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PODCAST

BRAINLAND

Brainland the podcast navigates the boundary between neuroscience, the arts and humanities with the occasional wander off piste. It began as a neuro-historical exploration of the background to the Brainland the opera but quickly spread its wings. A Brainland Collective production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

science performing arts

All Episodes

52:07

YOUR BRAIN ON VISUAL ART: Exploring the world of...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/07/29

In this conversation we survey the field of contemporary visual neuroaesthetics. After defining terms, Ed talks through a current project by way of illustration before discussing the so-called 'aesthetic triad', dopamine and opioids, prediction models and computational neuroscience. We talk about neuro-investigation including recent techniques for processing an applications of EEG, a much more portable tool than fMRI and other scans.Participants:Ed Vessel, Eugene Surovitz Assistant Professor,

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53:37

TODAY IS ALWAYS YESTERDAY: Contemporary art through...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/07/09

In this wide ranging conversation Michael Asbury discusses the history of Brazil and the way contemporary art has interrogated the legacies of colonialism, slavery, treatment of indigenous peoples and management of natural resources, and, more recently, demonisation by right wing political figures. We also take a deep dive into the concept of 'anthropophagia' and the multi media 'Tropicalia' movement. Artists discussed including Meirelis, Oticica, Obá, Bispo do Rosario and the influence of art

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45:42

EXPANDING MINDSCAPES: A psychedelic world tour.

BRAINLAND ·

2025/06/24

In this wide ranging conversation Erika discusses the evidence for psychedelic use over millennia and world-wide. We talk about her investigation into and opportunity to speak with Humphry Osmond, the British psychiatrists who coined the term 'psychedelic', and introduced Aldous Huxley to mescaline. We roam from Canada to India, West Africa, Cold War Czechoslovakia and Sartre's bad trip before moving on to South America, the CIA and the influence of psychedelics on 60s and 70s music and art, ending

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1:03:54

IMPROV! When the process is the product

BRAINLAND ·

2025/06/18

David Escobebo has been involved in improv theatre for over 25 years, beginning in California and more recently in Chester, UK where he has recenty compelted his PhD thesis on the subject. We talk about the social and educational roots of improv is 1930s Chicago and it's evolution into performance/theatre leading to 'Second City, contrasted with the UK where it was a 'revolutionary act against theatre'. We talk about some of the leaders in the field and their views before David talk about how he

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49:14

PSYCHEDELIC OUTLAWS

BRAINLAND ·

2025/06/12

In this podcast, Joanna talks about working with and studying the patient support group 'Clusterbusters' for over a decade and their willingness to become 'outlaws' to obtain or grow illegal psilocybin to treat severe 'cluster' headaches too often after appalling treatment by the medical profession. We discuss the sociology and politics of psychedelics, and medical research generally, reflecting on the many forces that act on researchers in supposedly objective science. We also talk about the

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1:28:50

NEUROPSYCHIATRY: Second Coming or Unholy Alliance?

BRAINLAND ·

2025/06/11

In the special extended 50th episode of the podcast we bring together fourof the leading figures in Neuropsychiatry over the last 40 years for a wide ranging discussion that considers the varying definitions of neuropsychiatry, behavioural neurologyand neuropsychologyand who needs them.We discuss trailblazers in the field over the last century or so, includingSolomon Carter Fuller, an African American neuropathologist and neurologist who spent a year working with Alzheimer. Adolph Meyer, Charcot

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38:45

POETRY AND THE NEUROAESTHETICS OF SURVIVAL

BRAINLAND ·

2025/05/13

In this wide ranging conversation we talk about current views on the subject of 'aesthetics', as covering judgements well outside of the arts (choosing a partner, home etc..) and why studying brain and other physiological responses to individually meaningful poems can be a valuable research tool. We talk about the importance of piloerection responses (goosebumps-shivers) across a wide range of species and the tool Eugen and his colleagues have developed and used to measure this, alongside a range of

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57:17

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE AN ADDICT? A philosopher tells...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/05/08

If you want to get a clear view of a subject ask a philiosopher who has thought deeply about it. In this podcast, philosopher Owen Flanangan speaks frankly about his experience of addiction to alcohol and tranquillisers, 18 years on, and why he felt compelled to write about his experience and analysis of the problem. We talk about substance use and creativity, identity, social cohesive, marker of major life events and as a way to make life more interesting or tolerable. We talk about AA and NA and

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42:41

UPSIDE DOWN IN A HOOP: Processing change through...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/05/01

Tricia is a dancer, teacher and the author of two historical novels based around dance and dancers. In this podcast she talks about the experience of dancing solo and in a group and her writing. Her most recent book, and a related performance piece, is a memoir/journal of the final days of her parent that also tracks her regular attendance at a circus school alongside memories of her childhood and youth. We discuss her route into dance and the seminal influence of time spent learning contemporary in

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1:01:37

YOUR BRAIN ON DANCE: Navigating the complex world of...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/04/16

Following on from the last episode, today we consider how neurosicnetists investigate the brain in relation to dance. Peter talks about his background as a classical musician before branching into the psychology and then neuroscience of dance. He explains the complexity of the subject - the many variables at play during dance and between dancers - and what progress has been made to understand the neural basis of ance. We talk about therapeutic uses of dance and studies of social cohesion promoted by

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33:17

TRANSFORMING MENTAL STATES INTO DANCE: Evolving...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/04/01

Adrian Look, London-based choreographer and specialist in German 'Tanztheatre', talks about the origin of Tanztheatre within the 1920s Germany expressionist movement, tand aken to the next level by Pina Bausch in the modern era. Adrian talks about his unusual entry into dance, after a background of sport and philosophy. He discusses his reasons for coming to London, to be free of the over-respectful approach to the Bausch legacy, his experience as a dancer and his approach to choreography. We talk

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45:16

DECONSTRUCTING CONSCIOUSNESS: A philosophy for the...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/03/25

In this podcast philosopher Walter Veit outlines five elements of conscious experience he believes can be scientifically explored, why and when, in evolutionary terms, those elements first appeared. He explains his concept of 'pathological complexity', which of those five may have appeared first, and the ethical imperatives that underpin animal consciousness research. After talking about slugs, octopuses and corvids we end with a discussion on how his approach may assist in creating machines that

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50:19

EVOLUTIONARY BIOCHEMISTRY: New perspectives on the...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/02/21

In this podcast, Nick Lane talks about his path to research in the rarefied field of evolutionary biochemistry, before describing some of the pioneers of biochemistry and the aesthetic pleasure he takes in their experimental designs. He gives a jargon free account of the Krebs cycle, the central metabolic pathway of life and the basis of his most recent book 'Transformer'. We discuss the origin of mitochondria, the mind boggling number of chemical reactions that takes in them each second and the

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52:49

I FEEL I AM NOT IN MY PERFECT MIND: Alzheimer's and...

BRAINLAND ·

2025/02/08

In this podcast we complete the series on memory and cinema with an in-depth look at the way Alzheimer's disease/progressive cognitive impairment has been depicted in the movies this century. Raquel discusses her unusual route to studying and writing about this subject, via the work of a contemporary Spanish poet, then, before focussing on the three very different films listed below, we talk about the way different cultures represent the subject and the marked and predictable gender differences is

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58:16

SOLARIS: Probing the Lem/Tarkovsky masterwork.

BRAINLAND ·

2025/01/21

Film historian and science fiction specialist Mark Bould discusses the Lem novel and Tarkovsky film 'Solaris'. After an in depth exploration of the life and work of Lem and Tarkovsy, Mark outlines the plot discusses the unusual way in which Tarkovsky tells the story. We discuss traumatic memory and the links to earlier gothic stories and hauntings. We take a detour into the role of the EEG in the story and the possible origins of that before exploring Tarkovsky's use of sound in the film. We

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44:30

SEASON 1 FINALE: Brainland at the Messina Cinema and...

BRAINLAND ·

2024/12/17

The Brainland podcast began by exploring the historical background of our opera "Brainland". At the end of 2023 we filmed a scene from the opera, directed by Chaira D'Anna and choreography by Adrian Look, in collaboration with Morely College and the Old Operating Theatre Museum in London. The film was nominated in the best short film category at the Messina Cinema and Opera Festival in Sicily, in December 2024, and won the Special Jury Prize! Before the awards were announced artistic director, Ninni

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46:26

LITERARY THEORY FOR ROBOTS: The weird and wonderful...

BRAINLAND ·

2024/11/27

In this wide ranging conversation we discuss the varying roots of contemporary computer language, from medieval Arabic phiosophy and divination machines, via the religious search for a universal language, to punch cards in 19th century industry. We talk about Babbage and Lovelace's work on mathematical and reasoning engines and their link to Turing's universal machine in the 1940s. Dennis describes little studied literary templates in the late 19th century before moving to Propp's 'morphology of

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35:48

CURIOUS MINDS: The power of connection?

BRAINLAND ·

2024/11/21

In this podcast philosopher Perry Zurn discusses ‘Curious Minds’, the book he wrote with his twin Danni Bassett. We talk about their unusual upbinging, home schooled in a large family that encouraged curiosity, then negotiating the more restrictive world of academia. They view curiosity as ‘edgework’, an exploration of connections between ‘nodes’ of information. We discuss ‘busybodies’,’ hunters’ and ‘dancers’. three curious behaviours they identified, and research evidence that supports them. The

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35:13

SCREEN TIME 2: Sci-fi cinema's art of memory.

BRAINLAND ·

2024/11/08

This is part 2 of the conversation with Russell Kilbourn on memory and movies. In part 1 we talked about the way memory is treated in literature and movies but we didn't have time to discuss memory in sci-fi movies so Russ agreed to return. In this podcast we discuss the varying treatment of memory in the genre. Eg: removing memories (Total Recall, Severance and particularly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind); inserting false memories (Blade Runner); repurposing memories (Strange Days, and

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50:04

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?: Memory, the brain and our...

BRAINLAND ·

2024/10/23

In this podcast Veronica O'Keane and Ken Barrett share cases and discuss some of the themes explored in Veronica's book 'A Sense of Self'. We explore the various structures in the brain essential for memory to function, talk about the importance of place to memory (we often remember where we where if not when) and recent findings on how our brain does that, the role of the frontal lobes and the hidden area of cortext called the insula, before with interesting detours into nostalgia and memory in the

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58 results

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