The Royal Society Interface Focus~ June 2017~ A theme issue on convergent minds: the evolution of cognitive complexity in nature. 11 invited articles including The Captured Thought
Gestures of Repair for TATE MODERN~ with Kadir Attia, Nicky Clayton and Clive Wilkins
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~A R C H I V E
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In this four-part series, Nicky Clayton (Cambridge University) and Clive Wilkins (independent writer and artist) combine the powers of how we think and create – with how we move. Learn more about Nicky and Clive here.
“Movement ~ The Art of Conversation Without Words,” Nicky and Clive
Wed., Feb. 13, 2:00 pm, Main Dance Studio, Fine Arts Building
“Imagination ~ The Door to Identity,” Nicky and Clive Wed., Feb. 13, 7:00 pm, Berry Center 138 Reception: 6:00 pm, Berry Center Lobby Part of the UW Zoology/Physiology’s L. Floyd Clarke series
Can’t make it? Watch it on WyoCast!
“Ways of Thinking ~ From Crows to Children and Back again,” Nicky only Thurs., Feb. 14, 4:10 pm, Berry Center 138 Reception: 3:40 pm, Berry Center Lobby Part of the UW Zoology/Physiology’s L. Floyd Clarke series
Can’t make it? Watch it on WyoCast!
“In Search of the Creative Thought,” Clive only
Thurs., Feb. 14, 6:00 pm, Fine Arts Building Room 111
Events are sponsored by UW Art, UW Biodiversity Institute, UW Theater and Dance, and UW Zoology and Physiology
– See more at: http://www.uwyo.edu/biodiversity/events.html#sthash.c9ws3nEJ.dpuf
Norah Boyce Lecture
13 November
“Imagination: The Door to Identity”
Professor Nicola S. Clayton, FRS and Clive Wilkins
Nicky Clayton is Professor of Comparative Cognition in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge a Fellow of the Royal Society and Scientist in Residence at Rambert Dance Company.
Clive Wilkins is a creative writer, fine artist, performer and teacher living in the UK.
They share a passion for dancing Argentine Tango.
The ability to re-live our memories and imagine the future lies at the heart of humanity. It is the key to creativity and innovative problem solving and allows us to understand diverse realities. It forms the cornerstone of our identity, both individually and within society. Identity is not the same as a label, and this will be discussed.
The absence of the ability to engage in mental time travel is both striking and devastating, and fundamentally changes the way a person thinks. Are we unique among the animal kingdom in traveling mentally in time. Studies on animals create a window of opportunity to ask whether other alien minds might be capable of such feats. Such insight might open the door to new ways of thinking, providing a gateway to understanding alternative realities and ones beyond our own.
The Center for Cognition, Kinesthetics and Performance The University of Kent Jarman Kent CT2 7UG +44 (0)1227 827567
‘Imagination: The Door To Identity: A Collaboration Between Nicky Clayton and Clive Wilkins’
Wednesday 12 December, 5-6.30pm, Jarman Studio 2
The ability to re-live our memories and imagine the future lies at the heart of humanity. It is key to creativity and innovative problem solving. Artists have this ability in spades: but we all do it and on a daily basis. It allows us to understand diverse realities ~ to see alternative temporal and spatial perspectives, as well as the way in which others may see things similarly and differently to ourselves. It forms the cornerstone of our identity, both individually and within society. Identity is not the same as a label, and this will be discussed. Imagination is essential for considering future scenarios but in so doing it erodes our memories: for each time we retrieve the information we re-evaluate all that has gone before. This process is both disadvantageous and opportunistic in equal measure. The absence of the ability to engage in mental time travel is both striking and devastating, and fundamentally changes the way a person thinks. We see this exemplified in very young children and in patients with specific brain damage. The question can be asked whether we are unique among the animal kingdom in travelling mentally in time. Studies on animals create a window of opportunity to ask whether other alien minds might be capable of such feats. Such insight might open the door to new ways of thinking, providing a gateway to understanding alternative realities and ones beyond our own.
Nicky Clayton is the Professor of Comparative Cognition and a University Teaching Officer in the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Clare College. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2010. Her expertise as a scientist lies in the contemporary study of how animals and children think. This work has led to a re-evaluation of the cognitive capacities of animals, particularly birds, and resulted in a theory that intelligence evolved independently in at least two distantly related groups, the apes and the crows. She has also pioneered new procedures for the experimental study of memory and imagination in animals, investigating its relationship to human memory and consciousness, and how and when these abilities develop in young children. In addition to scientific research and teaching, she is a dancer, specializing in tango and salsa. She is also Scientist in Residence at the Rambert Dance Company, collaborating with Mark Baldwin, the Artitsitc Director, on new choreographic works inspired by science (Comedy of Change, 2009; Seven For A Secret Never To Be Told, 2011; What Wild Ecstasy, 2012). Her most recent collaboration with artist Clive Wilkins arose out of their mutual interest in imagination, and its consequences for consciousness, identity and memory. They also regularly dance tango together.
Clive Wilkins has worked as a fine art painter and has exhibited widely, including at the National Portrait Gallery, London on several occasions. He has also exhibited at the Royal Academy and in private galleries in Cork Street, London – where he had a one man show in 2007. His work can be found in public and private collections. Clive has produced portraits of Sir Howard Hodgkin and Sir Peter Blake amongst others and has been presented publicly to HRH Princess Royal. His writing and paintings have been in print on numerous occasions, most notably in his published work ‘The Creatures in the Night”, a story written and lavishly illustrated by Wilkins in 2008. His current project, ‘Moustachio’, is a novel in four parts, of which parts 1 & 2 are complete. It explores imagination and questions aspects of consciousness and reality amidst the miasma of being. He currently lives in the heart of England. In addition to writing, he continues to be a painter, teacher, performer and tango dancer.
RI Lecture given by Professor Nicola Clayton FRS and Clive Wilkins
Royal Institution Friday Evening Discourse: 26th October 2012
Professor of Comparative Cognition, Nicola Clayton, gave a lecture which covered topics ranging from identity to mental time travel, in collaboration with fine 
artist Clive Wilkins, at the Royal Institution last Friday as part of the Friday Evening Discourse series. Nicola and Clive have established a unique collaboration in order to explore and better understand the subjective experience of thinking, by comparing and contrasting their methods of enquiry into the world around them, informed by science, the arts and the act of being.
Listen to Nicola and Clive talking to Camila Ruz about the subjects covered in the joint lecture on this Guardian podcast. The Royal Institution audio archive of the discourse is available here.
To read more about Nicola’s work, see the webpages of the Comparative Cognition Lab.
Royal Institution Discourse. IMAGINATION~ THE DOOR TO IDENTITY
The ability to re-live our memories and imagine the future lies at the heart of humanity. It is key to creativity and innovative problem solving. Artists have this ability in spades: but we all do it and on a daily basis. It allows us to understand diverse realities ~ to see alternative temporal and spatial perspectives, as well as the way in which others may see things similarly and differently to ourselves. It forms the cornerstone of our identity, both individually and within society. Identity is not the same as a label, and this will be discussed.
Imagination is essential for considering future scenarios but in so doing it erodes our memories: for each time we retrieve the information we re-evaluate all that has gone before. This process is both disadvantageous and opportunistic in equal measure.
The absence of the ability to engage in mental time travel is both striking and devastating, and fundamentally changes the way a person thinks. We see this exemplified in very young children and in patients with specific brain damage. The question can be asked whether we are unique among the animal kingdom in travelling mentally in time.
Studies on animals create a window of opportunity to ask whether other alien minds might be capable of such feats. Such insight might open the door to new ways of thinking, providing a gateway to understanding alternative realities and ones beyond our own.
Tickets: Free to Members, Faraday and Fellows, £10 Associates and £15 guests
If you haven’t been before, you should bear in mind that FEDs are by tradition formal occasions, and while evening dress is not obligatory, it is customary. Smart dress is acceptable.
Make a night of it! Come for a cocktail or something delicious, modern and British to eat. The bar and café at the Ri has the perfect atmosphere for a night out.
Listen to the audio archive of this event:
