creativity

Call for Papers. CIM19: Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology. “Embodiment in Music”
Embodiment  is the idea that our mental life, including musical subjectivity, depends directly on our body – its internal biological norms, and its patterns of activity in the environment – rather than just on the brain.

Research and theory on how we engage with, and make sense of, music is more than ever concerned with movements, gestures, sensorimotor couplings, and motor resonances. These are now recurrent themes in the music research community and are increasingly understood as features central to musical learning, emotion, development, perception, and  performance, among others.

The centrality of body and action for human musicality has also promoted a debate for understanding the history and cultural diversity of musical subjectivity: how the rich interplay between embodied and social factors contribute to the development of musical styles and identities across different historical, geographical, and cultural contexts.
However, the real implications this framework can offer for our understanding of music and musicality remain unclear. What does it really mean for music cognition to be
embodied ?

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Mario Zarco graduates with honors!

Today Mario Zarco graduated with honors from UNAM’s Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering for his work on self-optimization in neural networks.

The title and extended abstract of his thesis are as follows:

􀀈􀀓􀀔􀀕􀀇􀀌􀀐􀀁􀀇􀀈􀀁􀀄􀀕􀀔􀀐􀀂􀀐􀀑􀀔􀀌􀀎􀀌􀀖􀀄􀀆􀀌􀀘􀀏􀀁􀀈􀀏􀀁􀀒􀀈􀀇􀀈􀀓􀀁Estudio de Auto-Optimización en Redes Neuronales de Hopfield
􀀏􀀈􀀕􀀒􀀐􀀏􀀄􀀍􀀈􀀓􀀁􀀇􀀈􀀁􀀋􀀐􀀑􀀉􀀌􀀈􀀍􀀇􀀁
Mario Alberto Zarco López

Las redes neuronales de Hopfield de tiempo discreto, cuya dinámica presentan múltiples atractores de punto fijo, han sido ampliamente usadas en dos casos: (1) memoria asociativa, basada en aprender un conjunto de patrones de entrenamiento los cuales son representados por atractores, y (2) optimización, basado en representar un problema de satisfaccion de restricciones con la topología de la red de tal forma que los atractores sean soluciones de ese problema. En el ultimo caso, la función de energía de la red debe tener la misma forma que la función a ser optimizada, de modo que los m´ınimos de la primera también sean mínimos de la segunda. Aunque se ha demostrado que los atractores de baja energía tienen un amplio domino de atracción, la red usualmente queda atrapada en mínimos locales. Recientemente se demostró que las redes de Hopfield de tiempo-discreto pueden converger en atractores globalmente óptimos ampliando las mejores cuencas de atracción. La red combina el aprendizaje de sus propios atractores usando aprendizaje Hebbiano y la aleatorizacion de los estados neuronales una vez que la red ha reforzada su configuración actual.
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CFP: ECAL 2017

ECAL 2017 – 14th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON ARTIFICIAL LIFE

“Artificial Life and the scientific method: Create, play, experiment, discover”

https://project.inria.fr/ecal2017/

The ECAL 2017 Organizing Committee would like to cordially invite you to submit your work to the 14th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2017), taking place on the LyonTech Campus in Lyon, France, 4-8 September 2017.

*  I M P O R T A N T   D A T E S  *

Paper submission deadline:  9th April, 2017
Notification of Acceptance:  12th May, 2017
Camera-Ready due:                 9th June, 2017
Main Conference convenes:  4-8 September, 2017

Contact email for queries:  ecal2017@inria.fr
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CFP: Embodied Aesthetics

Dear friends, dear colleagues,

You are cordially invited to submit a paper for either oral or poster presentation to the upcoming conference:

19th Herbstakademie: “Embodied Aesthetics: Resonance in Perception, Expression and Therapy”

Embodied Aesthetics is part of the series of Herbstakademie meetings dedicated to the topic of complex systems in psychology, neuroscience and related disciplines. Please submit (before June 9) and/or register using this website:

http://www.upd.unibe.ch/research/symposien/HA19/index.html

The conference will take place in autumn this year (October 5 – 7, 2017) in Heidelberg, Germany. It will address theoretical and applied questions of embodiment:

– What is the role of the body in feeling and thinking, particularly concerning the experience of beauty? We bodily resonate with aesthetic experiences when we appreciate art and unexpected insights. In art-making, we thrive and experience agency and self-congruence. How can an embodied aesthetics be conceptualized?
– Which novel perspectives can the embodiment approach offer to creative arts therapies, psychotherapy, and artistic expression?
– How can clinicians and psychotherapists incorporate embodiment, such as nonverbal synchrony, into their work?
– What role does the experience and embodiment of beauty play for health?

Confirmed keynotes by:

Claus-Christian Carbon, Experimental Psychology, Aesthetics, Universität Bamberg
Vittorio Gallese, Cognitive Neuroscience, Universita’ di Parma
Hermann Haken, Synergetics and Systems Theory, Universität Stuttgart
Sander Koole, Synchrony, Social Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Winfried Menninghaus, Empirical Aesthetics, Max-Planck-Institut Frankfurt
Hartmut Rosa, Resonance, Sociology, Universität Jena
Andrea Schiavio, Music Psychology, University of Sheffield, Bogazici University

You may attend one of the three pre-conference workshops on October 4:

Johannes Michalak “Embodiment in mindfulness-based interventions”
Miriam Kyselo “Enacting the self – a bodily exploration of self with others”
Lily Martin & Birgitt Bodingbauer “Embodied aesthetics of flow – creating ‘optimal experiences’ through movement”

With kind regards
Wolfgang Tschacher, Sabine Koch, and Thomas Fuchs

ORGANIZERS:

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Tschacher
Universitätsklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
Universität Bern

Prof. Dr. Sabine Koch
Alanus University Alfter
SRH Hochschule Heidelberg

Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Fuchs
Klinik für Allgemeine Psychiatrie
Universität Heidelberg

Spring school on enactive perception

The research centres CRESA and PERSONA of the Faculty of Philosophy at San Raffaele University, Milan, organize the International Conference and Spring School:

Perception and Aesthetic Experience: Starting from Noe’s Strange Tools. Art and Human Nature

San Raffaele Spring School of Philosophy 2017 (SRSSP 2017)

Milan, May 22nd – 24th, 2017

What is art? Why does it matter to us? What does it tell us about ourselves?

In his book Strange Tools. Art and Human Nature (Hill and Wang, New York, 2015), the philosopher Alva Noë tries to answer these questions by proposing a philosophical theory that investigates the artistic practice and the aesthetic experience in relation to many other human activities. Noë’s main idea is that the artistic practice is a re-organizational practice by means of which we put on display and investigate several organizational activities of ours, such as dancing or making pictures. Investigating our practices, art investigates ourselves too.

“Works of art put our making practices and our tendency to rely on what we make, and so also our practices of thinking and talking and making pictures, on display. Art puts us on display. Art unveils us to ourselves” (Noë 2015, 101).

However, Strange Tools is not just a book on art and artistic practice. Indeed, dealing with these topics, the author addresses also some of the main topics of his previous production: the nature of perception and the enactive proposal, the nature of pictures and representations, the extended thesis about our minds and cognitive processes, the place of neurosciences in the study of the mind, and so on.

We invite submissions by graduate and PhD students, as well as Postdocs and Experienced Researchers, on any of the topics addressed by Alva Noë’s Strange Tools. Art and Human Nature, as well as on any related topics addressed by the author in his previous works. Submissions on aesthetics and perception from other perspectives (e.g. theories different from Noë’s one) are also very welcome.

Possible questions to investigate include (but are not limited to):

– What is perception? Can the enactive model be a good one to describe and explain how we perceive?

– Is the Extended Mind Thesis a tenable one? Should we think of a necessary limitation of such an extension?

– What is the nature of pictures and representations?

– What is art? How can we define the artistic practice and the works of art? Is Noë’s position on these topics embraceable?

– Can a neuro-aesthetic approach appropriately explain the aesthetic experience? In the negative case, should it be combined with other approaches or should it be completely rejected?

Keynote Speaker

Alva Noë (University of California, Berkeley)

Confirmed Invited Speakers

Clotilde Calabi (University of Milan)

Vittorio Gallese (University of Parma)

Bence Nanay (University of Antwerp)

Marco Tettamanti (San Raffaele Scientific Institute)

Alberto Voltolini (University of Turin)

More details and the call for papers