[Cyborg] Equilibrium: Five Senses, a party of Science, Art, and Music

[Eric Boyd]

I'm helping Matt Bell to give a talk on sensory augmentation at this event.  Please come join us!


What: Equilibrium: Five Senses, a party of Science, Art, and Music
When: Friday, November 6th, 2009 7pm
Where: Langton Labs  9 Langton St., San Francisco, Ca 94103
RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191782826188&ref=ts
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/88026
 
Friends of Noisebridge! On Friday, November 6 2009, Langton Labs hosts the 
installment of Equilibrium, a monthly themed party of Science, Art,
and Music with a most stimulating environment to think, drink, play,
and dance! Last month we explored the depths of LOVE. This month's
tasty theme is... FIVE SENSES.
 
You'll learn about technologically augmented senses of the future, the
science of crafting chocolate flavors, and the neuroscience of vision.
Experience 8 type of Synesthesia in 8 minutes, eat the red pill and
brave the face warping wonders of "Flavor Tripping", and become a
canvas for the masterful light painting of Ed Hsu.
DJ Jessica Stanell will be laying down some jazzy-funky-house beats
from 7 to 8.
LUX aka Rodman will be serving up a serious dose of bass and beats to
keep you dancing into the night.
There will be a licensed cash bar provided by Missing Piece Mobile.
Our suggested donation is $8 online (http://www.brownpapertickets.com/
event/88026) or $10 at the door.
Add us on Facebook and SHARE the even with your friends:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191782826188&ref=ts
Become our Fan: http://www.facebook.com/EquilibriumSF


SCHEDULE
7-8 Interactive Art, Music, Merrymaking & Mingling
8-10:00 Presentations with Audience Q&A
10-12 Music


TALKS

Chocolate and Technology with Timothy Childs [http://www.tcho.com]
--------------------------------------------------------------
What happens when high-tech chocolate factory meets high-tech research
lab? Timothy Childs leverages his experience as a serial entrepreneur,
super taster and inventor to engage a multidisciplinary community
around the art and science of making the world's best chocolate.
Timothy will also be packing samples of his various chocolates; see if
you taste buds can match his!
Timothy is Co-Founder and Chief Chocolate Officer of TCHO chocolate
located at Pier 17 in San Francisco.


8 Types of Synesthesia in 8 Minutes with Bryan Alvarez
--------------------------------------------------------------
Doctoral candidate, Bryan Alvarez is a grapheme-color synesthete,
researching synesthesia at UC Berkeley. His talk will be an open
discussion interactively showcasing several different forms of
synesthesia. Don't leave your senses at home. You will want all of
them, least you find out your mind is blended in more ways than you
thought.


FutureSense: Technologically Augmented Senses with Matt Bell & Eric
Boyd
--------------------------------------------------------------
Although we were born with a limited number of senses, we can use
technological means to greatly enhance our sensory capabilities. As
interface technologies improve, these new senses will be able to be so
closely tied to our brains that they may begin to feel like natural
extensions of our own sensory abilities. We will discuss a wide
variety of potential new senses and demonstrate a prototype.
Matt Bell is an inventor, artist, and entrepreneur who has done a wide
variety of projects including gesture-based interactive displays,
intricate laser-cut sculpture, and, most recently, floating art for
the Ephemerisle festival. Eric Boyd is an engineer and hacker, transhumanist and environmentalist. Lately he's been building wearable
electronic devices which augument his senses.



The Neuroscience of Vision by Jascha Sohl-Dickstein
--------------------------------------------------------------
Are we hallucinating *all the time*? Jascha will discuss how photons
hitting your retina become perceptions in your brain, with as many
awesome tangents as can fit in 10 minutes.
Jascha is a graduate student with the Redwood Center for Theoretical
Neuroscience at UC Berkeley. He designs learning algorithms and neural
networks.

INTERACT


Flavor Tripping
--------------------------------------------------------------
Miracle fruit is a berry containing a special chemical "miraculin",
which when eaten changes your taste buds to temporarily make many
things taste sweet that ordinarily wouldn't. Join us, take some
miracle fruit tablets, and experience food in a strange new way. Limes
will taste like the sweetest, most perfect limeade ever. Oranges
(already quite sweet) taste like they were imported from an Alien
world or plucked straight from the Garden of Eden.

ART

Painted Original Scores by Amanda Schoofs [http://www.myspace.com/
amandaschoofs]
--------------------------------------------------------------
Amanda is fascinated with the nuances and transformations of the color
of substance and sound. This fascination has led her to study the
intimate correlation between visual and sound art. Her work as a
composer, vocal improviser, and visual artist has timbral and textural
exploration in common. Recently, she has been exploring artistic
representations of sound by experimenting with different forms of
notation: using variations of color and intensity to represent musical
parameters, exploring the use of fragmented text, and combining
Western musical aesthetics with popular/mainstream musical ideas.
Amanda will explain her process and then debut a live painting set to
music.

Light Painting by Ed Hsu [http://www.edihsu.com]
-------------------------------------------------------
Artist Ed Hsu has been utilizing the medium of light, derived from his experiments into digital painting, to portray the spiritual light in
ourselves, surrounding living beings, and our environments.
Based out of San Francisco, he has been peforming this year in BRC,
Los Angeles, Portland, Pittsburgh, and New York City.


MUSIC

--------------------------------------------------------------
LUX (aka Rodman) has been ripping up dancefloors, terrorizing
subwoofers, and messing up heads up and down the California coastline
for many years.