The Spontaneous Origin of Creativity | Agalma Foundation | TEDxCERN

What is creativity and where does it come from? Neuroscientist Nathan Evans from the Agalma Foundation asks this question during his talk, and enlists two jazz pianists to help him answer it. During their performance, an EEG charts and projects the neural activities of two pianists as they synergize, improvise and create. The performance demonstrates what is happening in the brain when humans spontaneously collaborate in an uncertain and evolving environment.

The Agalma Foundation asks the question: what does creativity look like and where does it come from? In order to discover the roots of improvisation, it provides an environment where scientists can connect with artists and explore improvisation from both a biological and psychological perspective. “How do you deal with the unknown and unexpected?” asks neuroscientist Nathan Evans, a member of the institute. “The unknown is something we face at every moment. The words I say come from somewhere, but we don’t know where.” In a multimedia performance, Evans will collaborate with pianists Richard Rentsch and Orazio Sciortino, and the visual artists BigMap, composed of two essential figures of Geneva's VJ scene: Matthias Grau and Jean-Claude Salansky. Together, they will show in real time which areas of the brain are activated when the artists improvise. The discussion will continue with an analysis of how an artist thinks and feels as they are in the process of composing something new.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx