The Vox Lab Conversations

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The Vox Lab Conversations: Event Series Summary

Event Series: Three interdisciplinary conversations exploring voice, cognition, and affect

Primary Topics: Bodily voices and perception; affective vocal expression across cultures; inner voice and memory

Featured Speakers: Steven Connor (writer), Sophie Scott (neuroscientist), Denise Riley (poet), Disa Sauter (psychologist), Charles Fernyhough (psychologist/novelist), Shona Illingworth (filmmaker)

Dates & Locations: April 24, May 5, May 11, 2012 at Senate House, Birkbeck College, and Toynbee Studios, London

Academic Framework: Poetry residency at UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, funded by Wellcome Trust Arts Award

Intellectual Approach: Integrates humanities scholarship with neuroscience and psychology to examine voices as embodied, emotional, and cognitive phenomena

Key Inquiry Areas: Voice-body perception mismatch, cross-cultural emotion recognition, internal dialogue and selfhood

Bodily Voices
Tuesday 24 April 2012, 6.30-7.30 pm
The Court Room, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Have you ever formed an image of someone you’ve heard on the radio, and then been surprised when you saw what they actually looked like? Why do we notice other people’s accents, but not our own? Join writer Steven Connor and neuroscientist Sophie Scott for a discussion about voices and bodies.

Affective Voices
Saturday 5 May 2012, 3-4 pm
The Keynes Library, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD

We recognize laughs, screams and sobs in another language, but can we spot more subtle emotional signs in the voice of someone from a radically different culture? Is there a gap between how we read emotions on people’s faces and how we express them in our language? Poet Denise Riley and psychologist Disa Sauter discuss voices and emotions.

Interior Voices
Friday 11 May 2012, 7-8 pm
Artsadmin Café, Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street, London E1 6AB

Is our inner voice a private dialogue, and what might this tell us about how we think? How does it develop, and why are voices so evocative and powerful? Psychologist and novelist Charles Fernyhough and film-maker Shona Illingworth discuss these questions, and how sounds and voices affect our memories and our sense of self.

Further details and directions to all the events can be found at www.thevoxlab.org

These conversations are part of the Vox Lab, a poetry residency at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. The Vox Lab is funded by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award with support from the London Consortium. For more information please download The Vox Lab e-Flyer