The talk and live music-led meditation session draws on sound design, psychology, neuroscience, folklore and diasporic spirituality. Studies of Air and Smoke is both an art performance and a meta-educational intervention; it is neither a concert nor a lecture. Thiago Leiros-Costa explores the dualism between being an artist and a scientist, performing both roles in the same evening and exploring their connections. The first part of the session assesses the nature of attention and awareness, and how the brain and our expectations are vital in constructing our experience of the world around us. Participants are invited to approach the second part, a musical performance, as a meditation session. Prompts and triggers given during the talk will be explored in the course of the performance. The music will range from folk to free improvisation and sound design.
The event is part of After Memory a project that begins with a symposium that brings together key figures from the fields of art, science, technology, museology, and activism. It aims to initiate an open process of experimentation and imagination and to form a sustainable network for exchanging and developing ideas in collaborative ways. The programme unfolds along three lines of enquiry that consider the spatial, temporal, and social dimensions of digital memory.
