaylen Ross and Rebecca Nelson, 76 min.
With Lewis Black, Kate Burton, Caris Corfman, Nancy Giles, Tony Shalhoub
March 7 at 7 p.m. NYC premiere with Lewis Black and Dr. Barry Gordon $25
March 10 at 6 p.m. with actor Mark Linn-Baker $15
Other screenings to be announced
She was an exceptional graduate of the Yale School of Drama. She was a rising star among such luminaries as Lewis Black, Kate Burton, and Mark Linn-Baker. She played opposite Tim Curry and Ian McKellen in the Broadway hit play Amadeus. And then she had a brain tumor. And then she lost her short-term memory. Gaylen Ross with collaborator Rebecca Nelson create a wrenching documentary which tells the story of Caris Corfman, a brilliant actress who was robbed of her ability to learn, recall, and recite lines. Unlike dementia sufferers who gradually lose awareness of their deteriorating condition, Corfman was swiftly forced to recognize that her career was over. This film captures what it is like to live trapped in the past, with only the thinnest slivers of the present.
Music and Memory (World Premiere)
Screening schedule TBA
In April, the museum will also premiere a film on Alzheimer's treatment called Music and Memory. Alzheimer's cuts the sufferers off from their past. With the loss of memory comes the loss of identity. But Dan Cohen holds the key to the past. Loaded on iPods provided by Dan is the music of their youth. Once the elders have the headphones placed on their head and press "play," they revive and literally "relive." How is it that music can bypass the ravages of dementia? In this new documentary, neuropsychologist Oliver Sacks and others explore the channels that music courses in the brain and what it might mean for the future of Alzheimer's treatment.
About Brainwave 2012
Now in its fifth year, Brainwave brings people from diverse walks of life together to engage with neuroscientists in one-on-one conversations in order to better understand the workings of our minds. Starting February 2012 we will focus on how memory is processed in the brain.
"Central Asia is home to some of world culture’s greatest feats of memory. The 12th century epic poem of King Gesar, the early mythic king of early Tibet, is assessed at a million verses long, for example. Tibetan Buddhist culture in particular makes use of ‘artificial memory’ in retaining sacred teachings through the form of elaborate iconography in painted and sculptural form. In this year’s series we will look at the role of memory has played in the past, and the debatable role it plays in our contemporary cut-and-paste culture." – Tim McHenry, Producer
Presenting Sponsor
Brainwave 2012 is made possible, in part, by support from the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism.
Rubin Museum Member Ticket Information
As a member, you receive the following special member benefits for the Brainwave series and all of our programs year round:
- 10% off all programs and 25% off when purchasing six tickets or more to any combination of programs. (To receive the 25% discount you need to order by phone, Box Office 212.620.5000 x344, or at the admissions desk in the museum. Note that you cannot buy more than five tickets for any one program.)
- The chance to reserve up to four seats (based upon membership level) for Cabaret Cinema and Lunch Matters to ensure admission to the films you want to see.
- As a Chairman's Circle or higher level member you have access to house seats to sold-out programs, based on availability, may reserve seats for all programs in the theater to enjoy the most popular programs from the best seats. You may also exchange tickets from one event to another.
Ancilliary programs include:
Lunch Matters: the regular Wednesday lunchtime series of short mind science documentary screenings is followed by moderated discussion sessions.
Cabaret Cinema: the regular Friday late night screenings will present feature films that use memory in a significant way. An Affair to Remember, Casablanca, Kaurismaki's The Man Without a Past, Wenders' Paris, Texas, Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps.
For videos and information about past Brainwaves please visit Brainwave 2011 or Brainwave 2010.
