Episodes
Friday Jul 24, 2015
Rorschach Audio
Friday Jul 24, 2015
Friday Jul 24, 2015
An Evening of Psychoacoustic and Optical Illusions
The book Rorschach Audio: Art & Illusion for Sound, by author and installation artist Joe Banks, takes as its central metaphor the comparison between the perception of ambiguous speech-sounds, and the “projective” interpretation of the famous ink-blot tests devised by the Freudian psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in 1921.
With a nod to the model of perception proposed by Freud, Banks explores relationships between mechanisms of aural and visual perception, demonstrating a series of highly entertaining and sometimes bizarre psychoacoustic and optical illusions.
With a further nod to ideas proposed in Freud’s The Future of An Illusion, the lecture focusses on a critique of Spiritualistic and allegedly supernatural Electronic Voice Phenomena (ghost-voice) recordings, a theme wildly popular in contemporary sound installation art. Banks traces the illusions involved as far back as the artist generally recognised as the most important figure in the history of Western art, and reveals the role that relatively little-known wartime intelligence work with sound had on what is arguably the most important work of visual arts theory ever published.
Joe Banks produces the installation art and electronic music project Disinformation. Disinformation exhibits and performs internationally, has been the subject of over a dozen UK solo exhibitions - including a recent solo installation at Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh, and has exhibited in group shows at Kiasma (Helsinki), CCCB (Barcelona), Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge) and The Hayward Gallery (London).
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Conference: Music & Psychoanalysis 4
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Conference: Music & Psychoanalysis 3
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Conference: Music & Psychoanalysis 2
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Conference: Music & Psychoanalysis 1
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Thursday Jul 09, 2015
Our Strange Thoughts
Thursday Jul 09, 2015
Thursday Jul 09, 2015
Have you ever had the sudden fear that you didn’t lock the back door? Or the disturbing thought of jumping in front of an oncoming train?
You are not alone. Most of us experience strange thoughts and compulsions that occur to us ‘out of the blue’. They can sometimes be distressing and embarassing, but they are also very common. For many people, they spiral into the living nightmare of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
OCD is estimated to afflict roughly 750,000 people in the UK alone. But what exactly is it? Where do its characteristic thoughts and compulsions come from? And can a psychoanalytic approach shed light on this debilitating condition?
Join David Adam and Oliver James for an intimate exploration of the experience of OCD and its possible explanations.
David Adam is an award-winning journalist, formerly of the Guardian, and currently an editor at the science journal Nature. He is the author of The Man Who Couldn’t Stop, an intimate look at the power of intrusive thoughts, how our brain can turn against us and what it means to live with Obsessive-compulsive Disorder.
Oliver James is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. Since 1988, he has worked as a writer, journalist, broadcaster and television documentary producer and presenter. His books include the best-selling Affluenza, They F*** You Upand Love Bombing.
Part of a season of performances, talks, workshops and events accompanying the 'Festival of the Unconscious' exhibition, 24 June - 4 October 2015.