London SE14 6NW
UK
The talk will be based on my new book, entitled “The expressive moment: how interaction (with music) shapes human empowerment.” (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016). The expressive moment in music is that point in time when we grasp a situation and respond quickly, even before we are aware of it. I argue that music drives this kind of interactive expressions and I propose a dynamic framework for understanding this type of expressive interaction. The focus is on dynamic, fast, and pre-reflective processes underlying synchronization, entrainment, sensorimotor prediction and expressive alignment with music. Based on examples (audio, video) drawn from empirical studies in my laboratory, I will explain why expressive interactions can be energizing and empowering. I argue that expressive interactions form the basis for human-animal interaction and (future) human-machine interaction.
Biography
Professor Marc Leman is research professor and pioneer in the cognitive science of music. He worked on tonality perception and then on embodied music cognition. He published more than 350 articles, and several books. His interdisciplinary lab is a lively meeting place for researchers working on expressive interactions with music, using embodiment, action science, and new technologies as a point of departure. He is laureate of the five-yearly FWO Excellence Award “Ernest-John Solvay” for Humanities (2015), and member of the Advisory Committee for Science Europe since 2016.