Monday, May 17, 2010

A lecture and piano recital in Istanbul

As this post appears I will just be landing in Istanbul to attend "Cognitive VII", an international cognitive neuroscience meeting being held here May 18-20. The organizers asked me to give both a piano recital and a talk at the May 19 session, which features several talks on art, music, and the brain. I've elected to play a number of pieces, most of which I have previously posted on YouTube. The Chopin Prelude Op. 28 no. 17 shown just below I posted this past weekend.

F. Chopin - Nocturne Op. 27 no. 2
F. Chopin - Prelude Op. 28, no. 17
E. Grieg - Lyric Pieces Op. 43, no. 5 Erotic Piece
E. Grieg - Lyric Pieces Op. 47, no. 5 Melancholy
E. Grieg - Lyric Pieces Op. 54, no. 4, Notturno
C. Debussy - Reverie  (version I  and version II)
C. Debussy - Minuette from Suite Bergmanesque
C. Debussy - Valse Romantique

The talk following this performance is titled "Who wants to know - the nature of our subjective I." I have posted a web version of this talk on my website.

I will be on vacation in Istanbul after the meeting, and probably will suspend MindBlog posts for several weeks.

Here is the Chopin prelude:

7 comments:

  1. Istanbul art and entertainment scene is impressive, check this out for details; http://www.best-of-istanbul.com/istanbul-entertainment.html

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  2. Thanks very much. I've just settled into my nice room at the Conrad Istanbul Hotel with a panoramic view of the Bosphorus (the meeting organizers are paying!)

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  3. Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.

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  4. Thanks for posting a web version of your talk. I greatly appreciate your blog.

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  5. Anonymous2:00 AM

    A lovely summary. But at the end, I am frustrated. I feel like thanks to the "shoulders of giants" I am part of a new group of humans that can understand much more clearly a mystery that has eluded or been only dimly apprehended by billions (!) of humans for several thousand years. But, I still can't figure out how to get my kid not to stand on the coffee table. What I mean to say, is that it seems that one important feedback loop- the final mirroring by the virtual machine of its own functioning, doesn't seem to change any of the unconscious machine's functioning. It just blithely goes on functioning, and the virtual machine compartmentalizes the new knowledge. Nothing changes. No breakdown, no Blade Runner Ridley Scott moment, no insomnia, no ability to hallucinate at will...

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  6. Anonymous2:02 AM

    What I meant to say, I now realize, is the unconscious machine goes on vacation and stops blogging, just as it had planned.

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  7. Kewl comments! Thank you! (actually the semi-conscious good boy scout machine had to have considerable frontal suppression to halt the daily blog grind.)

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