Dr. Hamer received his B.S. in Biology at CCNY in New York (1971) and his Ph.D. in Sensory Neuroscience at the Institute for Sensory Research in the College of Engineering at Syracuse University (1979). His doctoral work focused on the tactile senses, but his postdoctoral work was a deep-dive into investigations of the visual development of human infants that led to a 35-year career of discovery of the visual capabilities of infants – development of color vision, visual acuity, sensitivity to visual contrast, motion sensitivity and binocular vision. In parallel with infant studies, Dr. Hamer has researched many aspects of visual function in adults, elucidating some fundamental aspects of spatio-temporal processing in our visual experience. Later in his career his research turned to the study of how photoreceptors in the retina convert light energy into a bioelectrical signal that can be transmitted to the brain. For 7 years, Dr. Hamer continued this research and teaching in the Psychology Department at the University of SãoPaulo, in SãoPaulo, Brazil.
In addition to Dr. Hamer’s scientific career, he gives lectures on the evolution of modern popular Cuban music and has taught Cuban Salsa dance and a Cuban dance form called Rueda de Casino for more than two decades.
He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Psychology Department at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. Always an appreciator of art, music and dance, his lectures on Sensation & Perception always began with examples of visual art, especially pieces by the great Belgian Surrealist, Rene Magritte, that are both aesthetically captivating and replete with clues about the processes of perce. Over the past several years, Dr. Hamer has inspired artists and scientists alike with his analyses of Magritte’s works and what secrets they reveal about how the visual brain processes visual scenes, and how it is able to rapidly, unconsciously ‘construct’ robust 3D scenes from 2-dimensional depictions on a canvas. It turns out that the surreal aspects of Magritte’s work provide potent clues about the ‘brain-rules’, the hierarchy of visual processing, governing perceptual scene organization.
Tiffany Trenda is an award-winning new media performance artist. Her work explores the relationship of the female body to today’s ever-changing technologies by interchanging her identity with screens to represent how we conceal and reveal ourselves through our devices.
She received her BFA from Art Center College of Design and her MFA from UCLA Design and Media Arts program. In 2009, she introduced “Entropy” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She was invited to perform at the 2010 World Expo, in Shanghai, China at the British Pavilion. She also performed at Broad Art Museum, Architecture + Design Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Art Exhibitions, Boulder Contemporary Art Museum, and the Italian Cultural Institute. Trenda was included in the performance program at the Metamorphoses of the Virtual – 100 Years of Art and Freedom during the 55th annual Venice Biennale. Trenda has exhibited at the Faena Art Center in Buenos Aires for the highly publicized show, “Auto Body,” and her work was included in the special projects section for Context Art Miami. In 2017 she exhibited at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City and was on a panel for SXSW.
More recently, her work was included in “Neotopia” at Art Center Nabi in South Korea, Brand Library and Art Center, and the Alliance of Women in Media Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Barbara. Trenda’s work is in the permeant collection of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
Michael Torke’s music has been commissioned by such orchestras as The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony; by such ballet companies as New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey, and the National Ballet of Canada; by such opera companies as the Metropolitan Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, and the English National Opera; by such large ensembles as the London Sinfonietta, Lontano, and De Volharding; and such small ensembles as the Smith, Ying, and Amstel Quartets.
He has worked with such conductors as Simon Rattle, Kurt Mazur, Edo de Waart, and David Zinman; such choreographers as Christopher Wheeldon, James Kudelka, and Juri Kilian; and collaborated with such librettists as A. R. Gurney, Michael Korie, and Mark Campbell; and such directors as Des McAnuff, Bart Sher, and Michael Greif.
He has been commissioned by entities such as the Walt Disney Company, and Absolute Vodka; worked with such soloists as Tessa Lark, Christopher O’Reilly, and Joyce Castle; and written incidental music to such companies as The Public Theater, The Old Globe Theater, and Classic Stage Company; and been composer in residence with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Beginning his career with exclusive contracts with Boosey and Hawkes, and Decca Records, he now controls his own copyrights and masters through his publishing company, Adjustable Music, and record company, Ecstatic Records.
His music has been called “some of the most optimistic, joyful and thoroughly uplifting music to appear in recent years” (Gramophone). Hailed as a “vitally inventive composer” (Financial Times) and “a master orchestrator whose shimmering timbral palette makes him the Ravel of his generation” (New York Times), Torke has created a substantial body of works in virtually every genre.
Psychologist & Liaison to Russia
Anton Dorso (Russia)
Anton Dorso is a Moscow-based linguist and psychologist. He received a full specialist degree in linguistics and language acquisition and studied for a post-graduation degree (Candidate of Sciences) in psychology at Moscow Pedagogical State University, with a dissertation on individual differences in people with synaesthesia. His research focuses on general psychological and neurocognitive aspects of synaesthesia, synaesthetic mechanisms as viewed in the frameworks of cultural-historical psychology and cognitive anthropology. Additionally, he is the co-editor of the Leonardo Bibliography list: Synaesthesia in Art and Science of the interdisciplinary journal Leonardo (MIT).
Anton has served on the board of the Artecittà Foundation as its International Coordinator since 2012, and is a member of the editorial board of the international Synesthesia Journal (Artecitta). He also founded the Russian Synaesthesia Community and monitors its web-resource synaesthesia.ru. and initiated and manages the data-base of Russian-speaking synaesthetes (now approx. 800 people). Anton translated and adapted the Russian-language version of the worldwide multilingual online synaesthesia test of the Eagleman Lab (Baylor College of Medicine) and the Consistency Test of Synaesthesia (MatLab Syntools). He is also a co-author of “Ananthropology of synaesthesia”, author and developer of Synaesthesia Quotient and a related multi-scale test battery. Additionally he assisted and participated as key speaker in the production of science documentaries on the senses and synaesthesia.
Anton is also head of the synaesthesia research group at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research of Contemporary Childhood of the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education.
Steve Keller is Sonic Strategy Director for Studio Resonate, an in-house audio-first creative consultancy offering support to brands that advertise on the Pandora, SiriusXM, Stitcher, and Soundcloud platforms.
Steve is recognized as one of the leading experts in the field of sonic strategy and identity. With a head for data and a heart for sonic expression, he actively engages in collaborative research projects, exploring the power of sound to shape perception and influence behavior. His research covers a broad range of topics that include an examination of the relationship between sound and taste (conducted with Oxford’s Crossmodal Research Laboratory), an exploration into the existence of audio archetypes (conducted with Goldsmiths University London), demonstrating the effects of source bias on evaluations of music aesthetics and worth (conducted with Technische Universität Berlin), and how music, soundscapes and noise in healthcare environments affect patience outcomes and satisfaction (with Oxford’s Charles Spence). Steve is also a part of the think tank serving Chef Jozef Youssef’s London based Kitchen Theory, where he lends his sonic expertise to the development of gastrophysics experiences for brands and consumers alike.
An in-demand speaker, Steve is often found sharing his insights at conferences (MIDEM, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, TEDx, Eurobest, Dubai Lynx, Transform Hong Kong, Transform London, Neuromarketing World Forum, Shopperbrain, Neurocamp, Forum Acusticum), professional and academic organizations (AMA, ESCOM, SMPC, ABA, ASA) and universities around the world.
In addition to his degree in Psychology, Steve has over 25 years of experience in the music industry as a producer, remixer, composer, independent label executive, music publisher and manager. He is a recipient of the iHeartMedia Scholarship for Leadership in Audio Innovation, and is currently completing an Executive MBA through the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, where his thesis is focusing on racialized listening, the impact of a “sonic color line,” on marketing and industry practices.
Dr. Diana Reiss is a cognitive psychologist, marine mammal scientist, and professor in the Department of Psychology at Hunter College and the Animal Behavior and Comparative Psychology Doctoral program at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the Co-Director of the Animal Behavior and Conservation MA and Certificate Program in the Psychology Department of Hunter College. The focus of the lab is on dolphin cognition and communication, comparative animal cognition, and the evolution of intelligence.
Dr. Reiss pioneered the use of an interactive underwater keyboard system with dolphins and they demonstrated unexpected levels of self-organized learning while using it to exert choice and control. She and her colleagues also demonstrated that bottlenose dolphins and Asian elephants) possess the rare ability for mirror self-recognition, previously considered unique to humans and great apes.
In a collaborative research program, M2C2, Dr. Reiss and Co-Director Dr. Marcelo Magnasco, Professor and head of the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience at Rockefeller University, and their labs are focusing on marine mammal communication and cognition. The research is conducted with dolphins at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD and at field sites in Belize and Bimini. By providing dolphins at the aquarium with choice and control we aim to further understand and elucidate their vocal learning and other cognitive abilities. Our aim is to develop new approaches for visual-acoustic tracking of dolphins to enable us to understand and decipher signal structure, organization and social function of their vocal repertoires. This involves extensive data collection and analysis efforts.
Dr. Reiss is currently working on the team at the National Aquarium to build the first dolphin sanctuary for the animals in their care. With Peter Gabriel, Vint Cerf, and Neil Gershenfeld, she is a co-founder of the Interspecies Internet. Dr. Reiss’s efforts also include the rescue and rehabilitation of stranded marine mammals, including the rescue operation of Humphrey, the Humpback whale that wandered into the Bay area in 1985 and captured international attention. She applies her research in advocating for global protection for dolphins and whales and bringing an end to the killing of dolphins in the drive hunts in Japan that were exposed in the Oscar winning film The Cove. Dr. Reiss’s work has been published in in numerous international and national journals and featured in science magazines, television segments and features, and newspaper articles. In her book The Dolphin in the Mirror, released in 2011, she shares her personal and professional experiences with what she calls “magnificent minds in the water.”
SERENE is a self-taught concert pianist, synaesthete, computer scientist, and AI researcher. Though she never attended conservatory, she has become one of the most talked-about young talents in classical music, with her performances described as “spectacles to match the New York Philharmonic” (The Paris Review). Recently, Serene’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 — widely regarded as the notorious “Mount Everest of piano” — with the National Macedonian Philharmonic was described as unprecedented, and she has appeared as soloist with various orchestras.
When not touring, Serene often collaborates with other artists on unique projects, such as Kanye West’s Opera which premiered at Lincoln Center and Art Basel, and her latest collaboration with Blue Man Group founder Chris Wink and AREA15, bringing futuristic and innovative intersections of music and technology into reality.
Serene was previously a researcher and engineer for Google, before leaving to focus on music. As a technologist, she has had quite a few projects, including her recent collaboration with Gergely Bogányi on a unique grand piano built of carbon-fiber (Grand Prestige B-292 Bogányi Piano “Bat Piano”) as described in The Guardian, and partnered in bringing the first of this next-generation instrument to the US.
With her intersections of many aesthetics, discipline, and spiritual approach, she has found an international following. (You can follow her adventures on instagram / @serenepianist) She has been described as having the “ability to enthrall audiences” (SFCM) and as such, she has performed in a wide range of venues, from concert halls like Vienna’s Musikverein to unconventional stages with full orchestras in Golden Gate Park, and even a decommissioned Boeing 747. Previously she lived on a sailboat for a few years, and rides motorcycles.
Dance Ethnography
Kate Spanos (USA)
Kate Spanos, Ph.D., is a dancer, educator, scholar, and arts administrator. She is an Irish dancer with an MA Irish dance performance from the University of Limerick. She also has experience in a variety of other percussive dance forms, as well as Brazilian movement forms including capoeira, frevo, and samba. Her ethnographic scholarship focuses on “dances of resistance” and social change through dance, especially in Brazil, Ireland, and the Eastern Caribbean (Montserrat). She was a postdoctoral Fulbright scholar in Recife, Brazil in 2018, where she studied frevo and other popular dances from Recife. She is also a synesthete (color-grapheme and colored rhythms) with a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia, where she completed a senior thesis about the effect of synesthetically induced colors on perceptual organization.
She is an adjunct instructor at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches courses in dance ethnography and subversive cultures, which highlight the power of the arts to build and enact change for communities around the world. She is the marketing and communications coordinator for the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, where she amplifies the artistic and scholarly work of faculty, students, and staff. She is also co-founder and president of EducArte, a Maryland-based non-profit organization with a mission to create educational cultural arts programming and to open spaces for cultural expression by artists and their communities on their own terms.
Bob Milne is considered to be the best ragtime/boogie-woogie pianist in the world. He was filmed and documented for future generations in 2004 during three days of interviews at the Library of Congress, and was declared a “National Treasure” at the conclusion.
Mr. Milne is has been a “Musical Ambassador” for the United States Dept. of State, and has performed numerous times in Japan, including the Okinawan Islands and Hokkaido. He has also performed in this capacity for members of the Swiss Parliament at the U.S. Embassy in Berne.
Mr. Milne’s natural ability to hear and play music goes back to his early childhood. He makes the statement, “I knew how to play a piano long before I ever started. Just push down the notes you hear and the instrument will play itself. Can’t everyone do this?” He considers either looking at music or practicing to be “cheating.”
A French horn player in High School, he went to the prestigious Eastman School of Music at the age of 17, and then became assistant First Horn in the Rochester Philharmonic at age 19. After symphony concerts the students all went and hung out in local places. When the piano player didn’t show up at a sing-a-long saloon one night, Mr. Milne “filled in.” They hired him on the spot. He continued playing the horn until age 21, then became a full time piano player in the Detroit area, playing seven nights a week for twenty five years.
Playing in concert halls now since 1991, Mr. Milne plays worldwide every year. A comment often heard following one of his performances is, “unbelievable.” He teaches music history at various universities around the country, and is also the founder and director of the Frankenmuth Ragtime Festival in Michigan.
The list of music festivals he’s appeared at is extensive. They include the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival (Sedalia, Missouri), the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Eau Claire Ragtime Festival, Sacramento Ragtime Festive, plus many others.
Mr. Milne has been averaging somewhere in the area of 250 performances per year. He is highly sought after for both his incredible piano playing and easy going, modest presentations. He claims, “If I have been given any ability at all it, is my duty to honor it by trying to improve that ability every time I perform.”
Mr. Milne is also the founder of the Michigan Music Retreat, a four-day event held in his hometown every September during which he teaches music and music history to students of all ages. “You can’t educate a piano,” he says, “but you can educate yourself to know everything about it.”
Jenn Laskey, also known as “L.A.’s Key”, a USC alumni with a degree in communication & theater (2003), has 19 years experience in all facets of nightlife, special events, weddings, marketing, and the hospitality industry, serving as a prolific venue event director, planner, producer, designer, wedding planner, P.R. liaison, hospitality & nightlife consultant, promoter, marketing expert, creative director, venue location scout, and filming location expert.
With a passion for innovative and inspiring entertainment, theater, artful design, and music, along with a natural talent for conceiving, creating and executing fantastic experiential events of all kinds, Laskey launched RedLight Special Events & Promotions in January 2002 to bring all her industry assets and networks together with the goal of providing Angelenos a constant & refreshing dose of affecting & exceptional nightlife.
Evolving from nightlife roots, today Jenn and RedLight are widely regarded as one of the most tastefully influential and poignantly powerful full-service boutique event planning, production, and design entities in Los Angeles. She works with over 250 venues on a freelance level (and many more closely), all of whom benefit greatly from the alliance. Laskey is highly sought after by media, friends, & clients alike as an event maestro and influential tastemaker exposing her audience to the newest, most highly desired and unique venues, special events, art, architecture, design, fashion, cultural happenings, products and services aligned with her hip, creative & artistic flair. She is indeed “LA’s Key”.
For venues and clients, she and RedLight provide the rare and convenient luxury of a vertically integrated ‘One Stop Shop Solution’ for all needs associated with the entire process she calls venue + event matchmaking which includes: scouting, negotiating, booking, then to follow with event planning, promoting, and producing everything from small and intimate mixers or dinner parties to multi-million dollar A- List productions. A venue + event matchmaker in her own right, She saves clients both time and money due to her vast experience and close personal relationships with owners, managers, and event directors at both the top restaurant and club hotspots as well as the most charming hidden gem wedding and event spaces.
One of her main services is as a dedicated Venue Event Director, where along with her vast event client Rolodex, she brings the added benefit of her marketing, promotions, Rockstar event planning/management, and creative direction expertise. Since 2005 and beyond Laskey has made venue event direction a huge part of her business and track record of success. In a nutshell, she will handle a venue’s event sales by both handling closing the deal on a venue’s incoming leads and coordinating their events coupled with directing a large array of her personal friends and event clients to these featured venues. She has had great success putting new venues events departments on the map from pre-opening phase as well as reviving venues that are a few years old and need a new revenue stream of special events and creating or propelling filmings divisions with all of her industry and locations contacts. Laskey also has curated contacts with the best planners and entertainment execs in charge of their companies planning, and can expose venues to their dream clientele at the drop of a hat. Jenn is very selective with the venues she will represent for event sales, but when she does choose one the increase in revenues and word of mouth popularity are almost immediate and always far reaching and residual effects last for years to come.
Laskey and her company currently hold the title of Director of Special Events for a prestigious
restaurant/ bar /event & wedding space Madera Kitchen since their opening in May of 2014 when
she created an event department for what was set out to be a restaurant, now hitting over $1.5M
per year in event sales (www.maderakitchen.com). She additionally oversees the event division
for Westwood restaurant /event space gem, Fellow (www.fellow.la). In her portfolio of past
venues she has event directed she showcases: The 1933 Group (who owns 10 artful bars: Harlowe,
Sassafras, the attic at Sassafras, Bigfoot East, Bigfoot West, Oldfield’s, The Thirsty Crow, Highland
Park Bowl, Idle Hour, and La Cuevita), Plant Food + Wine, Spear Steak & Seafood House, Sadie
Kitchen & Lounge, The Dolce Group (Geisha House, Beso, Wonderland, Lemon Basket, Angels &
Kings), Takami Sushi + Elevate Lounge, Beach Nation, Boomtown Brewery, Ecco Ultralounge, Blue
Velvet Restaurant, 86, Wolfslair, Level3, and Brasserie Les Voyous.
A newer accolade of Jenn’s is creating and overseeing an uber successful boutique wedding
division at restaurant/ bar Madera Kitchen in Hollywood. What started as an experiment has now
turned into 70-100 weddings a year at her main client/ venue. Jenn was uniquely poised to do this
with her event sales background coupled with being able to provide that one stop shop with her
wedding brands coordination packages. With what may have been an unlikely wedding
location, Jenn, her team assistant coordinators, and the Madera team created a turnkey offering
to provide a beautiful indoor/ outdoor space for weddings up to 150 guests that also offer
wedding coordination, rentals, gourmet food, open bar, and staff all under one package. They
are now very sought after and have appeared in a number of wedding blogs. This also provides
consistent revenue and new business exposure for Madera, now a well-oiled machine after 6.5
years, it runs well with minimal oversight due to the systems Jenn put in place and her reputation I
the wedding biz.
Beyond playing matchmaker between top venues and event clients, Laskey’s passion is in working
with people in all budget ranges to carefully plan every detail of their event and to see that it is
seamlessly executed from start to finish. After years of careful curation, Laskey’s role carries over
to vendor matchmaking, as she works with the event & venue owners/managers, catering
partners, bar teams/ mixologists, graphic designers, event designers, production and rental
companies, DJs, Bands, experiential entertainment, and more to provide clients with the tools
needed to create an affecting and mesmerizing experience. Some of her most popular areas of
event work include: film premieres, wrap parties, record release parties, corporate and
entertainment company holiday parties, weddings, birthdays small and large, engagements,
anniversaries, product launches, venue opening parties, liquor company event marketing,
bat/bar mitzvahs, fashion shows, fashion branding events, charity galas, fundraisers, and various
performance art events.
Event management and day/month of coordination is an essential part of each event’s success
but so often is a forgotten line item on today’s event budgets, which can be a costly mistake.
Having someone with 19 years of event planning and production experience coupled with intense
understanding of both the front and back of house in the hospitality industry to oversee and
manage your event will give you the peace of mind that everything will run smoothly. With a
creative eye and design expertise, RedLight’s Jenn Laskey is the perfect person to make sure your
event looks and runs perfectly from set up to strike.
Jenn currently has strong relationships with over 250 venues and is always finding new alliances
(restaurants, bars, lounges, nightclubs, event spaces, loft/warehouses, historic landmarks, &
wedding venues, private estates) in all parts of Los Angeles making the process of producing an
event with her much more pleasant for all parties considered. She is constantly in-tune with industry
news, new venue openings and has an array of special architecturally significant and unique
locations, available to clients for multi-media use such as still photo/film & T.V. productions, and
events of all size and scope. Laskey has also utilized her many resources with top location scouts/
mgrs. And location agencies coupled with great marketing and content creation or create or
propel new venues into the filming landscape which can be such big revenue here in LA (and
higher profitability of course).
A thriving division of Laskey’s company includes Weddings by Jennifer Laskey. Jenn is quickly
becoming the leader in creative, artistic, non-traditional, and low-mid budget weddings, with over
400 weddings under her belt since 2007. Jenn does full service planning: from venue scouting and
contract negotiation, to referring and coordinating vendors at special rates, to event design, to
overall artistic direction, and of course making sure everything is beautiful and runs perfectly –
handling the run of show or stage managing the day of the wedding. Jenn has also worked with
an array day/week/month of wedding coordination clients & full service planning and design
clients alike. Additionally, she also has partnerships and serves as the event & wedding planning
expert and to go-to producer for many private owners homes & estates. She also served as the
past wedding planner and site logistics manager for Malibu estate wedding Venue Rancho
Chiquita for 4 years before the owner retired from 17 years in the wedding business.
Laskey and her partner at Archetype Hospitality and Development have more recently been
tapped by top real estate investors and developers to partner or work on management deals to
provide a turnkey solutions to create and run event departments and oversee hospitality
operations. Her partner Archetype brings a wide range of complementary skills to the table from
government / hospitality consulting, working with expeditors on all pre opening permits, built out,
kitchen design, HR, staffing, compliance, lobbying, and overall operations expertise and
management. In 2019 they partnered/ consulted on a prospective adaptive reuse project which
was an mixed use building with an event space in Pasadena housed in a former 1920s Spanish
gothic church. A more long term dream come true, in the works since 2019, and launching in
2021, She and Archetype also have a partnership in the development, operations, and event
sales/event direction for a new Culver city rooftop event and filming space they have been a
part of since construction and pre-opening phase, called Palm Sophia Rooftop
(www.palmsophia.com). The dynamic duo are handling everything for the real estate owner
partner on this lucrative joint venture.
On the event marketing front, Laskey and Redlight also provide targeted branding & marketing
solutions as well as traditional and unconventional P.R. services via her Visionaire Marketing & PR
Group. Corporate brands flock to Laskey and Redlight for their launch parties and tastemaker
event initiatives not only because of her professionalism and operational expertise, but more
importantly her powerful e-mail list & loyal social media following coupled with her impeccable
reputation, leverage and precise reach to the influencer crowd & entertainment industry elite.
With a tight grasp on each particular clients specific needs, Laskey puts the right people in the
right space at the right time, with continued and far-reaching marketing effects.
With her background in music, theater, & performance, Jenn has always had a strong passion for
the arts and the incorporation of these elements into nightlife. With these skills, she has created
unique and influential events such as “Lust Affair”, “Art-Effect”, & “BodyRock”. With her finely tuned
ear and experience in A&R, talent scouting (Interscope Records), and music management
(Benchmark Entertainment), she has also taken the initiative to collaborate with top DJ’s and
music producers to release a special RedLight music compilation each year.
Her newest venture, Salvage Beauty Design Co. was inspired by her great passion for the ethereal,
gorgeous and iconic architecture & design of the early 20th century and with several projects in
the works already, including historic restoration and turn-key interior design for both hospitality,
commercial and residential clients, as well as event design, Jenn is excited to bring yet another
element of her creativity and talent to the Los Angeles stage. Some of her work has been
published on apartment Therapy, Romantic Homes Magazine, and Harper’s Bazaar online, and
featured her 1909 historic home design as the backdrop for music videos Terror Junior’s “Pretty”,
R.Lumur’s “Cold”, Carole’s Daughter’s “Violent”, numerous horror genre tv shows and films, and
photo shoots for, French fashion line Enfants Riches de Primes, Emmy Magazine, KushQueen, and
Jeremy ray Taylor for Saturne Mag.
Laskey strongly believes restaurants, nightlife and special events should be unique & experiential,
effectively transporting guests to another place and time, thereby leaving a lasting impression.
She plans to continue pushing the envelope through her events and marketing, tirelessly working
as an entrepreneurial maven to create all stylistic and design elements of more event spaces,
with amazing partnerships down the line!
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Some of RedLight’s most noteworthy event planning and creative marketing clients include, OWN,
Ellen, Pabst, Shed Media, FarFetch, AirBnB, Native instruments, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, AMC, Fox,
Warner Brothers, NBC-Universal, Paramount, Neyo, Rihanna, Quincy Jones, Maybach, Lionsgate,
Magical Elves, Chiat-Day, Jones Day, Union Bank, Create Advertising, Complex Media Group,
Sundance Institute, Sofia Coppola, MTV, VH1, Bravo, E!, HBO, Lighthearted Entertainment, Shine
America, Key & Peele, Tosh.O, Casual, Westworld, Shark Tank, Angie Tribeca, Price is Right, The
Conjuring 2, Veronica Mars, Fear the Walking Dead, Boshe, Pee Wee Movie, Chivas, Macallan,
Malibu Rum, Jose Cuervo, Microsoft, The Boston Consulting Group, YPO, Intel, Smashbox Studios,
Cristophe Salon Beverly Hills, EA Games, America Idol, Disney, Nickelodeon, Dreamworks, The
Recording Academy/ Grammys, Kyocera, MLB (Major League Baseball), The Entrepreneurs
Organization, KW Realty, BRC Advisors, USC, UCLA, NYU, Harvard, Stanford, Southwestern Law,
Royal Order Jewelry, Media Temple, Dewar’s, Metromix.com, Interscope, Geffen, A&M Records,
Sony Music, Epitpah Records, MediaBistro, PR Newswire, & New Wave Entertainment.
Redlight has retained many marketing & PR clients including; Sadie Kitchen & Lounge, Royal
Order Jewelry, Cristophe Salon, Takami Sushi, Elevate Lounge, Chin Chin, Gobi Mongolian BBQ,
Cafe 50s, Wokcano, Vinolio, 86 & Brasserie Les Voyous and has thus developed amazing P.R &
creative marketing skills & strategies. Via Visionaire PR group, Jenn has a myriad of special event
collateral in her portfolio including highlighted features in; Angeleno Magazine, LA Times,
Metromix, Brand X, UrbanDaddy, 944, Thrillist, Daily Candy, the Rundown, LA.com, Los Angeles
Magazine, Apartment Therapy, LA Confidential, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and more.
Her most notable event productions to date include; Maybach Icons of Luxury x Quincy Jones
Launch event, Roy Choi x Madera Kitchen’s hot Cheetos pop up “The Flamin Hotspot”, her
birthday party and event showcase at Venice event space 800 Main, Magical Elves ‘Elfest’, Native
Instruments, Boston Consulting Group, Mobscene, OWN network, and Picture Head’s annual
holiday parties ,Comedy Central’s “Key and Peele” final season wrap party, Zune & Compound
Entertainment’s Grammy Party for Neyo & Rihanna, Fox’s American Idol Finale Party, Fox’s “Bones”
wrap parties, Mary J Blige’s “Love & Life” Record Release Party, Nelly Furtado’s “Loose” record
release party, Miramax & Bravo’s “Project Greenlight Premiere Party”, The Foreign Exchange’s
Grammy nomination party, LuxuryFashion.com and actress Fairuza Balk’s Red Carpet Oscar Event,
Cristophe Salon’s “Beauty Mix’ events, Royal Order Jewelry’s grand opening, the red carpet
feature film premiere of Lionsgate/After Dark Films’ “Captivity”, as well as holiday and end of the
year parties for USC’s Marshall school of Business MBA program and the school of Cinema
Television, and many more.
Mitch Kirsch has 32 years experience in the event industry, overseeing production of large-scale events including TV specials, immersive experiences, festivals, and global events in 30 different countries on 5 continents for high-profile brands and entertainment clients. Mitch founded Planet Events, Inc. in 1994, and has focused on high-tech interactive experiences, music-driven events, corporate functions, global sporting events, and charitable fundraisers. Mitch produced sponsor events during 13 Olympic Games, 6 Super Bowls, 3 World Cups, and 3 Rugby World Cups.
From 2010-2012, Mitch was Executive Producer of Vice & Intel’s Creators Project, an award-winning global event series fusing music, technology and art. The Creators Project partnered with Coachella in 2011 to bring large-scale art installations and performances enhancements to the festival audience of 75,000, and produced events for up to 20,000 participants in 5 countries. In 2013 Mitch produced Station to Station, a ground-breaking art & music initiative that took a custom, vintage train across the U.S.; bringing film, music, performance, art and culture to 10 station stops along the journey.
Most importantly, he has lent his experience and energy to numerous charitable organizations to raise funds and awareness for the Rainforest Foundation, Pediatric AIDS, PETA, Virgin Mobile’s RE*Generation, MTV Asia Aid benefiting tsunami victims, Covenant House, Fulfillment Fund, America: Tribute to Heroes, Concert for NYC, and others.
Acoustical Phenomenologist
Michael Stocker (USA)
Michael is a life musician and acoustical technologist. He has worked with sound, technology, and acoustics, designing large mobile sound systems, recording studios, museums, and other public exhibition spaces. Clients include Blue Oyster Cult, Electric Light Orchestra, Cherokee, Enterprise, Hollywood Sound Factory, and Skywalker Ranch recording and production facilities, US National Holocaust Museum, Mexico City’s Museo Papalote del Niño, and Monterey Bay Aquarium among others. His approach to acoustical design hinges on the understanding that sound perception is how we gauge our participation in our surroundings.
Michael is the founding director of Ocean Conservation Research, a scientific research and policy development organization focused on understanding the impacts of, and finding technical and policy solutions to the growing problem of human-generated ocean noise pollution. He was the “Musical and Electronics Engineer” on the ground-breaking movie “Koyaaniqatsi,” for which he composed music concret segues and the credit roll. His book titled “Hear Where We Are: Sound, Ecology, and Sense of Place” (Springer 2013) reveals how humans and other animals use sound and sound perception to establish their placement in their environment, and communicate that placement with others.
Chromesthesia Researcher/Composer
Umut Eldem (Turkey/Belgium)
Umut Eldem (1993) is a composer, pianist, and researcher. His musical works and research focus on the exploration of synaesthesia as an artistic medium. He started his composition studies in the Mimar Sinan State Conservatory in Istanbul, Turkey, studying under Prof. Hasan Uçarsu and Prof. Mehmet Nemutlu. During his Bachelor’s education he has participated in the Erasmus student exchange program and studied under Prof. Francesco Telli in the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, Italy.
After receiving his Bachelor’s diploma in Composition, he has pursued his Master’s studies in the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp with Prof. Wim Henderickx and Prof. Luc van Hove in Belgium. In the same institution he has done his Postgraduate research, ‘Foundations of Cross-Modal Analytic Thinking’, on the applicability of synaesthesia and colour as an inter-sensory musical concept.
He has given lectures on his research of synaesthesia, and had his audiovisual works and installations combining sound and colours presented in Belgium, Turkey, Romania, Luxembourg, and Russia. In 2020 he won the 7th Sampo Composition Contest. His research project ‘Synaesthesia and Sound-colour Associations as An Interdisciplinary Metaphor’, with the support of Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, has explored the phenomenon of synaesthesia as an interdisciplinary analysis and performance method.
Umut Eldem is currently a PhD researcher at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, and musical director of the theatre collective Mixed & United. He gives lessons and workshops on music history, musical analysis, and audiovisual design. He is also the keyboardist of the bands Starblind = Earthbound and Transport Aerian. His current PhD research entitled ‘The Hearing Glass: Synaesthetic Correspondences in The Musical Practice’ intends to take the results of his previous research and develop them into an inter-sensory theory of audiovisual art.
Stephen Wiltshire – a renowned international artist is known for his artistic, creative draughtsmanship.
Born with Autism his extraordinary talents have produced accurate depictions of cities, skylines and street scenes from memory only having observed his view briefly.
Awarded ‘Member of the Order of the British Empire for Services to Art in 2006 from Buckingham Palace, London.
Discovered at the age of nine and called “possibly the best child artist in Britain” quoted by Sir Hugh Casson president of The Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, London.
Stephen Wiltshire’s career spans over thirty five years, giving him much acclaimed recognition with numerous documentaries, articles, commercials and endorsements.
His first commissioned artwork was for the late Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath, which later sold at the famous auction house Bonhams as well as Christies in London.
With four books, a school in Fulham, London and an ambassador for Staedtler pens under his name, he continues to fulfill commissions and appears publicly to demonstrate, encourage creativity, motivation and self worth.
His work currently displays in the Empire State Building, in New York, a lifelong dream as a young boy.
Many of his panoramas, the longest being ten metres long and eight days to complete have staged pride of place worldwide for many collectors, galleries and museums.
An artist in his own right he continues to empower with the words
“DO THE BEST YOU CAN AND NEVER STOP”.
Stephen Wiltshire MBE, Hon.FSAI, Hon.FSSAA.
Annette Wiltshire – Art Director, Public Speaker, Jewellery Designer has worked along side her brother Stephen Wiltshire throughout his career, touring together, supporting his passion and being his voice to create awareness for creative arts and love of architecture.
Her understanding of shapes, colours and great eye for detail compliment her unique bond with Stephen, which helps to represent and bring to life his extraordinary gift, showcasing beautiful pieces of his artwork.
Annette has dedicated herself to support, direct and manage her brother Stephen‘s affairs, curating exhibitions and providing valuable advise and feedback.
Being a creative individual herself – having interests in interior design, project managing, refurbishing antique furniture and designing Jewellery comes naturally.
Undoubtedly, Art is understood by all, a language which often needs no explanation. Just a big white wall and an open space for us all to express ourselves.
Since 2005, Douglas Campbell has been a community organizer, event producer and experience designer on the west coast of the US. Over the years he has drawn inspiration by twisting together the unexpected, co-creating such projects as: MindshareLA, mixing ideas and mischief to stoke inspiration; Syyn Labs (which eventually evolved into Two Bit Circus), blending artists with engineers to spur creativity; and The Tuxedo Travels, one of the earliest social media projects to combine charity with adventure. He’s also consulted with clients, ranging from Google to the Getty, to help them create memorable brand experiences.
In 2015, Douglas was hired by Cross Campus, a prominent Los Angeles coworking company to help them launch their 2nd and 3rd locations, in Pasadena and DTLA respectively. Since then, he’s taken a break from city life and been restoring a wilderness retreat center called Trillium as well as working with other communities to create legal and financial models for communal land stewardship. In 2019, inspired by that experience, he completed his first book, “The Motorcycle & The Molecule“, an adventure novel that explores alternative communities in the U.S. and Central America.
In 2020 he launched Rogue Media, a lightning fast, digital design agency that specializes in crafting clear, easy-to-navigate, and simple-to-update websites. When he’s not working remotely on projects via his off-grid satellite connection, he’s backpacking to remote lakes, snowshoeing through the wilderness or just floating down meandering rivers in the summer sun.
Devin Murphy is a performance poet and theatre artist living and working in Los Angeles. Having attended The New School in New York, Devin studied Theatre (Eugene Lang College) and Modern Art (Parsons School of Design) before starting an independent theatre company and producing Off-Off-Broadway festivals, plays, and events in the city. Devin left NY in early 2013 for the automobiles and open skies of LA, and he has performed live poetry throughout the Southland for the past eight years. Devin is currently devoting his time to a collaborative project with local musicians, The Land League, which fuses live performance poetry with improvised and layered instrumental tracks in a rapid, one-take environment reminiscent of jazz in structure but not necessarily sound. With a focus on self-described “lyrical impressionism,” Devin’s current work spotlights the prosody, imagery, and omission of context in the conversation of performance.Creating surrealist poetry anchored in rhyme and backboned by beat, Devin uses each performance as a way for his words to evolve organically with the music and the crowd.
For Journey Through the Senses, Devin will be exploring the relationship between performance and prosody through a variety of media including poetry, music, digital video, storytelling, and theatre. Consider Performance + Prosody a Kaprow-style Happening that focuses as equally on the methods through which information is conveyed as it does the information itself.
Culinary-Synaesthete Chef
Gabriela Ruiz Lugo (Mexico)
Mexico City chef Gabriela Ruiz Lugo has been voted the best chef in Mexico by the Mexican Gastronomic Council.
Chef Gaby is synaesthete and her favorite music creates flavors for her which lead to her award-winning cuisine.
Originally from Comalcalco, Tabasco, the 31-year-old says it is her home state and her family that have inspired her cooking: traditional ingredients found in the Mexican southeast like plantains, black beans and chocolate prepared with pre-Hispanic and Spanish influences.
Seven years ago Ruiz created Gourmet MX, a catering service she operated out of Villahermosa. Her first project then evolved into a restaurant that soon became a fixture in the region.
Later she moved to Mexico City where she opened her current restaurant, Carmela y Sal, in the Miguel Hidalgo borough.
Jarosław Kapuściński is an intermedia composer and pianist whose work has been presented at New York’s MOMA, Zentrumfür Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Museum of Modern Art Palais de Tokyo in Paris, National Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, and many other venues. He has received numerous awards, among others, at the UNESCO Film sur l’Art Festival in Paris in 1992, Video Art Festival in Locarno in 1992 and 1993, Manifestation Internationale Vidéo et Art Éléctronique in Montréal in 1993, and International Festival of New Cinema and New Media in Montréal in 2000.
Kapuscinski’s primary interest is the creation and performance of works in which musical instruments control multimedia content. He was first trained as a classical pianist and composer at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and expanded into multimedia at a residency at Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada (1988) and during doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego (1992-1997).
Kapuscinski is actively involved in intermedia education. He was a postdoc and lecturer at McGill University in Montreal, he has taught at the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific, and has lectured internationally. Currently, he is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Stanford University.
Chirstoph Kirst is a theoretical neuroscientist involved in flexible computation and the coordination of information processing in neuronal circuits of brains and machines. Christoph’s work combines mathematical theory, dynamical systems modeling as well as algorithm development and machine learning with the analysis of large-scale data sets.
Christoph is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) as well as a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL). After studying mathematics and physics at the University of Göttingen (Germany), Oxford University (UK), and the Humboldt University Berlin (Germany) Christoph obtained a Master’s degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University (UK) and a Diploma in Physics from the University of Göttingen (Germany).
For his PhD in theoretical physics at the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (Germany) Christoph studied the collective dynamics and computation in complex networks. Subsequent to studying single neuron dynamics at the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (Germany) he became an independent research Fellow for Physics and Biology at the Rockefeller University (New York City). Christoph also became an independent Kavli Physics Fellow and member of the Steering Committee at the Kavli Neural Systems Institute (New York City) where he developed tools for the analysis of large-scale data sets to better understand brain structure and its modulatory functions, and where he also developed fundamental theory for mechanisms to coordinate large scale distributed processing in neuronal networks.
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An artist of singular vision, pianist Jenny Q Chai is widely renowned for her ability to illuminate musical connections throughout the centuries. With radical joie de vivre and razor-sharp intention, Chai creates layered multimedia programs which explore and unite elements of science, nature, fashion, and art. The New Yorker describes Chai as “a pianist whose dazzling facility is matched by her deep musicality.”
Chai has a mission focusing on presenting social issues in her themed concerts. For the last 5 years, she has developed and toured with her multimedia global warming program Acqua Alta, collaborating with NASA and using NASA data visualizations. She helped hone the cutting edge AI score following software Antescofo in residences at IRCAM alongside frequent collaborator Jarosław Kapuściński, and has since toured internationally with the software offering multimedia performances in Shanghai, New York, Havana, and elsewhere. In September 2019, Chai is giving a TEDx Talk in Shanghai titled When Classical Music Meets Technology.
Other notable highlights include her 2012 Carnegie Hall recital debut; many performances at (le) Poisson Rouge, including a 2016 Antescofo-supported program, Where’s Chopin?; her 2018 Wigmore Hall debut with a program exploring the relation between color and sound; lectures and recitals at Shanghai Symphony Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, and Shanghai Mercedes Benz Arena; a featured performance at the Leo Brouwer Festival in Havana, Cuba; Philippe Manoury’s double-piano concerto, Zones de turbulences, at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music with duo partner, pianist Adam Kośmieja and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra; and much more.Chai has recorded for labels such as Deutschlandfunk, Naxos, ArpaViva and MSR. In 2010, she released her debut recording, New York Love Songs, featuring interpretations of works by Cage and Ives among others, and her most recent recording, (S)yn(e)sth(e)te, was released by MSR Records in 2017. She can also be heard on Michael Vincent Waller’s Five Easy Pieces and Cindy Cox’s Hierosgamos.
The recipient of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust’s 2011 Pianist/Composer Commissioning Project, the DAAD Arts and Performance award in 2010, Chamber Music America commissioning award and first prize winner of the Keys to the Future Contemporary Solo Piano Festival, Jenny Q Chai studied at the Shanghai Music Conservatory, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and in Cologne University of Music and Dance. Her teachers include Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Seymour Lipkin, Solomon Mikowsky, Marilyn Nonken, and Anthony de Mare.
Daniel Kish holds Masters in Developmental Psychology and Special Education. He is the first totally blind person known to earn certification as a Mobility Specialist (1996), teaching blind people how to claim their freedom to move around securely, efficiently, and effectively.
Daniel founded World Access for the Blind (WAFTB) in 2000 to help advance freedom of movement and navigation for blind people globally, and to raise public awareness about the real strengths and challenges of blindness. WAFTB has delivered professional development workshops and training to blind people and their communities in over 40 countries
WAFTB has been show-cased on nearly every major broadcast network including CNN, BBC, and Discovery, as well as over 150 top publications including The Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Scientific American. Daniel has co-authored numerous studies in high profile peer reviewed journals, and published a textbook on seeing with FlashSonar and fostering adaptation to blindness by activating brain plasticity. He has presented prolifically, having been voted “talk of the day” at PopTech (2011), and top ten TED speaker (2015).
Daniel was celebrated as a Ashoka Fellow Change-maker (2017), and selected to keynote on social impact at the U.N. headquarters in Vienna (2018). The work of WAFTB was referenced in the 2018 U.N. flag ship report on disability and world development. When he is not traveling, Daniel lives with his two cats in Long Beach, CA..
Anouk combines the latest in science and technology to make fashion an experience that transcends mere appearances. Sensors embedded in the design monitor the space around the wearer, and body-sensors check in on stress levels as comfort or anxiety. Her Intel-Edison based ‘Spider Dress’ is an perfect example of this aesthetic, where sensors and moveable arms on the dress help to create an more defined boundary of personal space while employing a fiere style. “This robotic dress attacks when you come to close” she mentions. Facilitating and augmenting the interactions we have with ourselves and our surroundings in an bespoke manner. Other than handheld devices, Wipprecht researches how we can interface in new ways with the world around us through our wardrobe.
Partnering up with companies such as American multinational technology company INTEL, software producer Autodesk, internet giants Google and Microsoft, car brand AUDI, jewellery brand Swarovski, and leading 3D printing innovator Materialise amongst others – she researches and develops how our future wardrobe would look as we continue to embed technology into what we wear.
She travels between San Francisco (USA), Los Angeles (USA) and Amsterdam (NL).
Sarah Hicks’s versatile and vibrant musicianship has secured her place as an in-demand conductor across an array of genres, and is an educator, arranger, producer, writer, speaker and wellness advocate committed to creating connections through music. Her career has seen collaborations with diverse artists, from Hilary Hahn and Dmitiri Hvorostovsky to Rufus Wainwrightand Smokey Robinson; during the summer of 2011 she toured with Sting as conductor of his Symphonicities Tour. Her passion for cross-genre partnerships led to a 2019 album with rap artist Dessa and the Minnesota Orchestra, with whom she holds a titled position.
A specialist in film music and the film in concert genre, she is thrilled to create concert experiences which combine sight and sound, and that welcome new audiences to the orchestral genre. She has premiered “Pixar in Concert” and Disney-Pixar’s “Coco”; her live recordings can be seen on Disney+ and heard on broadcast for ABC. Her concerts with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra of film music, “The Morricone Duel” was released as an album in 2018, has been broadcast around the world and garnered over 60 million view on YouTube.
A highly sought-after guest conductor, Ms. Hicks has worked extensively both in the States and abroad. Notable ensembles include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic,Boston Pops, Toronto Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, RTE (Dublin) Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic,Tokyo Philharmonic, and Malaysian Philharmonic, among others.
Ms. Hickswas on faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music from 2000 to 2005 and continued her affiliation as Staff Conductor until 2015. She is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist and is committed to passing on to young musicians her passion for connecting to audiences. Her presentation, “The Art of Conducting”, has illustrated the idea of collaborative leadership to numerous organizations, civic groups and corporations. Her interest in the intersection of mental health and music led to the production of a concert titled “Music and the Mind” and her commitment to open conversation about mental health issues continues through her blogs and online advocacy.
Sarah Hicks was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in Honolulu, HI. Trained on both the piano and the viola, she was a prizewinning pianist by her early teens. She received her BA magna cum laude from Harvard University in composition. She holds an Artists’ Degree in conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with the late renowned pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller. In her spare time, Ms. Hicks enjoys running, hiking, her Papillon, cooking (and eating) with her husband, traveling and blogging.
Dr Svetlana Rudenko, Bray Institute of Further Education, Ireland, visiting lecturer at University of Granada, Concert pianist, researcher on Music & Art Perception, Creative Synaesthesia, Cognitive Musicology, multisensory design for digitally enhanced realities VR/ AR for Education & Mental Health programs, aesthetics for Sensory Substitution Devices. I presented at Harvard University during 12th conference of ASA, American Synesthesia Association “4D Digital Visualisation of Musical Texture/ Musical-Space Synesthesia perception/ music example A. Scriabin’s Desire, op.57 N1” (2017), at Western University London Ontario, Music and Consciousness (2019). Trinity College Dublin The Visual and Performing Arts funding Award 2017: Visual Music, Music and the Senses, National Concert Hall Dublin https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/the-colours-of-music-this-week-s-classical-music-highlights-1.3200063PROBES (2018) Trinity College DublinTetractys: my music for Animated Art https://vimeo.com/296197046 For Neuroscience Ireland, Brain Awareness Week, concert at Trinity College Dublin, “Painting Music”(2019), for British Neuroscience Association festival BNA 2019 Cognitive Musicology via Synaesthesia, concert with visuals based on cross-modal associations of musical texture. www.svetlana-rudenko.com
The summary of my research and talk about public outreach concerts for Brain Awareness Week in Ireland is here (recorded for European Neuroscience Virtual Forum 2020) https://vimeo.com/434000287
Reviews on my concerts:
Piano Concert “Svetlana Rudenko followed with a power-packed account Liszt’s supreme Sonata in B minor that revealed no inhibiting concerns for the practicable or even the physically possible…” (Andrew Johnston, Irish Times, National Concert Hall Dublin)
Public outreach concert “Cognitive Musicology via Synaesthesia” during British Neuroscience Festival BNA 2019, Dublin:
Personal Statement: For many years I worked as a piano teacher, and I see Music and Arts as a wonderful way to enhance creativity. Music is a great way to connect and celebrate International cultural heritage of humanity. Music is a personal journey to connect to your inner self. My PhD research on symbolist synaesthete composer A. Scriabin inspired me to take his model of multisensory drama Mysterium to embrace Audio-Visual perception of Music. I play concerts with visuals to show how wonderful our minds could be, and how we can choose the “reality”, consciousness where we want to be.
I am delighted to be in this team to celebrate the diversity of perceptions, cultures and people!
Hi, I’m Jozef Youssef, Founder and Creative Director of Kitchen Theory, a London (UK) based design studio with an award-winning Chef’s Table. After years of working in London’s most highly acclaimed Michelin Star restaurants and hotels, I have spent the last decade in collaboration with leading scientists & psychologists to research a broad range of food-related topics, from multi-sensory flavor perception and synaesthesia to the role of food in healthcare, all with the aim of improving well-being through innovations in gastronomy.
I consider gastronomy to be a perfect balance of both science and art. The growing interest in the science behind both cooking (molecular gastronomy and food science) and eating (psychology and gastrophysics) is allowing chefs to express their culinary creativity in ways previously unimaginable and create experiences that go far beyond just the plate. I also believe that the rich cross-disciplinary collaborations taking place between chefs, scientists, academics, artists and designers will help shape a more nutritious and sustainable future of food.
One of my main interests is the field of psychology, especially the sensory and psychological relationship we have with food and how this can be used to develop better food experiences in restaurants, but also for schools, care homes and hospitals. For ten years I have worked with Professor Charles Spence, an Experimental Psychologist at Oxford University. Together, we have been on a fascinating journey exploring the senses, and in particular the way our senses work together (cross-modality). This of course is closely linked to an interest in synaesthesia, which I began researching and eventually was our main theme for a Kitchen Theory 2015 pop-up dining experience (titled Synaesthesia) hosted in London and Mexico.
My vision for the culinary aspect of the Journey Through The Senses is to highlight the sensory pleasures of food using a mix of science, artistry and technology. I want this experience to excite the diners, transporting them to new places in their minds. Drawing on a range of disciplines, this truly immersive dining experience will be a thought-provoking and multi-sensory journey that will allow guests to both appreciate delicious dishes and learn about their own personal sensory relationship with food.
Caichiolo is an international art curator and juror on various biennials and important prizes with the Ministry of Culture of Mexico, Chile, Argentina, USA, Qatar, and Sharjah. She is the Founder, Curator, and Executive Director of the international nonprofit organization and gallery Building Bridges Art Exchange, and a key executive with the LA Art Show.
Julia Simner is a Professor of Neuropsychology and has spent the last two decades in the field of synaesthesia research. Her education and career have taken her to the Universities of Oxford, Toronto, Edinburgh and Sussex, and she currently runs the Synesthesia and Sensory Integration lab at the University of Sussex. Her work focuses on the psychological and neuroscientific bases of synesthesia, and has been published in science journals including Nature, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, and Brain, as well as in over 100 newspaper and media articles worldwide. She is the Science Officer for the UK Synaesthesia Association, Director of the ERC-funded MULTISENSE project, and Director of the ESRC-funded Savant Network. Her book, The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia was recently shortlisted for the British Medical Association’s medical book of the year.
Jamie Ward is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. He has an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge and PhD in Psychology from Birmingham, and previously held a faculty position at University College London. He is the Co-Director of Sussex Neuroscience and was Founding Editor of the journal, Cognitive Neuroscience. He has a particular research interest in synaesthesia and, more generally, in the question of how information is integrated between the senses. He also runs the Leverhulme Doctoral Programme in ‘Sensation, Perception and Awareness’ at the University of Sussex. In addition to his research, he is well-known as an author of leading textbooks (Students Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience; Students Guide to Social Neuroscience).
International Coordinator for the Science and Arts Conference
Anton V. Sidoroff-Dorso (Russia)
Anton Dorso is a Moscow-based linguist and psychologist. He received a full specialist degree in linguistics and language acquisition and studied for a post-graduation degree (Candidate of Sciences) in psychology at Moscow Pedagogical State University, with a dissertation on individual differences in people with synaesthesia. His research focuses on general psychological and neurocognitive aspects of synaesthesia, synaesthetic mechanisms as viewed in the frameworks of cultural-historical psychology and cognitive anthropology. Additionally, he is the co-editor of the Leonardo Bibliography list: Synaesthesia in Art and Science of the interdisciplinary journal Leonardo (MIT).
Anton has served on the board of the Artecittà Foundation as its International Coordinator since 2012, and is a member of the editorial board of the international Synesthesia Journal (Artecitta). He also founded the Russian Synaesthesia Community and monitors its web-resource synaesthesia.ru. and initiated and manages the data-base of Russian-speaking synaesthetes (now approx. 800 people). Anton translated and adapted the Russian-language version of the worldwide multilingual online synaesthesia test of the Eagleman Lab (Baylor College of Medicine) and the Consistency Test of Synaesthesia (MatLab Syntools). He is also a co-author of “Ananthropology of synaesthesia”, author and developer of Synaesthesia Quotient and a related multi-scale test battery. Additionally he assisted and participated as key speaker in the production of science documentaries on the senses and synaesthesia.
Anton is also head of the synaesthesia research group at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research of Contemporary Childhood of the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education.
Raewyn Turner is an interdisciplinary visual artist concerned with cross-sensory perception and the uncharted territories of the senses. She experiments with video, interactive installations, paintings and theatre performance, working solo as well as in collaboration with artists, musicians and scientists. She has worked with olfaction since 1999. Her works have been shown in numerous national and international exhibitions and performances.
Ali is a synaesthete and a multimedia artist and writer. Born in Baghdad in 1985, Ali has a Bachelors degree in computer science from the Al Turath college university/Baghdad 2008. He is a member of The Iraqi artist syndicate, the Iraqi plastic art community, the Iraqi syndicate of Photographers and the Media Development League in Iraq. His work has been documented on the ” Findartinfo ” website.
Ali has contributed to numerous studies and projects involving synaesthesia and he is a member of the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists, and Scientists (IASAS).
Sambit has an MBA from Delhi University, worked for six years as a Business Analyst for IBM and Oracle specializing in Business Intelligence and Big Data. Sambit now has his own firm specializing in digital marketing and web application development. Sambit also has a background as a filmmaker and a writer.
Ninghui XIONG, Artist and Independent Researcher, Founder of Music Painting Art Synaesthesia Studio in Beijing.
Painting music has been the theme of Ninghui’s work since 2001. As a leading expert in music visualization, his art innovation methodology and tools have become known in Synesthesia art study circles since 2015. His painting series “Landscape Seen in Chopin’s 24 Preludes”, “Ch’in Music Flowing Water” and installation series “the Cube” inspired by BACH” are representing his art. Through these projects, he has demonstrated how music can drive an artist toward creative expressions.
His research has significant importance for art education and design, as he has been promoting Synaesthesia and creativity in schools, museums and theaters in China since 2009. During 2018 VI Congress International Synesthesia, Science and Art in Spain, as a committee member of the congress, he conducted Bolero Event which was well received by international Synaesthesia community.
He is a board member of Chinese Musical Iconology Association; FUNDACIÓN INTERNACIONAL ARTECITTÀ no 743 China delegate; collaborator of Group HUM1014, Sinestesia y Creatividad Investigación Interdisciplinar Aplicada, Universidad de Granada.
Greg Jarvis is an audio-visual synesthete and a Director of the Canadian Synesthesia Association which he founded in 2013. Greg is a musician and his work has received acclaim from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NME, the BBC, and other major media alongside praise from members of The Velvet Underground, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Duran Duran, The Wailers and NASA’s launch team.
Formerly a record executive, Greg has marketed acts such as David Bowie, Nirvana, KISS, and Dolly Parton in the ‘90s while based at labels in London, Moscow, Toronto, Prague, and Warsaw.
He’s been a speaker at Harvard University, the Juilliard School, the Jack Kerouac School, and the Art Gallery of Ontario and holds an MBA in arts & media business plus a masters in teaching.
He’s currently a music business professor at Durham College in Ontario. In 2020 his group The Flowers Of Hell’s Aubrey Beardsley inspired ‘Come Hell Or High Water’ album cover will be displayed at the Tate Britain and Paris’s Musee d’Orsay as part of a major Beardsley exhibition.
Sergio is an artist, musician and researcher based in São Paulo, Brazil. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cinema (ECA-USP), a PhD in Communication and Semiotics (PUC-SP) and a post-doc in Philosophy (UNESP).
Currently teaching at the Post Graduate Program in Technologies of Intelligence and Digital Design (TIDD) at Pontificia Universidade Católica (PUC-SP), Sergio also manages a post-graduate course in Music and Image at Faculdade Santa Marcelina (FASM), both in São Paulo.
Besides his creative career in music and other art forms, Sergio has released two theoretical books, “Sinestesia, arte e tecnologia” (Synesthesia, art and technology, Annablume/FAPESP, 2002) and “O primado da percepção e suas consequências no ambiente midiático” (The primacy of perception and its consequences in the midiatic environment, Intermeios/FAPESP, 2017) plus articles published in several countries.
Dr. Sheila Butungi is from Uganda, a Veterinarian working with the NAGRC&DB, a government agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries which is responsible for livestock genetic Improvement and conservation of animal genetic resources. She manages several projects on behalf of the organization.
Sheila has several forms of Synethesia, the most intense being Sound – Colour Synesthesia and Mirror-touch. She is passionate about sharing and creating awareness about Synesthesia to people in her country, Uganda and across Africa.
Peter Colley is an award-winning British/Canadian writer based in Los Angeles and Toronto. His stage plays have been performed in 32 countries, 48 out of the 50 states in the United States, and every province in Canada.
Micheal is a synaesthete and leading expert in product design. He had a long career working for Ford Motor Company and was valued for using his synaesthetic experience to improve product design. Michael now works as an independent consultant.
Michael Kluch is a Photographer/Artist/Educator born in Chicago, Illinois, with a BFA in Photography/Film Making from UIC. Michael stopped in Pasadena while traveling the US with his wife, fell in love, and has lived there ever since. He has shot commercially for a wide range of advertising and commercial clients including Gucci, Honda, Yamaha, Bausch & Lomb…taught photography, digital imaging and design for 14 years and exhibits his personal work. Always working on new concepts, loves the complexity of simplicity.
Daniel is a physicist, engineer, and artist. He’s built an electric car, a robot bartender, and an eight-person, pedal-powered mobile dining table. He enjoys making whimsical kinetic sculptures that invite interactivity and inspire scientific understanding. He’s on the board of Arroyo Arts Collective where he helps run programming for a small neighborhood art park.
Tim is a software engineer, musician, and interactive installation artist. His wide-ranging artistic work includes a programming language for MIDI, interactive installations at Burning Man and other festivals, musical performances with PlayStation dance pads and QWERTY keyboards, and real time video looping and processing with a handheld security camera. Recently, Thompson has focused on the expressive potential of three-dimensional input in visual music instruments, using devices such as the Microsoft Kinect (in the original Space Palette) and the Sensel Morph (in the newer Space Palette Pro).
Daria Martin, artist-filmmaker and Professor of Art at Oxford University, has made a trilogy of short films inspired by mirror-touch synaesthesia: Sensorium Tests (2012), At the Threshold (2014-2015), and Theatre of the Tender (2016). She is also the editor of ‘Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia: Thresholds of Empathy With Art’ (Oxford University Press, 2017), which explores the resonances the trait may have for the world of aesthetics. Martin’s films, which have been exhibited internationally, aim to create a continuity between disparate artistic media (such as painting and performance), between people and objects, and between internal and social worlds. Solo exhibitions include Barbican, London; ACCA, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the New Museum, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstalle Zürich; and Tate Britain. Martin is currently Professor and Head of Artistic Research at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. In 2018 she won the Film London Jarman Award for “creating an eclectic and expansive body of work that has explored everything from dreams and mythology to technology and feminism”.
An independent designer for 40 years, Brian Harris creates bespoke mechatronic equipment. His inventions for motion control, stabilized camera mounts for aerial photography and robotic trajectories are used in local and international TV commercials and film productions. He trained in radio physics at the University of Auckland and has collaborated with Raewyn Turner since 2011.
Zoe Marinello-Kohn is a professional ballet dancer, actor, and artist. She received her ballet training at the San Francisco Ballet School and at the Academy of Ballet under Richard Gibson. Since then, Zoe has gone on to dance with such notable companies as the San Diego Ballet, where she is currently employed, as well as the Twin Cities Ballet of Minnesota, Cincinnati Ballet II, and the Osage Ballet.
Zoe is an original cast member of Wahzhazhe: An Osage Ballet and had the honor of performing at the Festival of Families held for Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia in 2015.
Zoe is also an actor in the American Immersion Theater and Murder Mystery Company in San Diego, California. Zoe is a poly synesthete and her work often reflects her unique perceptions of the senses.
Zoe believes that art is a fundamental pinnacle of society that has the potential to create bonds of understanding and tolerance and can be an inspiration for unification and peace.
Jaime Smith is a world-renowned sommelier, chef, and synaesthete. When Smith tastes wine, he sees various patterns, textures, and colors. As a trained chef, Smith also sees clouds of colors and texture for the smells he experiences as he prepares gourmet dishes.
Beer educator and writer, Zachary Rosen became the youngest person at the time (2009) to obtain a Certified Cicerone® title at 22, and has since become specialized in coordinating and hosting beer events. His work includes writing, consulting services, teaching classes, and leading beer dinners. Rosen specializes in using his background in chemical engineering and the arts to seek out abstract expressions of beer, pairing it with movies, music, and many other conceptual counterparts to discover how beer pairs with life.
Bio- Lyndsey Gago earned her degree in kinesiology from California State University at Northridge. In addition, she is a professional performer, aerialist, and dancer. Lyndsey also teaches performance and is passionate about helping people with various disabilities to realize their dreams as far as performance.
Evgenia was born in Odessa, Ukraine, where she studied both Urban Planning and Architecture. Evgenia has since moved to Los Angeles, California where she continues to challenge traditionally accepted relationships between public space and social interaction. Evgenia’s work aims to explore our physical and digital worlds as a synthesized reality. In this pursuit, she deconstructs the technological ecosystems hidden behind urban and architectural material assemblages.
Appelusa is a poly-synesthete and internationally-exhibited multimedia artist. She is best known for her work as an artistic roller skater and choreographer in the entertainment industry. As an artist, Appelusa explores combining physical forms with shapes, light, color and movement in order to exemplify how her synesthesia manifests. Appelusa is also a certified bioenergetic practitioner and founder of Light Body Energetics, a healing arts initiative. In 2017, Appelusa was the artistic director and producer of Synaesthesia Dance Experience: 4D multisensory show (SDE), as part of a large scale exhibition in Los Angeles entitled Synaesthesia: What is the taste of the color blue?SDE was the first of its kind to showcase synesthete dancers, visual artists, choreographers, and multimedia art as an immersive multisensory show for the audience. Appelusa is a founding member of The International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists and Scientists, and serves as the organization’s Dance Curator. She also hosts Synesthete Artists and Synesthetes Los Angeles Facebook Groups. Appelusa is also on the board of Journey Through the Senses and is beyond excited to serve as the organization’s Mind/Body Curator.
James is President of the UK Synaesthesia Association (UKSA) and Vice President of the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists and Scientists (IASAS). Wannerton has been involved in synaesthesia and cross-modal research for over two decades and has a wealth of experience in organizing and collaborating on international art/science conferences and events across the globe.
Daniel produces major international exhibitions that have a convergence of the arts and sciences. In 2017/2018, in collaboration with Building Bridges Art Exchange, the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists and Scientists, and the Art/Sci Center at UCLA, Schuster initiated, put together the major players, and helped to produce and coordinate the world’s first major international multifaceted art and science exhibition focused on inherited synaesthesia: SYNAESTHESIA: What is the Taste of the Color Blue?
