Official Side event organiser, and partner of the Festival of the New European Bauhaus (NEB)
When: Sunday 12 June, 5pm CET. Find your timezone here
Where: iMAL, Center for digital cultures and technology
Quai des Charbonnages 30, 1080 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Brussels, Belgium
The olfactory experience is accessible to people of different cultures and with different abilities. It might actually become a new language for dialogue about common human values and needs.
In the animal world the olfactory system plays one of the most important roles to help animals to survive. In order to hunt, to recognize enemies and friendly species, smells warn them of potential danger. Humans perceive smells with each breath and while still inside of the womb their olfactory sensor is fully developed at the age of 7-8 months. But later humans lose half of these capacities. During the last two decades, doctors and researchers, from neuroscientists to the humanities, have sought to better understand the sense of smell, the way it shapes our everyday life, our emotions, feelings, our eating preferences, its role in creating memory and its functioning in our social interactions.
As part of The Festival of the New European Bauhaus, LASER Talks Brussels invites artist Peter De Cupere and scholar Piet Devos to discuss their work on the importance of smell in human and nonhuman interaction. The talk is moderated by Edith Doove and Alexandra Dementieva.
The Festival of the New European Bauhaus brings together people from all walks of life to debate and shape our future. A future that is sustainable, inclusive and beautiful. It is a great opportunity to network, exchange and celebrate — from science to art, from design to politics, from architecture to technology.
We also invite you to explore the program of the New European Bauhaus Festival (NEB).
SPEAKERS BIOS
Peter De Cupere is the most prolific and proactive proponent of olfactory art in the world and an expert in the field of the olfactory system. In collaboration with a number of visually impaired assistants he has developed a shared system of writing for the blind to create an olfactory alphabet, the ‘olfabet’.
Piet Devos is an author, translator and literary scholar. At the age of five he became blind due to retinal cancer. These experiences of illness and disability are very important for who he is today. They have shaped him as a person, as a writer and researcher, but also as an activist for a greener and more inclusive world.
Edith Doove (PhD) is a curator, writer and researcher, specifically interested in notions of emergence and contingency, cross and transdisciplinary collaborations.
Alexandra Dementieva is a multimedia artist. Like an explorer she raises questions related to social psychology and theories of perception suggesting solutions to them by contemporary artistic means.
Leonardo fosters transformation at the nexus of art, science and technology, because complex problems require creative solutions. We serve to empower an inclusive global network, a borderless community where all belong in pursuit of a more vibrant, just and regenerative world. A fearless pioneer since 1968, Leonardo serves as THE community forging a transdisciplinary network to convene, research, collaborate and disseminate best practices at the nexus of arts, science and technology worldwide.
Leonardo/ISAST LASER Talks are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of LASER is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building.
Adem asbl/vzw is Nonprofit organisation based in Brussels, Belgium. It develops and produces artistic creations and participates in the realization and artistic production of projects, covering all aspects of artistic creations, all disciplines and in particular multimedia, science, communication, journalism, it organizes events -talks, performances, exhibitions.
iMAL is a space for artistic practices around the creative and critical use of new technologies. iMAL connects a community of artists, thinkers, makers and citizens from Belgium and abroad and offers a completely renewed infrastructure to support a program focusing on research, production and presentation.
The Festival brings together people from all walks of life to debate and shape our future. A future that is sustainable, inclusive and beautiful. It is a great opportunity to network, exchange and celebrate – from science to art, from design to politics, from architecture to technology. The Festival brings the European Green Deal at the heart of our daily lives.
Founded in 2007, CYLAND is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding the intersection of Art :: Tech through an annual international festival, visual exhibitions, sound art, video art, and educational programming. CYLAND brings together artists, curators, technologists, educators, and thinkers to create innovative projects around the world.
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