The Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Centre for Complexity Science at Imperial College present “Shared Consciousness in Action”. Join us for an evening of musical improvisation, neuroscience of group experience, and philosophy of consciousness! With performances by Adrian Brendel (cello) and Prof David Dolan (piano), a keynote talk by Prof Elisabeth Pacherie, analysis by Alberto Liardi and Madalina Sas, and a panel discussion joined by Prof Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen, we will celebrate our shared experiences and delve into how improvisation and togetherness can show us what it means to be human.
This event highlights the ongoing collaboration between the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Centre for Complexity Science at Imperial College London.
Keynote: Variety and Unity of Shared Experiences
Elisabeth Pacherie, Institut Jean Nicod, CNRS, ENS/PSL, EHESS, Paris
Abstract: We are conscious creatures but we are also hyper-social creatures. Indeed, some of our more vivid experiences appear to be shared experiences: the joy experienced by supporters when their team wins a game, the sense of joint agency experienced by muscians when playing together or the memories evoked when old war veterans reminisce together. However, the exact nature of such shared experiences remains difficult to pin down. In what sense must experiences be related to qualify as shared experiences? What specific subjective qualities, if any, characterize them in contrast to purely individual experiences? Is there a phenomenology of we-ness common to different kinds of shared experiences and different kinds of we? What are the cognitive processes responsible for their emergence? What are the factors modulating these experiences? How can they be studied experimentally? I will try and provide some tentative and partial answers to these questions and highlight some of the many outstanding questions we face.
Music
The musical experience will consist of classical improvisation performances extemporised by Adrian Brendel (cello) and Prof David Dolan (piano). The performers will play in response to their emotions and current state of mind, but will also be accepting inputs and ideas from the audience.
Analysis
The analysis of the neural activity of the performers will be outlined by Alberto Liardi, research assistant, and Madalina Sas, PhD candidate, at the Centre for Complexity Science. The research focuses on how the concepts of collective intelligence and shared experience can be seen quantitatively from brain signals.
Panel discussion
Do you have any questions? Do you want to know more about group improvisation, shared experiences and consciousness? Feel free to indulge your curiosity and initiate the conversation with our panel committee, consisting of Elisabeth Pacherie, Adrian Brendel, Prof David Dolan, and Prof Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen.
Invited speakers and performers
David Dolan
David Dolan has devoted an important part of his international career as a concert pianist, researcher and teacher to the revival of the art of classical improvisation. Professor of Classical Improvisation and its various applications to solo and ensemble performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, David has been heading the Centre for Creative Performance & Classical Improvisation since 2005. He also teaches at the Yehudi Menuhin School and contributes to scientific research in the neuroscience of improvisation.
Adrian Brendel
One of the most versatile and original cellists of his generation, Adrian Brendel has travelled the world as soloist, collaborator and teacher. Adrian is a familiar presence at many of Europe’s leading festivals and performs as soloist with many prestigious orchestras. Adrian was director at the Plush Festival in Dorset from 1995 until 2017, and was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in 2021, where he also gives masterclasses as guest professor, alongside a cello class at Guildhall school in London.
Elisabeth Pacherie
Elisabeth Pacherie is a CNRS Research Director and the leader of the Agency Team at Institut Jean Nicod in Paris. Her research aims at understanding the cognitive underpinnings of individual and collective action, the relationships between individual and collective agency processes and the nature and variety of shared agentive and emotional experiences. Her perspective is interdisciplinary and combines approaches from philosophy, cognitive science, psychopathology, and behavioral economics. She is currently President of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology and was President of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness in 2022.
Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen
Henrik Jensen is Professor of Mathematical Physics at Imperial College London, and leads the Centre for Complexity Science. He is a prominent expert in complexity science and has developed the tangled nature model of evolving ecosystems, which is currently used in the modelling of socio-economical sustainability and finance. Henrik has more recently worked on brain dynamics and structure by analyzing fMRI and EEG data, and collaborates with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to identify differences in the neuronal response of audience and performers depending on the mode of performance.