NEW YORK CITY / PRINCETON 2015
We began our visits in New York City with Eric Rabkin, PhD, a professor emeritus of english language and Literature at University of Michigan.
Dr. Rabkin is author of 'The Fantastic in Literature' and "Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind'.
Dr. Rabkin discussed issues of the theme 'fantasy, the human mind, and modern world' through literature classics such as 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley and 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~esrabkin/
https://www.coursera.org/course/fantasysf
The conversation with Eric Rabkin was hosted at the Manhattan home and studio of artist Ena Swansea who has exhibited her figurative / abstract paintings
internationally, and her husband Antoine Guerrero, director of iHeap NY.
http://iheap.fr/en/iheap-new-york-2015/
At the 36th Floor offices of The New Yorker magazine at One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan we visited and laughed with Bob Mankoff editor of cartoons at The New Yorker.
He is the author of a memoir 'How About Never - Is Never Good for You?' and has been cartoon editor of The New Yorker since 1997.
Mr. Mankoff discussed his life in cartoons, his viewpoints, and his imaginative life.
After the conversation, his assistant Colin Stokes led members around the offices of The New Yorker magazine.
Members traveled by train to Princeton.
In Princeton, the traveling salon members met with Michael Graziano, PhD, who is a neuroscientist and novelist and currently a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University.
His research focuses on a neuro-cognitive theory of what consciousness is and how it evolved.
Dr. Graziano is author of the neuroscience books 'Consciousness and the Social Brain', 'The Intelligent Movement Machine' and 'God, Soul, Mind, Brain' and the literary novel 'The Divine Farce'.
Dr. Graziano discussed his novel and insightful ideas about consciousness and the brain.
Tapping into the human psyche, Dr. Graziano used a puppet named Kevin to show how we project consciousness onto others.
The members continued the conversation at lunch under a wooden canopy designed by Frank Gehry inside a lunchroom at Princeton University.
https://psych.princeton.edu/psychology/research/graziano/index.php
http://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Social-Brain-Michael-Graziano/dp/0199928649
The group returned to Manhattan by train and ventured to Tribeca to meet with Joseph LeDoux, PhD, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at New York University.
He is the director of the Center for the Neuroscience of Fear and Anxiety, a multi university center in New York City.
Dr. LeDoux is author of 'The Emotional Brain' and 'The Synaptic Self'.
During the visit he expressed how he had changed his mind on a scientific theory of the brain and fear that will be explained in a forthcoming book ‘Anxiety’.
Dr. LeDoux also is a songwriter and singer in a band called 'The Amygdaloids'.
In addition to a discussion about emotions and the brain, Joseph LeDoux and Colin Dempsey, the duo ‘So We Are’, played acoustic versions of The Amygdaloids’ songs,
with comments about the psychological and scientific basis underlying the lyrics.
http://www.cns.nyu.edu/home/ledoux/
The discussion will be hosted at the Tribeca home/studio of friend and artist Will Cotton, best known for his Surrealist paintings and sculptures of candy and pastry with muses, including Katy Perry.
Members traveled to Upper Manhattan and Morningside Heights above Central Park for a meeting at Columbia University.
At a lounge of sofa chairs in the Mathematics Building of Columbia University, members visited with Brian Greene, PhD,
a theoretical physicist, author, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University.
He is co-founder of The World Science Festival in New York City, and has been featured on PBS specials.
His books include: 'The Elegant Universe', 'The Fabric of the Cosmos', and 'Hidden Reality'.
Members discussed many questions spanning current knowledge of physics, ideas of the universe, and his World Science Festival.
http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/category/2015-world-science-festival/programs-2015-new-york/
At Rockefeller Center in Mid-Town, Therese Stark a postwar and contemporary art specialist at Christies,
discussed the Spring Post War and Contemporary Pre Sale Art Exhibition that was installed on view in preparation for the auction the following week.
http://www.christies.com/auctions/post-war-and-contemporary-art-new-york-november-2014
