Available:

OCT 3 @ 10A MT - OCT 11 @ 11:45P MT
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS AND TO VIEW

While there is much we don’t know about our brains, the understanding of our most complex organism is always deepening.

Working towards that elusive goal are the speakers in this show who have delved into some of the unseen spaces of what’s inside our heads. Alexandra Rieger, a neuroscientist at the renowned MIT Media Lab, is concerned that we are losing touch with ourselves as “We live in a decade where we have more interest in human-to-computer interaction when we haven’t scratched the surface of human-to-human interaction.” She has invented a musi-medical instrument designed for what she calls “ecologically holistic rehabilitation.”

Her colleague at the MIT Media Lab Adam Horowitz studies dreams, which “often tell us stories we cannot hear with language alone” and believes that “technology can show us part of ourselves that remain otherwise invisible, opening doors to introspection, wellness and wonder.” The dark side of technology and our brains will be explored by filmmaker Jeff Orlowski whose most recent film is The Social Dilemma, which can be seen on Netflix and looks at the pernicious effects of social media.

His previous documentaries Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral looked at climate change but he says that this topic was even more frightening to see how these enormous and powerful companies target their users, especially the developing and vulnerable minds of children. Rounding out this show is The Missfits, an inspiring documentary about a squad of girls who aspire to be scientists. This journey into our own unknown will make you reconsider so much of what happens inside our heads when we are awake and asleep.

Speakers

Adam Horowitz

Adam Horowitz is a PhD student in MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group whose work aims to augment human awareness, translating advances in neuroscience into design of interventions and experiences. He focuses on how brain science can expand to interact with art, technology and policy. As he says,“The organized understanding of the self is fertile territory for those of us guiding experience (i.e. artists), those guiding behavior (i.e. policymakers, technologists), and those guiding introspection (i.e. therapists, citizen scientists, and you). Now I’m most excited about spending time bringing my tools to other labs for guiding dreams and nightmare treatment, working on neuroscience based prison policy change, and bridging art and neuroscience in a form that goes beyond ornamental.”

Jeff Orlowski

Jeff Orlowski is a documentary filmmaker whose work has primarily focused on the biggest challenge of our times – the climate crisis. He got involved with photographer James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey as a senior at Stanford and then ended up directing Chasing Ice, one of the seminal films looking at this paramount issue and followed that up with Chasing Coral about the dying reefs in our oceans. His latest is The Social Dilemma, which delves into what social media is doing to our brains and how it is rewiring the way we think. All of this is produced through his robust company, Exposure Labs, which works thoughtfully and diligently to maximize impact of social issues documentaries.

Alexandra Rieger

Alexandra Rieger is a cognitive neuroscientist, engineer, cross-modal researcher, multi-instrumentalist musician, doctoral student, instrument inventor, multimedia creator, and instructor at the MIT Media Lab. She is passionate about promoting neurodiversity, ecologically holistic rehabilitation, and improving upon our global experience by creating pathways between the fields of neuroscience, technology, music, accessible design, symbiotic rehabilitation, and multisensory studies. She is the inventor of the world’s first series of medical-musical instruments: non-invasive devices to heal the brain, engage the senses, and support novel musical creativity (also experienced by musical artists ranging from Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead) to Rihanna).

Film

All Shows