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Brainland

MESSAGES FROM ANOTHER WORLD

Season 1, Ep. 4

Brainland is a new opera that interweaves three stories from the history of 20th Neuroscience, created by four artists with a background in neuroscience and medicine, currently in development with by a range of associates. In these podcasts the creators of Brainland talk about the project and explore the historical background to those stories by speaking to academics and collaborators.

 

PODCAST 2: MESSAGES FROM ANOTHER WORLD

The second storyline in Brainland focusses on Professor Hans Berger, the German psychiatrist who, in the 1920s, discovered that the brain emits rhythmic electrical pulsations, the EEG. In this episode we hear about his personal doubts, struggle with the scientific establishment and final vindication, as the Nazis take power in his country.

Contributors:

Andrew Platman (librettist)

Ken Barrett (librettist/designer) http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

Stephen Brown (composer) ( http://cornwallcomposers.com/stephen.htm

Musical extracts: Opening of Brainland scenes 2 and theme to accompany the discovery of the alpha rhythm.

The book mentioned in the podcast is Brainwaves: A cultural history of Electroencephalography, by Cornelius Borck. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781315569840/brainwaves-cultural-history-electroencephalography-cornelius-borck-ann-hentschel

Brainland the Podcast produced by Ken Barrett.

The image is from Brainland act 1, scene 2 - concept drawing in charcoal and chalk by Ken Barrett.

 

For the full score, libretto, story outline, designs, animations and more go to the opera website:

www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Click the link below for an animated prelude to Act 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNNcslZ2Mnc

 

Contact: steve4cello@ gmail.com                              

kenb@kenbarrettstudio.co.uk

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    This is part 2 of the conversation with Russell Kilbourn on memory and movies. In part 1 we talked about the way memory is treated in literature and movies but we didn't have time to discuss memory in sci-fi movies so Russ agreed to return. In this podcast we discuss the varying treatment of memory in the genre. Eg: removing memories (Total Recall, Severance and particularly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind); inserting false memories (Blade Runner); repurposing memories (Strange Days, and particularly Solaris and La Jetee). La Jetée led to an interesting discussion about the strange and interesting Canadian film My Winnipeg. We close by returning to literature, in the science fiction genre.Participants:Russell J Kilbourn is Professor of Literature and Film, Dept of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada. http://rjakilbourn.com/Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and former neuropsychiatrist.http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/Sci fi movies discussed (Russ's 'must sees' in bold):Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) and BR 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski, 2013)2046 (Kar-wai Wong, 2004) (lost memories)After Life (Hirokazu Koreeda, 1998)Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)Source Code (Duncan Jones, 2011)Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995)Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.ukFollow us us on Instagram: #brainlandcollectiveSketch by KB.
  • 36. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?: Memory, the brain and our sense of self.

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