September 2022
Concordia Faculty of Fine Arts Course
Convergence: Art + Neuroscience + Society
Concordia University Fine Arts students across all disciplines, as well as, Ph.D. students of the RI-MUHC Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program (BRaIN), the Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN), and other science graduated students from McGill University are welcomed to participate in the Fall-Winter 6 credits of Special Topics Convergence I & II: Arts+Neuroscience+Society.
This interdisciplinary course invites students to creatively explore the intersection of arts, neuroscience, and society, and how these domains shape the understandings of ourselves and others. Concordia Fine Arts students team with McGill and RI-MUHC BRaIN Program students within the Convergence Initiative frame (www.convergenceinitiative.org) to create self-directed, collaborative projects which converge artistic and scientific research.
The course combines lectures, debates, site visits, and independent study to encourage all participants to understand and discover territories outside their artistic or scientific comfort zones. The course encourages both intimate and large group discussions, as well as expressing arts and science knowledge through production, representations, and artistic as well as communicative outcomes.
Syllabus at glance
(The following syllabus can be subjected to changes).
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Fall Semester
Research and Development
Week 1 – Introductions. What is science? What is Art?
Week 2 – Philosophy or science, philosophy of art.
Week 3 –Principles of Neuroscience & New Media Art.
Week 4 – Who we are – Cinematic Presentations, 3-minute videos (Graded).
Week 5 – Systems Neuroscience – Vision / History of Perspective.
Week 6 – Emotion, Memory, and Reward / Making, Community, and Wellness.
Week 7 – Facts, Stress, Failure, Groups / The Value of Failure and Awkwardness.
Week 8 – Neuroaesthetics / The Social Construction of Beauty.
Week 9 – Neuroscience of Creativity / Artificial Intelligence (AI) Art.
Week 10 – Science Materiality.
Week 11 – Speculative Design.
Week 12 – Project Proposals for the 2nd Semester (Graded).
Week 13 – Art Response to the Semester classes and Critique.
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Winter Semester
Production and Presentation
Semester 2: Production and Presentation
Week 1 – The White Box.
Week 2 – The Black Box.
Week 3 to 5 – Production and Meetings by appointment with each team.
Week 6 – Intermediate Critique (Graded).
Week 7 – Production and Meetings by appointment with each team.
MID-TERM BREAK
Week 8 to 10 – Production and Meetings by appointment with each team.
Week 11 – Final Critique (Graded)
Week 12 to Week 16 - Exhibition and Arts-Neuroscience Symposium
