SYNAPTIC MOTION

source: ticketsybcaorg

San Francisco’s internationally acclaimed science and technology dance company, Capacitor, takes you multi-sensory journey through a larger-than-life neural forest with their unique cast of dancers, acrobats, contortionists, and aerialists.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: ybcaorg

What does the act of creativity look like? Not the art (the products of creativity), not the artist (the vessel of creativity), but the act (the activity in the mind that generates what we call creative work)? San Francisco’s internationally acclaimed science and technology dance company Capacitor tackles this question head-on in the world premiere of Synaptic Motion. Conceived and choreographed by Artistic Director Jodi Lomask, this multi-sensory experience is informed by brain scans taken at UCSF’s Gazzaley Lab to capture the mind during the act of choreography.

The Gazzaley Lab is specifically focused on the study of neural mechanisms of memory and attention. For the development of Synaptic Motion, Lead Neuroscientist Dr. Adam Gazzeley and Engineer John Fesenko used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) — a procedure that measures brain activity by detecting associated changes in blood flow — to monitor Lomask’s brain function while choreographing this work.

Media collaborators Mary Franck, Wesley Grubb, and Johan Bichel Lindegaard then transformed this data into an immersive visualization of the creative process, with a sound score by Danish composer Toni Martin Dobrzanski and a set designed by Erik Walker, which travels through a larger-than-life neural forest with their unique cast of dancers, acrobats, contortionists, and aerialists.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: capacitororg

What does the act of creativity look like? San Francisco’s internationally acclaimed science and technology dance company Capacitor tackles this question head-on in the world premiere of “Synaptic Motion.” Conceived and choreographed by Artistic Director Jodi Lomask, this multi-sensory experience is informed by brain scans taken at the UCSF Neuroscape Lab to capture the mind during the act of choreography.

Media collaborators Mary Franck, Wesley Grubbs, and Johan Bichel Lindegaard have transformed this data and more into an immersive visualization of the creative process to the sound of Danish composer Toni Martin Dobrzanski and in a set designed by Erik Walker with lighting FX by William Brinkert. Travel through a larger-than-life neural forest experiencing memories, future self projections, and mirror neurons in action, while Capacitor’s unique cast of dancers, acrobats, contortionists and aerialists challenge notions of the creative process. Let them take you on a trip through multiple states of mind utilizing tensegrity apparatus.

“A particularly dramatic moment during the performance was when a work-specific acrobatic device was lowered from the ceiling and one of the performers climbed into it and, suspended in the air, demonstrated the concept of tensegrity—the structural principle based on the use of isolated components in compression inside a net of continuous tension.”
— Joe Ferguson, SciArt in America
The Impetus

Through art, science, and technology, “Synaptic Motion” addresses the question: What does creativity look like? Not the art (the products of creativity), not the artist (the vessel of creativity), but the act (the activity in the mind that generates what we call creative work)?

Neuro-imaging, conducted by project neurologists at the UCSF Neuroscape Lab, form the basis of this inquiry. The Neuroscape Lab is specifically focused on the study of neural mechanisms of memory and attention. For the development of “Synaptic Motion,” Lead Neuroscientist Dr. Adam Gazzeley and Engineer John Fesenko used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create an accurate representation of the surface anatomy of Lomask’s brain, and a related procedure called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to capture the topology of her white matter tracts — essentially the 3D wiring diagram of her brain. A prototype high density wireless EEG cap was then used to monitor her brain activity while planning and performing choreographed segments of this work, and mathematical models custom-created to match her detailed brain structure were used in coordination with this brain activity data to create an artistically rendered visualization of her brain activity — the so-called “Glass Brain” technique.