Department of Computer Science

METROPOLIS: AN EXTREME AND HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT Gordana Novakovic artist-in-residence University College London (UCL)

The technology saturated city Science…and neuroscience Paul Bach-y-Rita Neuroplasticity and the city Neuroplasticity and art

The technology saturated city Tokyo: Shibuya Square at night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFL94cytu2E

New York: Times Square at night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPx6QaJk93k&feature=related

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Science The digitally enabled metropolis has created a new ecology within and beyond the visual and auditory spectra. The changes are on a scale and at a speed that have never before occurred. Medical science has looked at some effects on health.

Health and the metropolis Known: potentially damaging effects of urban noise, air pollution, perpetual artificial light, rhythmically flashing lights… Unknown: possible effects of so-called electrosmog - waves of different kinds produced by new wireless technologies – mobile phones, Bluetooth, WiFi, WiMax, etc.

An unanswered question

But exactly how, and how much, does living in a modern metropolis affect our cognition? We do not have much scientific evidence, because cognitive science has shown little interest in the question.

Neuroscience The answer to the question may come from neuroscience. It is now yielding evidence that may revolutionise the science of cognition, and give us a deeper understanding of the powerful impacts of the environment on cognition.

Neuroplasticity The new factor is the discovery of neuroplasticity – the brain’s capacity for actively rewiring itself through its interaction with the environment. Norman Doidge: The Brain That Changes Itself (Viking 2007) is a road-map for connecting neuroscience and culture

"We don't see with our eyes, we see with our brains.“ Paul Bach-y-Rita (1934–2006) Bach-Y-Rita worked closely with technical experts to construct electronic devices that would enable the brain of a patient with severe neurological problems to recover the lost functions. His key method was to provide the patient's brain with the missing information through a different sensory channel – and let it rewire itself.

Evolution of Bach-y-Rita’s idea: dental chair with tactile display (Bach-y-Rita, 1969)

Cheryl Schiltz: a woman who lost vestibular capacity

Now watch this excerpt from CBS News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKd56D2mvN0

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Neuroplasticity and the city Neuroplasticity will be able to tell us how the extreme and hostile environment of the digitally enabled metropolis is rewiring our brains, and changing our cognition. We created the city – and now the city is recreating our brains. Soon we will at least know what we have done to ourselves; maybe then we will face up to our responsibilities in choosing our future.

Insights: Paul Virilio accelerated changes, globalisation and global militarization, mediated perception and the new forms of alienation… Glossary: information bomb, info-war, dromology, chronopolitics, world-time, virtualisation, world-city, glocalisation, synchronisation of emotion, metacity…

Insights: Peter Watkins “…the Monoform ... spatial fragmentation, repetitive time rhythms, constantly moving camera, rapid staccato editing, dense bombardment of sound, and lack of silence or reflective space, play a dominant and aggressive role…”

Insights: Norman Doidge “It is the form of the television medium – cuts, edits, zooms, pans and sudden noises – that alters the brain, by activating what Pavlov called the ‘orienting response’, which occurs whenever we sense a sudden change in the world around us, especially a sudden movement. […] The response is physiological [...]” (p309, italics in original)

A manifesto for Neuroplastic art It brings a fascinating opportunity to fuse scientific knowledge about brain with imagination to create platforms for experiences that have never existed before, and give rise to an entirely new art form: neuroplastic art. We can envisage art works that will transcend today's mere fascination with stateof-the-art technology, and use both technology and brain science as a means to express ideas; even, perhaps, uncover new and benign ways of linking our brains with, and through, technology... Gordana Novakovic, November, 2007