CONFERENCE:

Synaesthesia.
Discussing a Phenomenon in the Arts, Humanities and (Neuro-)Science

5/ 6 July, 2013
at Theater Glaskasten, Prinzenallee 33, Berlin-Wedding

As a theoretical addition to our exhibition series SYNAESTHESIA (October 2012 - July 2013), Art Laboratory Berlin held an international interdisciplinary conference to further explore and theoretically question the field of multisensory perception.

The term "synaesthesia", from the Greek "aisthesis" ("Sensation", "sensory impression") and "syn" ("together") means the experience of two or more sensory impressions at the same time. Currently there is a strikingly strong interest in the coupling of the senses in science, humanities and in contemporary art. This should come as no surprise: Our daily life in recent years has been subject to ever more multimedia and multisensory experiences. Comparing the latest technologies in the field of communication we come upon the radical technological development during the last 25 years: music video (text, music, colour), computer (as "total" sensory object) and also newest multiple forms of mobile phones (not only used for calls, but as a photo camera, music player or text machine, etc.).

It is the aim of Art Laboratory Berlin to grasp the specific impulses of our current complex, synchronous and technologised society on the phenomenon of synaesthesia, with its distinctive form of sensory fluctuation. For the conference, we were interested in discussing issues from diverse scholarly fields - humanities, arts as well as natural and social sciences - regarding both historical positions and contemporary inquiries. Topics included: synaesthesia and the neurological discourse (memory and cognition; sensory perception); synaesthesia - between perception and subjectivity; synaesthesia and language; synaesthetic modalities (grapheme synaesthesia; synaesthesia of smell, taste, touch, sound and vision); synaesthesia in art and cultural history (in visual art, literature and film); synaesthesia and the digital world (synaesthesia in the 21st century).

Conference Concept: Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz, Art Laboratory Berlin
Realisation of Conference: The Art Laboratory Berlin Team: Regine Rapp, Christian de Lutz, Olga
Shmakova, Chiara Cartuccia, Chiara Massari, Anastasia Shavlokhova, Ashley Chang
Post-production & Film Editing: Eirini Kokkinidou, Christian de Lutz


CONFERENCE_PROGRAM and documentation (excerpts)

Friday, 5 July, 2013


The exhibition "Translating, Correcting, Archiving" will be open from 9AM-8PM.

9:30: Registration

10:00
Regine Rapp, Christian de Lutz (Art Laboratory Berlin)
Welcome and Introduction

 

Keynote / Moderator: Regine Rapp
Hinderk M. Emrich (Director of the Center for Psychological Medicine, Hannover)
Synaesthesia, Synaisthesis and the Enhancement of Coherence

 

11:30 // BREAK

11:45
Defining Synaesthesia // Moderator: Regine Rapp

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen (Artist, Århus)
Why is Green a Red Word?

 

Sina A. Trautmann-Lengsfeld (Dept. of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg)
Multisensory Processing in Synaesthesia

 

13:45 // LUNCH BREAK

14:45
Translating Synaesthesia // Moderator: Christian de Lutz

Polina Dimova (Institute for Russian and Comparative Literature, Oberlin College, Ohio)
Synaesthesia at the Fin-de-Siècle: Art and Science

 

 

Eva-Maria Bolz (Artist, Berlin)
Der Innere Monitor

 

James Rosenow (Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago)
Translated Modes of Poe-etic Synaesthesia in Early Amateur Cinema (Charles Klein's "The Telltale Heart" and J. Sibley Watson's "The Fall of the House of Usher")

 

16:45 // COFFEE BREAK

17:15
Sound and Vision as Synaesthetic Phenomenon // Moderator: Chiara Cartuccia

Birgit Schneider (Institute for Arts and Media, University Potsdam)
On Hearing Eyes and Seeing Ears. Berlin Optophonia in the 1920s.

 

David Strang (Artist, Plymouth)
Transmission + Interference

 

19:00 Reception at Art Laboratory Berlin


Saturday, 6 July, 2013

The exhibition "Translating, Correcting, Archiving" will be open from 9AM-8PM.


10:00
Synaesthetic Sensations in Cultural History, Film and the Visual Arts // Moderator: Regine Rapp

Eva Kimminich (Institute for Romance Languages, University Potsdam)
The Five Senses: From Cooperation up to Specialization. Observations on a Historical Development
in the Occident

 

Caro Verbeek (Royal Academy of Arts Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam)
Inhaling History of Art - On the Role of Olfaction during the Avant-Garde

 

Gertrud Koch (Institute for Film Studies, Free University Berlin)
Word and Object in Film - a Synaesthetic Presentation

 

12:30 // LUNCH BREAK

14:00
Synaesthetic Laboratories of Art & Science // Moderator: Olga Shmakova

Madi Boyd (Artist, London)
The Point of Perception - On Collaborations Between Artists and Neuroscientists

 

Agnieszka Janik (Dept. of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London)
Synaesthesia for Colour is Linked to Reduced Motion Perception

 

16:00 // COFFEE BREAK

16:30
Synaesthesia and the 21st Century // Moderator: Christian de Lutz

Katharina Gsöllpointner/ Romana Schuler (Media Arts/ Art History, University of Applied Arts, Vienna)
Digital Synaesthesia - Introduction into a New Project

 

Romi Mikulinsky (Macquarie University, Sidney/ Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design, Jerusalem)
From Page to Screen - The Presence and Future of Reading

 

18:00
Final Discussion

 



Cooperation partners:

     

 

Supported by:

 

Media partner:



Conference program as .pdf

Conference abstracts as .pdf



******

arthist.net, 18 October 2013, Synaesthesia. Discussing a Phenomenon in the Arts, Humanities & (Neuro-) Science by Nadine Marker and Sophie Kitching

portal kunstgeschichte, 29 July 2013, Synästhesie – Eine internationale transdisziplinäre Konferenz versucht eine Integration von künstlerischen und wissenschaftlichen Positionen zum Thema, by Gerhard Scharbert

gallerytalk.net, 14 July 2013

tageszeitung(taz) 9 July 2013

 

In connection with the exhibition at Art Laboratory Berlin:

Synaesthesia/4: Translating, Correcting, Archiving
Eva-Maria Bolz /
Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen / Andy Holtin
More information

and Synaesthesia / 3: History of the Senses
Synaesthesia / 2: Space and Perception
Synaesthesia / 1: The Orange Smell of Novembe
r

 

 

 
Art Laboratory Berlin is supported by: