LASER Talks Brussels: The olfactory experience as a new language | Leonardo/ISASTwith Arizona State University

LASER Talks Brussels: The olfactory experience as a new language

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The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 40 cities around the world.

 


@Peter De Cupere, Olfabet

LASER Talk Brussels: The olfactory experience as a new language with Peter De Cupere and Piet Devos.

 

Official Side event organiser, and partner of the Festival of the New European Bauhaus (NEB).

 

Event Info

Where:iMAL, Center for digital cultures and technology

📍Quai des Charbonnages 30, 1080 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Brussels, Belgium

When: Sunday 12 June, 5pm CET. Find your timezone here

The event will also be livestreamed here!

 

The olfactory experience is accessible to people of different cultures and with different abilities. It might actually become a new language for dialogue about common human values and needs.

In the animal world the olfactory system plays one of the most important roles to help animals to survive. In order to hunt, to recognize enemies and friendly species, smells warn them of potential danger. Humans perceive smells with each breath and while still inside of the womb their olfactory sensor is fully developed at the age of 7-8 months. But later humans lose half of these capacities. During the last two decades, doctors and researchers, from neuroscientists to the humanities, have sought to better understand the sense of smell, the way it shapes our everyday life, our emotions, feelings, our eating preferences, its role in creating memory and its functioning in our social interactions.

As part of The Festival of the New European Bauhaus, LASER Talks Brussels invites artist Peter De Cupere and scholar Piet Devos to discuss their work on the importance of smell in human and nonhuman interaction. The talk is moderated by Edith Doove and Alexandra Dementieva.

The Festival of the New European Bauhaus brings together people from all walks of life to debate and shape our future. A future that is sustainable, inclusive and beautiful. It is a great opportunity to network, exchange and celebrate – from science to art, from design to politics, from architecture to technology.

We also invite you to explore the program of the New European Bauhaus Festival (NEB).

 

SPEAKERS BIOS

Peter De Cupere is the most prolific and proactive proponent of olfactory art in the world and an expert in the field of the olfactory system. In collaboration with a number of visually impaired assistants he has developed a shared system of writing for the blind to create an olfactory alphabet, the ‘olfabet’. w: http://www.peterdecupere.net/ & https://www.olfabet.com/

Piet Devos is an author, translator and literary scholar. At the age of five he became blind due to retinal cancer. These experiences of illness and disability are very important for who he is today. They have shaped him as a person, as a writer and researcher, but also as an activist for a greener and more inclusive world. w: https://pietdevos.be/en 

Edith Doove (PhD) is a curator, writer and researcher, specifically interested in notions of emergence and contingency, cross and transdisciplinary collaborations. w: bureaudoove.com

Alexandra Dementieva is a multimedia artist. Like an explorer she raises questions related to social psychology and theories of perception suggesting solutions to them by contemporary artistic means.
w: alexdementieva.org

 

 

SPONSORS:

 

           

 

The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. @lasertalks

When
June 12th, 2022 from  5:00 PM to  7:00 PM
Location
iMAL, Center for digital cultures and technology
Quai des Charbonnages 30
1080 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean
Hybrid / Brussels, BRU
Belgium
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