Subject: IRCAM COLLOQUIUM on Form in Time From: Stephen McAdams <Stephen.McAdams(at)ircam.fr> Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:53:34 +0200Form in time: The perceptual discovery of artistic works International colloquium within IRCAM's Agora Festival 6-8 June 2001, IRCAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France Free admission within the limits of available seating Métro stations: Rambuteau, Hôtel de Ville, Châtelet, Les Halles Organized by Stephen McAdams (Ircam-CNRS, France) and Roger Reynolds (University of California at San Diego, USA) With the support of the CNRS, the Canadian Cultural Center and the Réseau de Sciences Cognitives d'Ile-de-France Presentations by Gérard Assayag, Benoît Bardy, Alain Berthoz, Emmanuel Bigand, Susan Buirge, Antonio Damasio, Ralph Ellis, Stephen McAdams, François Madurell, Roger Reynolds, Michael Snow, Charles Tijus, Lorraine Vaillancourt The form of artistic works is often theoretically considered as an abstract scheme. However, especially in the arts of time like music, cinema or dance, form must be apprehended in the concrete temporal dimension of its reception. How indeed do we perceive the unfolding of an artistic form? Presenting the perceptual discovery of artistic works in this way opens up a multitude of related questions. Can we understand the buildingup in memory of a form on the basis of reactions that arise from moment to moment in the person that experiences the work? Can we describe the effects of memory and the variations of the esthetic impact on their experienced accumulation? What roles do our perceptual faculties and cultural knowledge play in the expectancies that are engendered when encountering the first elements of a work, then in the mental preparation for what will follow? How do dynamic neurological processes act upon the way we inhabit an evolving form for fleeting moments in succession? The experience of temporal architectures in music, cinema, dance, and even in painting and sculpture during the time of their exploration by our gaze, lead us to confront complex phenomena such as associative and hierarchical time, memory (recall, familiarity, associations of ideas and motives), anticipation and the realization (or not) of what is expected, the loss of orientation related to perceived perturbations of sequentiality, the association and integration of elements separated in time, among many others. In order to address these phenomena at the intersection of science and the arts, this colloquium aims to present the points of view of artists in the fields of music, film, and dance, confronting them with the reflections of researchers from the cognitive sciences, in particular from cognitive psychology, the neurosciences, philosophy, computer science, and cognitive musicology. To make the dynamic aspect of the temporal experience of art works concrete, the colloquium will include, in addition to the individual presentations, two artistic events (video and music) that will be played, debated by a panel of experts, replayed, and then discussed with the audience. The colloquium is also associated with the world premier of a musical work, The Angel of Death, by Roger Reynolds, realized at Ircam with the cooperation of the University of California at San Diego. The public performance of The Angel of Death will be the subject of real-time experiments that seek to understand how the public perceives dynamic form. The experiments, conceived by Stephen McAdams and Emmanuel Bigand and their collaborators, will be conducted at a special concert-workshop featured within the framework of this colloquium on Wednesday afternoon, June 6th, as well as within the Agora Festival Thursday evening June 7th. Colloquium program [Each talk includes 40 minutes of presentation and 20 minutes of discussion with the public.] Wednesday, June 6th, Grande Salle, Centre Pompidou 9h30-9h50 – Opening address and presentation of the colloquium 9h50-10h50 – Antonio Damasio, neurologist, Emotion, memory and experience [in English with simultaneous translation] 10h50-12h40 – Susan Buirge, choreographer, and Benoît Bardy, cognitive psychologist, Persistence, change, and choreographic construction [in French with simultaneous translation] 14h30-18h00 – Concert-workshop The Angel of Death by Roger Reynolds: concerto for piano, ensemble and computer processed sounds Ensemble Court-Circuit Jean-Marie Cottet, piano Pierre-André Valade, conductor Workshop presentations by : Roger Reynolds, composer [in English with simultaneous translation] Stephen McAdams, cognitive psychologist [in French with simultaneous translation] Emmanuel Bigand, cognitive psychologist [in French with simultaneous translation] Thursday, June 7th, Grande Salle, Centre Pompidou 9h30-10h30 – Charles Tijus, cognitive psychologist, The spatialization of time: The cognitive reconstruction of imaged time from Giovanni Bellini to Marta Pérez [in French] 11h00-12h00 – Lorraine Vaillancourt, conductor [in dialogue with Roger Reynolds and Stephen McAdams], Fuzzy time and superimposed time in musical interpretation [in French] 12h00-13h00 – Gérard Assayag, computer scientist, Computer-aided composition and temporal structures [in French] 14h30-15h30 – Alain Berthoz, neuroscientist, The brain as simulator of action: Implications for the perception of dynamic forms [in French] 16h00-17h30 – Artistic event 1 (a musical work) Discussion/debat with Emmanuel Bigand, Stephen McAdams (moderators), Gérard Assayag, Alain Berthoz, Lorraine Vaillancourt [in French] Friday, June 8th, Petite Salle, Centre Pompidou 10h00-11h00 – Ralph Ellis, philosopher, Art and the unfolding of emotions [in English with simultaneous translation] 11h30-12h30 – François Madurell, musicologist, Form and the time of collective improvisation [in French with simultaneous translation] 14h00-15h15 – Michael Snow, film maker/visual artist/musician, Form in cinema, its construction and perception [in English with simultaneous translation] 15h45-17h15 – Artistic event 2 (a video work) Discussion/debat with Roger Reynolds (moderator), Antonio Damasio, Ralph Ellis, Michael Snow [in English with simultaneous translation] 17h15-18h00 – Closing debate [in French and English with simultaneous translation] -- For more information, contact Ircam +33-1-4478-4816 PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS INFORMATION TO OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES -- Stephen McAdams Equipe Perception et Cognition Musicales Ircam-CNRS (UMR 9912) 1 place Igor-Stravinsky F-75004 Paris, France tel: +33.1.4478.4838, fax +33.1.4478.1540 http://www.ircam.fr/pcm/