The neurocognition of liveness
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
- Venue
- Webinar
- Event type
- Online
About this event
SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies is delighted to host Professor Guido Orgs (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London) and Dr Matthias Sperling (choreographer and performer, London) for an online webinar, 'The Neurocognition of Liveness'.
Liveness is vital to dance, theatre and music performances – and to many other kinds of events, including political rallies, sports events and lectures – but what exactly sets live experiences apart from recorded, streamed or simulated ones? The 5-year NEUROLIVE research project (2020 to 2025) engaged investigative artistic approaches to performance-making to examine a range of core elements that influence live experiences, acknowledging the multi-faceted and context-specific nature of liveness.
In this webinar we will explore scientific and artistic approaches to liveness, taking contemporary dance making as a departure point to examine live experiences. Guido Orgs will introduce recent laboratory and live scientific studies that explore physical (being in a here and now) and social (being together with others) components of liveness. Using mobile EEG, live experiences are quantifiable as behavioural, psychophysiological and neural synchrony between performers’ and spectators’ minds, brains and bodies. Matthias Sperling will share aspects of the artistic research on liveness by a series of commissioned artists that formed the focal points of this research project.
Image credit: NEUROLIVE Performance 2 - How Shall We Begin Again?
About the speakers
Guido Orgs is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, where he leads the Movement and Performance group. His research explores dance, performing arts, creative movement, sport, exercise and mobile neuroimaging in real-world contexts. Trained in psychology and performing dance in Germany, he worked as a professional dance artist before joining UCL in 2009. He later founded Goldsmiths’ MSc in Psychology of the Arts, Neuroaesthetics & Creativity. From 2020 to 2025, he led NEUROLIVE, an EU-funded interdisciplinary project investigating what makes live experiences special. At UCL, he teaches Exercise Neuroscience and Sport Psychology.
Matthias Sperling is a Canadian-German choreographer, performer and researcher based in London. His work spans theatre, galleries, museums and scientific collaborations, exploring dance, embodied knowledge and the relationship between movement and cognition. His performances have been presented at major UK institutions, including Sadler’s Wells, Tate Modern, Southbank Centre, the Royal Opera House and Wellcome Collection, and internationally in over 15 countries. Artistic Director of the EU-funded NEUROLIVE project, he has collaborated extensively with Siobhan Davies Dance and performed with Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance and Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures. He holds a PhD in choreographic practice from De Montfort University.
