BRAINLAND

In this conversation we survey the field of contemporary visual neuroaesthetics. After defining terms, Ed talks through a current project by way of illustration before discussing the so-called 'aesthetic triad', dopamine and opioids, prediction models and computational neuroscience. We talk about neuro-investigation including recent techniques for processing an applications of EEG, a much more portable tool than fMRI and other scans.

Participants:

Ed Vessel, Eugene Surovitz Assistant Professor, Deprtment of Psychology, City College of New York, part of CUNY. https://www.edvessel.com

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former psychophysiologist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Opening and closing music: Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Portrait sketch by KB

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In this wide ranging conversation Michael Asbury discusses the history of Brazil and the way contemporary art has interrogated the legacies of colonialism, slavery, treatment of indigenous peoples and management of natural resources, and, more recently, demonisation by right wing political figures. We also take a deep dive into the concept of 'anthropophagia' and the multi media 'Tropicalia' movement. Artists discussed including Meirelis, Oticica, Obá, Bispo do Rosario and the influence of art produced in psychiatric institutions on Brazilian contemporary art. Like Michael's book, a terrific introduction to contemporary art, done the Brazilian way.

Participants:

Michael Asbury, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art from Brazil, Chelsea College of the Arts and Deputy Director of a Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, University of the Arts London. https://www.arts.ac.uk/research/research-centres/train

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Michael's book:https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/today-is-always-yesterday

Some artists/works discussed:

Cildo Mierelis 'Missions (how to build a cathedral)':https://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/

Artur Bispo do Rosario:

https://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrFDe6TXW1oIqQQO22e3olQ;_ylu=c2VjA3NlYXJjaARzbGsDYnV0dG9u;_ylc=X1MDMTM1MTIxMjcwMgRfcgMyBGZyA3locy10cnAtMDIwBGZyMgNwOnMsdjppLG06c2ItdG9wBGdwcmlkA2wzU2JKWmtFUzZXY3luXy5tMjUyZkEEbl9yc2x0AzAEbl9zdWdnAzIEb3Jp

Antonio Obá: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Ob%C3%A1

Opening and closing music: Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Portrait sketch by KB

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this wide ranging conversation Erika discusses the evidence for psychedelic use over millennia and world-wide. We talk about her investigation into and opportunity to speak with Humphry Osmond, the British psychiatrists who coined the term 'psychedelic', and introduced Aldous Huxley to mescaline. We roam from Canada to India, West Africa, Cold War Czechoslovakia and Sartre's bad trip before moving on to South America, the CIA and the influence of psychedelics on 60s and 70s music and art, ending with a look to the future. Really fascinating conversation.

Participants:

Erika Dyck, Professor, Canada Research Chair in the History of Medicine, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. https://artsandscience.usask.ca/profile/EDyck

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

'Expanding Mindscapes': https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edited-volume/5697/Expanding-MindscapesA-Global-History-of

Opening and closing music: Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Portrait sketch by KB

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Escobebo has been involved in improv theatre for over 25 years, beginning in California and more recently in Chester, UK where he has recenty compelted his PhD thesis on the subject. We talk about the social and educational roots of improv is 1930s Chicago and it's evolution into performance/theatre leading to 'Second City, contrasted with the UK where it was a 'revolutionary act against theatre'. We talk about some of the leaders in the field and their views before David talk about how he arrived at his own 'six principles of improv' (and you heard them here first). We talk about the application of improv training, and particularly active listening, to other groups (healthcare, tech companies, etc.) and include a brief example of a warm up as an afterword to the podcast. Great chat.

Participants:

David Escobebo Improv performer and educator www.ImprovBoost.com LinkTree https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=738465012079167&set=a.178659034726437

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Opening and closing music: 'Improv' a blues improvised and played by Stephen Asma

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Portrait sketch by KB illustration

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast, Joanna talks about working with and studying the patient support group 'Clusterbusters' for over a decade and their willingness to become 'outlaws' to obtain or grow illegal psilocybin to treat severe 'cluster' headaches too often after appalling treatment by the medical profession. We discuss the sociology and politics of psychedelics, and medical research generally, reflecting on the many forces that act on researchers in supposedly objective science. We also talk about the members of the current US administration who have spoken openly and positively about their use of psychedlics and contrast this with the way drug users from other ethnicities are treated by the criminal justice system. Fascinating conversation and book.

Participants:

Joanna Kempner, Associate Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. www.joannakempner.com

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Joanna's book, 'Psychedelic Outlaws': https://www.joannakempner.com/psychedelic-outlaws

Cluster headache:https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cluster-headaches/

Clusterbusters:https://clusterbusters.org/

Chemical structure of psychedelics (the 'indole ring'): https://psychedelics.cornell.edu/

Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Portrait sketch by KB illustration

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the special extended 50th episode of the podcast we bring together four of the leading figures in Neuropsychiatry over the last 40 years for a wide ranging discussion that considers the varying definitions of neuropsychiatry, behavioural neurology and neuropsychology and who needs them. We discuss trailblazers in the field over the last century or so, including Solomon Carter Fuller, an African American neuropathologist and neurologist who spent a year working with Alzheimer. Adolph Meyer, Charcot and Freud (a surprise and controversial appearance) also got a look inbefore a discussion of the pivotal role played by Alwyn Lishman and  his book 1978 book ‘Organic Psychiatry’ in advancing the subject. We hear about the success of joint Neuropsychiatry/Behavioural Neurology fellowship training in the US and the increasing amount of functional neurological disorders coming to the speciality in the UK, concluding with a look to the future. Terrific conversation.

Participants:

Eileen Joyce, Professor Emeritus of Neuropsychiatry, University College, London.

Sheldon Benjamin, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurology, UMass Chan Medical School

Jonathan Bird, Retired Consultant Neuropsychiatrist, Bristol.

Stephen Brown, Composer, Cellist, Retired Professor of Neuropsychiatry, Cornwall .http://cornwallcomposers.com/stephen.htm

Neuropsychiatry defined (UK): https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/become-a-psychiatrist/choose-psychiatry/what-is-psychiatry/types-of-psychiatrist/neuropsychiatry

Solomon Carter Fuller https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Carter_Fuller

Alwyn Lishman

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00997-1/fulltext

Norman Geschwind

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Geschwind

Produced and scripted by Ken Barrett.

Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Sketch by KB illustration.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this wide ranging conversation we talk about current views on the subject of 'aesthetics', as covering judgements well outside of the arts (choosing a partner, home etc..) and why studying brain and other physiological responses to individually meaningful poems can be a valuable research tool. We talk about the importance of piloerection responses (goosebumps-shivers) across a wide range of species and the tool Eugen and his colleagues have developed and used to measure this, alongside a range of more traditional measures, some of the studies undertaken, and their results.

Participants:

Eugen Wassiliwizky, Post-doctoral Researcher, Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main,

Germany. https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/institut/mitarbeiterinnen/eugen-wassiliwizky.html

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Some of Eugen and his colleague's papers:

Wassiliwizky, E., & Menninghaus, W. (2021). Why and How Should Cognitive Science Care about Aesthetics? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(6), 437–449.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136466132100067X?via%3Dihub

Wassiliwizky, E., Koelsch, S., Wagner, V., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W. (2017). The emotional power of poetry: Neural circuitry, psychophysiology and compositional principles. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(8), 1229–1240.

https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/12/8/1229/3778354

Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., Heinrich, J., Schneiderbauer, M., & Menninghaus, W. (2017). Tears falling on goosebumps: Co-occurrence of emotional lacrimation and emotional piloerection indicates a psychophysiological climax in emotional arousal. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 41.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00041/full

Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Sketch by KB

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you want to get a clear view of a subject ask a philiosopher who has thought deeply about it. In this podcast, philosopher Owen Flanangan speaks frankly about his experience of addiction to alcohol and tranquillisers, 18 years on, and why he felt compelled to write about his experience and analysis of the problem. We talk about substance use and creativity, identity, social cohesive, marker of major life events and as a way to make life more interesting or tolerable. We talk about AA and NA and why, during his first period of recovery he avoided them, but also why they have been so useful to him subseqeuntly. Finally, Owen discusses why a broad 'ecumenical' approach to management of addiction offers the best chance of recovery (rather than a narrow psychological, social or neurological model).

Participants:

Owen Flanagan Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Neurobiology, Duke University, North Carolina, https://www.neuro.duke.edu/profile/owen-flanagan

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Owen's book WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE AN ADDICT?: https://academic.oup.com/book/59281?login=false

Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tricia is a dancer, teacher and the author of two historical novels based around dance and dancers. In this podcast she talks about the experience of dancing solo and in a group and her writing. Her most recent book, and a related performance piece, is a memoir/journal of the final days of her parent that also tracks her regular attendance at a circus school alongside memories of her childhood and youth. We discuss her route into dance and the seminal influence of time spent learning contemporary in Amsterdam in the 1970s. She tell us about 'The Green Table', a dance created by Kurt Jooss in Germany that satirised powerful elites, and the inspiration behind her first novel. She incorporates extracts from her most recent book 'Upside down in a hoop' with newly acquired circus hoop skills in a performance peice that deals with the loss of her parents to dementia, and her surprise at the very warm response it has provoked. Tricia concludes by telling us about her next writing project.

Participants:

Tricia Durdey, contemporary dancer, teacher, writer Tricia's website

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Tricia's books:

Upside down in a hoop:

The Green Table:

The dancer at the world's end:

Extracts prom Tricia's performance piece and more conversation

Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following on from the last episode, today we consider how neuroscientists investigate the brain in relation to dance. Peter talks about his background as a classical musician before branching into the psychology and then neuroscience of dance. He explains the complexity of the subject - the many variables at play during dance and between dancers - and what progress has been made to understand the neural basis of dance. We talk about therapeutic uses of dance and studies of social cohesion promoted by dance. We wander into evolution and species differences and end by talking about his hopes for the future of the subject.

Participants:

Peter Keller, Professor of Neuroscience, Centre for Music and the Brain, University of Aarhus, Denmark. https://www.au.dk/[email protected]/

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Links to papers from Peter's department:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763424002859?via%3Dihub

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763423001665?via%3Dihub

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763423004918?via%3Dihub

Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.