“The Neuroscience of Extraordinary Places: Machu Picchu plus the Great Wall”
March 16, 2013
Neuroscientist Eve Edelstein and architectural photographer Mike Torrey will use Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China as examples in describing how brain processes may influence our reaction to design and what this means to today’s architects. They’ll describe research on sensory, motor, and cognitive reactions to architecture—for example, an AIA College of Fellows Latrobe experiment that revealed the effects of color and light intensity on heart rate. What has been learned may be used to formulate principles applicable to the enhancement of architectural design.
Dr. Edelstein has a background in architecture, anthropology, neuroscience, and clinical neurophysiology. She is an associate professor at CAPLA, the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and a research specialist at Calit2, UCSD. In addition, she will be the deputy director of the U of A’s Institute for Place and Wellbeing, under Dr. Esther Sternberg. This institute will integrate expertise from across the university – its anthropology and engineering departments, Center for Integrative Medicine, Institute for the Environment, Az-LIVE CAVE team, and CAPLA – with a joint mission of measuring the effects of the built and natural environment on health, emotions, and spirituality.
Mr. Torrey is a prize-winning photographer whose “Stone Offerings: Machu Picchu’s Terraces of Enlightenment” won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Arts Book. He has made presentations on the Incan site at the Bowers Museum, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and other venues across the country, and spoke at the recent Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture conference at the Salk Institute.
A new poster from Mike’s trip to the Great Wall will be available at the talk, with 100% of the proceeds of 20 posters to support the annual Harriet Gill Award.
Come, look, listen, and assess your own cognitive reactions.
(John Mann)