Self Comes to Mind

There's no way in hell I deserve to be on the stage at this incredible event, but I'm so honored to be included:

Yo-Yo Ma performs the world premiere of Self Comes to Mind, a musical composition by Bruce Adolphe, composer in residence at the Brain and Creativity Institute and resident lecturer of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, based on an evocative exploration of the evolution of human consciousness written especially for this collaboration by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at University of Southern California, and author of Descartes' Error, The Feeling of What Happens, and Looking for Spinoza. The performance includes brain images by Hanna Damasio as part of sound-reactive video compositions directed by Diego Miralles in collaboration with Meemle and based on a video by Ioana Uricaru. The premiere is followed by a conversation with Antonio Damasio, Yo-Yo Ma, and Bruce Adolphe on mind, consciousness, creativity, and the collaboration behind Self Comes to Mind. The discussion will be moderated by Jonah Lehrer, Editor at Large, Seed Magazine and author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist.

Not surprisingly, the performance is sold out, but I promise a blog summary on Monday. In Proust Was A Neuroscientist, when I wrote about the importance of genuine art-science interactions, in which each culture is inspired by the other, this is exactly the sort of thing I was imagining.