INTERFACE: Cognitive Science
How does perception connect to bodily action? What happens when your perceptual system changes? How can art and science each help us make meaning from those shifts?
Choreographer Heidi Latsky and Brett Fajen, who is an associate dean at RPI and a professor in cognitive science, join for a conversation on movement science, the brain’s perceptual functions, and how the body adapts to change.
Fajen’s research on perception, action, visual control, and movement in complex environments opens questions on how learning takes place in the body and how the body adapts to changing situations and perceptual systems. Alongside a screening from her documentary film, Living in the Grey (2025), which shares dancers’ experiences of non-apparent neurological disabilities impacting information processing, movement control, and sensory input, Latsky discusses how perception functions in her creative process.
Together, they find the overlaps of their creative and research projects, and the possibilities for intuitive knowledge to influence how we understand the brain and body.
Stay afterwards for refreshments and informal conversation at Evelyn’s Café.
Main Image: Brett Fajen, courtesy the speaker; Heidi Latsky, courtesy the artist.
Dates + Tickets
This event is one of many supported each year with funds from the NYS DanceForce, a partnership program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. The NYS DanceForce is a network of volunteer arts activists who since 1995 have used these funds and their own creative energies to design projects that connect diverse dance artists and communities across the state. www.danceforce.org
