March 5, 2004

Nexus Of Neuroscience, Art & Architecture To
Be Explored During March 20 Symposium At UCSD

By Barry Jagoda

Brain perceptions, often non-linear, holistic images, subtly influence the way humans deal with space and design in art and architecture. A March 20 symposium at the University of California, San Diego, will explore the role of conscious, and unconscious, brain-mind activity in the process of creating art and designing homes and buildings. Also on the agenda will be the question of how the human-built environment affects thinking and feeling.

Titled, “Inner and Outer Space: Architecture, Art, and Neuroscience,” and featuring panels of neuroscientists, artists and architects, the symposium is a collaborative effort among the UCSD Center for the Humanities, the UCSD Stuart Collection, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. The event will begin at 9 a.m. and last until 1:00 p.m. and will be held in the Price Theatre on the UCSD campus. There is no charge and the public is invited to attend.

The symposium is planned for three sessions, beginning with an overview of how spatial information is processed by nerve cells, presented by UCSD Dean of Biological Sciences, Eduardo Macagno and a talk on developing an interface between neuroscience and architecture from John P. Eberhard, Founding President of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and visiting scholar in the UCSD Division of Biological Sciences. Architect Alison Whitelaw, former President of the San Diego Chapter of AIA, will discuss current data available to architects and contrast this with potential new information from neuroscience that might be used in future architectural practice.

"Beginning with a discussion of the interconnection between the brain and space is most appropriate," said Georgios Anagnostopoulos, Director of the UCSD Center for the Humanities and Acting Dean of Arts and Humanities. “Our perceptions of and responses to space and architecture are based on internal (brain) representations. Fortunately, UCSD and its surroundings are one of the major world centers of research on the brain, which includes researchers in the top-ranked UCSD departments of Neuroscience and Biology. The work of these researchers who seek to understand the ways the brain represents and interacts with space and the environment is revolutionizing the field of architecture."

Another session will feature leading architects discussing their views of the interplay between inner and outer space in their work and how design for habitat is at its core an exercise in giving a form to space that reflects human needs, feelings, and aesthetic concerns. Architects who will be participating in this session include Teddy Cruz, in a lecture titled “Postcards from the Edge” and Barton Myers, professor in the School of Design and Architecture at UCLA, speaking about the tradition of seamless integration of indoor and outdoor space in Southern California in a talk titled, “Earth, Temple and Fire.”

A third session will feature several prominent visual, music and theatre artists discussing the different approaches they follow in dealing with space in their creative activities. Artists presenting at the symposium include Judith Dolan and Andrei Both, members of the UCSD Theatre and Dance faculty, who will discuss theatrical space in stage and costume design; Kim MacConnel, a well-known visual artist and a member of the UCSD Visual Arts Department, exploring how three dimensional strategies have been employed in the context of two-dimensional painting; and Roger Reynolds, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and member of the UCSD Music Department, speaking on “Music’s Need for Architecture: “the downs and ups.”

The Center for the Humanities at UCSD supports the work of scholars and artists in the arts and humanities by making their work more widely available through lectures, special programs, collaborative projects and a series of research grants. UCSD’s Stuart Collection commissions internationally renowned artists to create outdoor works for the 1200 acre campus. The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is a member-supported, private non-profit organization dedicated to the collection, exhibition, and interpretation of contemporary art, with locations in La Jolla and downtown San Diego. The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture is the only organization in the world devoted to the goal of building intellectual bridges between neuroscience and architecture.

For further information on the March 20 symposium, please contact the UCSD Center for the Humanities, (858) 534-0999, jclemons@ucsd.edu.

Media contacts: Barry Jagoda (858) 534-8567, Patti Quill (858) 822-0661