Debate discussing culture and human creativity, at The Royal Institute of GB and hosted by the University of Sussex.

An expert panel will examine how creativity plays a pivotal part in society, discuss the creativity of people affected by mental illness or neurological disease and ask what we know - or can know - of the brain mechanisms that produce creative behaviour.

The debate will be chaired by Dr Mark Lythgoe, Director of the Centre for Advance Biomedical Imaging at University College London. Panellists include:

• Carol Steen a world-renowned artist and a synaesthete who sees letters and numbers as colours and sublimely captures her combined senses in her paintings
• Professor Ernest Edmonds from the University of Technology, Sydney who is an international expert on human-computer interaction and creativity and a practising artist
• Professor Chris Frith from University College London, who helped found the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL

Leading academics for Sussex University -  Dr Anil Seth, Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness,  Margaret A Boden a Cognitive Science Professor, who helped developed the world’s first academic programme in AI and cognitive science and Dr Jamie Ward, one of the world’s leading experts in synaesthesia will respond to the panellists examining questions including: 

• What do we mean by creativity and can machines be creative?
• Does creativity depend on conscious or unconscious processes?
• How does seeing the world differently lead to creative insights?

Date: Thursday 26 April 2012

Time: 18:00 – 19:30

Venue: The Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS http://www.rigb.org/contentControl?action=displayContent&id=1870

The event is part of a series of Sussex Conversations being held to honour the University’s 50^th anniversary. If you would like to attend or have any questions, please feel free to get in touch. You can also follow and watch the debate live on Twitter and submit questions in advance via #SussexConvo / http://www.sussex.ac.uk/fiftyyears/sussexconversations/mindandbrain