Professor Emma Hart is Chair in Natural Computation, Edinburgh Napier University. She is active world-wide in the field of Evolutionary Computation, an Editor-in-Chief of Evolutionary Computation (MIT Press) from January 2016 and an elected member of the ACM SIGEVO Executive Board. She is also a member of the UK Operations Research Society Research Panel.
Mark Lee is Emeritus Professor in Computer Science, Aberystwyth University. “I have degrees in Electrical Engineering and Psychology and have worked in AI, robotics and CS for 40 years. I am a fellow of the IET and of the Learned Society of Wales. My research explores how robots might learn about the world in the same way that infants build up their understanding in the first few years. This approach (known as Developmental Robotics) contrasts with the Big Data and Deep Learning methods of modern Artificial Intelligence. My recent book, “HOW TO GROW A ROBOT: DEVELOPING HUMAN-FRIENDLY, SOCIAL AI” (MIT Press, 2020) explains these ideas, and their consequences, in detail.”
Michelle Hunter’s ‘Brain Series’ deconstructs familiar themes related to how our brains function and is meant to help the general public gain a greater appreciation for this organ we don’t usually “think” about. Using a painterly technique, the artist transforms everyday objects with a subtle unexpected surreal approach.
Sam Ereira is a Postdoctoral researcher of Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. Between 2015 and 2019 he did his PhD in computational and cognitive neuroscience at the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research and the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging. His research used behavioural modelling and brain imaging to try and understand how the human mind distinguishes between Self and Other, and how this process might go wrong in mental health disorders.
Many psychedelic proponents feel a need to ground their claims for the evaluative significance of chemically induced mystical experience in prior metaphysical claims about higher realities endowed with special moral authority. Herein, I recommend a shift in perspective according to which we need not posit moral supernature to justify the revelatory capacity of such experiences to tell us how to best act and be.
Danial Arabali is an Iranian-German artist and Engineer. In one series of his ‘NeuroArt’ paintings, he takes a look at the neuronal networks from a more artistic point of view rather than realistic representations of existing structures, while in another series he attempts to apply the modern color theory concepts of expressionist German artists to visualize the beauty of neuronal connections in a more abstract manner.
Katharine Dowson’s inspiration comes from nature, medicine and the scientific world as she often collaborates with scientists as part of her artistic practice. These include researchers investigating genetics, dyslexia and Parkinson’s disease, producing intricate casts of her own heart and brain from MRI scans. Her sculptures are made in various media but especially transparent materials and glass, which she uses as a metaphor for a membrane, a fragile yet robust skin that allows light to pass through and reveal the hidden interior within.
Lidija Kononenko is a student from the Royal Academy of Arts in London, whose practice investigates methodologies of scientific research into the human condition. Her artwork ‘31-3594’ won the Art of Neuroscience 2020 in which she explores the nervous system in an interactive way. ‘The Pacemaker’ is an animation film exploring endurance training and emotional complexities in romantic relationships.
Henry Taylor is Birmingham Fellow in Philosophy, University of Birmingham. He is primarily interested in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of cognitive science, and the overlap between this and areas that are normally thought of as distinct, such as biology.
Harriet Dempsey-Jones is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Cognitive Neurosciences, UCL. She is a researcher in the field of cognitive psychology at University College London, looking at how our brains and particular cognitive processes cause our subjective psychological and perceptual experience.
“My research looks at how the body processes touch and other sensory inputs. Particularly, I am interested in plasticity in the area of the brain that processes sensory inputs from your body – the somatosensory cortex. I look at how this system is shaped by adding or removing sensory inputs.”