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Your Brain on Art: How Does Light Influence Our Creation and Perception of Images?


Lecture

Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

This event is at capacity

This lecture is offered in conjunction with HUBweek and UNESCO’s International Year of Light.

How does light help and inspire artists to create visual stories about places, moments, or experiences? What happens inside a person’s brain when he or she admires art? Do all people perceive the same thing when looking at a painting or photograph? Margaret Livingstone, professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, and photographer Sharon Harper, professor of visual art at Harvard, will explore these questions and illuminate the science and art behind seeing, perceiving, and creating images. The discussion will be moderated by Francesca Bewer, research curator for conservation and technical studies programs at the Harvard Art Museums.

The lecture is part of a series of cross-disciplinary events co-organized by the Harvard Brain Science Initiative, the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, and the Harvard Art Museums.

Free admission, but registration is required (capacity 300). Please register here.

The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Please enter the museums via the entrance on Broadway.

Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

For details on other events in the series, click here.

HUBweek (October 3–10, 2015) is a celebration of the big ideas and bold solutions that emerge from the spirit, intellectual energy, and creativity of the Greater Boston area. It is a joint venture between Harvard University, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Massachusetts General Hospital.