The Inaugural Lecture

INVITATION

Derek Denton Lectures in Science and the Arts
The Inaugural Derek Denton Lecture in the Arts
The Neurobiology of Art
by
Professor Semir Zeki FRS
Professor of Neuroaesthetics at University College London
Moderator: Dr Robyn Williams AM

Tuesday 4 October 2016, 6:00pm - 7.00pm

 

Professor Zeki, founder of the Institute of Neuroaesthetics at UCL and Berkley California, is a pioneer in the field of neuroaesthetics, and led the world in discovering that different visual attributes such as motion, form and, in particular, colour are processed in parallel by separate visual areas of the brain. He was Editor in Chief of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions, the world’s longest running scientific journal, for many years, has published four books, worked extensively with major galleries and held an exhibition of his own art at the Pecci Museum of Contemporary Art in Milan in 2011. His work brings together the disciplines of neuroscience, cognitive science and the humanities to address deep questions of perception and interpretation.

“...the artist is in a sense, a neuroscientist, exploring the potentials and capacities of the brain, though with different tools. How such creations can arouse aesthetic experiences can only be fully understood in neural terms. Such an understanding is now well within our reach.”

In this lecture Professor Zeki will explain how viewing art is an example of the function of the brain and explore how the neural functions might explain variability of subjective experiences as well as the range of abilities to create and experience art.

Venue
The Spot-B01 (Copland Theatre) Business and Economics Building
198 Berkeley St
The University of Melbourne 

Directions
Location Map

Date and Time
Tuesday 4 October 2016
6.00pm - 7.00pm

Cost
Free for alumni and guests

Questions
mdhs-rsvp@unimelb.edu.au