"MAKING SENSE OF ART, MAKING ART OF SENSE"

Oxford, Friday 27 October - Sunday 29 October 2006

The conference brings together scientists, art historians, curators and
artists working on the question of the role of the senses in the creation
and reception of art. An international group of invited speakers will
intervene in five sessions on Touch, Audition, Smell and Taste, Vision and
Synaesthesia. The conference will also feature a contemporary art
exhibition.

Some of the issues discussed in this conference will include: the
relationship between the senses; the relationship between sensory experience
and artistic representation; the predominance of visual experience in human
perceptual consciousness, and the scientific foundation, or lack thereof, of
the current interpretative model of ocularcentrism; the mechanisms of
cross-modal integration and interference; the physical mechanisms that
underlie each sense and the brain processing of sensorial input; the role of
the senses in attention and memory; art and cultural history of the senses;
production and reception of non-visually centred artworks.

For more information, please visit
http://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/events/ArtSensesWebPage.htm

PROGRAMME

Note: The scheduling of events is subject to change. Delegates will find
the final programme in their conference packs. For any questions, please
email francesca.baccihoa.ox.ac.uk.  

Friday 27 October 2006:

5pm-6pm
Greetings, Registration, Conference Introduction

6pm
Opening of the exhibition "Art and the Senses" by Dr. Sian Ede (Gulbenkian
Foundation)

7pm
Heston Blumenthal (Head Chef, The Fat Duck restaurant): Talk and
Demonstration  

Saturday 28 October 2006:

10am-12pm
Session on Touch
Dr. Fiona Candlin (Birkbeck University): Touch and the Separation of the
Senses
Dr. Charles Spence (Oxford University): Making Sense of Touch
 
12pm-1:30pm Lunch Break
 
1:30pm-3:30pm
Session on Audition
Prof. Carol Krumhansl (Cornell University): Music: The Cognitive Revolution
and Beyond
Dr. Simon Shaw-Miller (Birkbeck University): 'Sighting Sound: Listening with
eyes open'  

3:30pm-4pm Tea/Coffee
 
4pm-6pm
Session on Smell and Taste
Prof. David Howes (Concordia University, Montreal): Hearing Odours, Tasting
Sights: Toward a Cross-Cultural Multi-Modal Aesthetics
Prof. Tim Jacob (Cardiff University): The science of taste and smell
 
7pm Conference Dinner
 

Sunday 29 October 2006:

10am-12pm
Session on Vision
Prof. Martin Kemp (Oxford University): Imitation, Optics and Photography
Dr. David Melcher (Oxford Brookes University): Imitation and abstraction: a
view from cognitive neuroscience
 
12pm-1:30pm Lunch Break
 
1:30pm-3:30pm
Session on Synaesthesia
Dr. Jamie Ward (University College London): Visual Music in Arts and Minds:
Explorations with Synaesthesia
Dr. Crétien van Campen (Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau, Den Haag): Visual
Music and Musical Paintings. The quest for synaesthesia in the Arts  

Conference organizers:   
Dr. Francesca Bacci
francesca.baccihoa.ox.ac.uk
+44 (0)1865 286844
Dr. David Melcher
dmelcherbrookes.ac.uk
+44 (0)1865 483781
 
Conference Venue:     
Science Oxford
1-5 London Place
Oxford OX4 1BD
 
Department of History of Art and Centre for Visual Studies
University of Oxford
Littlegate House, St. Ebbe¹s
Oxford OX1 1PT ­ United Kingdom
Email: adminhoa.ox.ac.uk
 
Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University
Gipsy Lane Campus
OXFORD OX3 0BP
Email: psychologybrookes.ac.uk