The Arts in the Context of Today's Darwinian Theory of Evolution

CALL for PARTICIPATION

AN INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM:

The Arts in the context of today's Darwinian Theory of Evolution

Dates: Marseille, France, Oct 22-24 2009

Proposals: Abstracts due March 31 2009, 400 words plus cv to e-mail address : colloque_darwin@yahoo.fr

Colloquium organized by MIM and in partnership with LEONARDO/Olats, Alphabetville and ZINC-ECM

Since its publication, Darwin's "The Origin of Species" has been widely debated in its cultural context. In this colloquium we wish to re examine cultural activity and the arts in the context of the Theory of Evolution as it is understood today. We solicit proposed papers from scientists, artists and composers, scholars in the humanities and social sciences.

Invited Speakers Include:

Jean-Pierre Changeux in his book "Raison et Plaisir " (Reason and pleasure) published in 1994 by Odile Jacob suggested a Darwinian theory of pictorial creation and of the way paintings are perceived. The brain of an artist creates shapes, colors, gestures, etc.and only survive those shapes etc which can enter long-term memory. This combination of chance and survival are characteristic of a Darwinian theory. Those elements which survive are called memes. The memes of an artist constitute his style=85when they are shared by several artists they constitute an artistic movement.

Another approach is espoused by Dominique Lestel who argues that cultural activity is not specific to humans but emerges progressively during the evolution of life forms. In books such as Les origines animales de la culture, Flammarion, 2001 - L'animal singulier, Seuil 2004 he examines the origins, nature and evolutionary effects of cultural activity in non humans.

Another evolutionary theory of artistic creation has been developed by Pierre Mounoud and Jacques Mandelbrojt who analysed artistic creation with the concepts of assimilation and accommodation introduced by Piaget both to describe the evolution of living organisms in their environment and the evolution of science.

MIM has been developing for several years research on the shortest element of music able to transmit a meaning such an element is called a UST (Semantic Time Unit). A piece of music can in general be analysed as a succession of such units, each one lasting a few seconds.A composer usually has preference for certain USTs which he uses in his compositions.USTs can be considered as musical memes. Several composers and members of MIM will present including: Marcel Fremiot, composer and musicologist, Martine Timsit-Berthier, psychophysiologist, Philippe Bootz (poet, specialized in Hypermedia, Maitre de Conference University of Paris 8). Frank Dufour (Member of MIM, Assistant Professor at the Sound Design Department of the University of Texas, Dallas USA) autres noms?

Authors interested in presenting a paper should send an abstract of no more than 400 words together with a link to their CV by March 31, 2009 to e-mail address: colloque_darwin@yahoo.fr

Proposals for video presentation will be considered.

Presentation may be in French or English. Presentation in English should be accompanied by a full written translation in French.

Further details on the symposium can be found at http://www.labo-mim.org