Act like you mean it (Lecture Performance)
Vortrag und Aufführung in deutscher Sprache
This “lecture-performance” (with
different actors) has been presented before in San Francisco.
In this “lecture-performance” researchers explore whether, according to the brain, actors in a play express genuine emotion or just fake it.
Professional actors go through arduous training and employ diverse methodology to convey complex feelings and stir genuine compassion in their audiences. But just how far acting really goes and to what extent the body merely impersonates emotion has long fascinated scholars of the performing arts. Put simply, when actresses and actors play lovers weathering relationship ups and downs, do they really feel what lovers feel or do they only pretend? And where would scientists look to find the answer?
The question has generated debate between the arts and science for years, with arguments often revolving around the brain and the notion of emotional memory, a core element of actor training but a controversial notion in the scientific community. With its research program, “Authenticity of Emotion,” (“Echtheit des Gefühls”), the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film (ipf), at the Zurich University of the Arts has partnered with scientists to probe the idea.
Supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and its DO REsearch (DORE) program, which encourages research projects in Switzerland’s Universities of Applied Sciences, “Authenticity of Emotion” teams ipf with the Institute for Neuropsychological Diagnostics and Imaging, a branch of the Swiss Epilepsy Center in Zurich. Using modern brain imaging technology, their joint research examines whether top actors use true emotion in their performances or not. The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests to date, obtained from actors recalling and reciting their lines while lying in a scanner, have investigated if different acting techniques activate the key neural structures of emotional processing in different ways.
Aided by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet balcony scene, research heads Anton Rey (ipf) and Thomas Grunwald (Swiss Epilepsy Center) present their findings in a part scientific lecture, part performance. Assisting them are Yohanna Schwertfeger and Daniel Sträßner, who are presently (autumn 2011) performing „Romeo und Julia“ at the Burgtheater.
In this “lecture-performance” researchers explore whether, according to the brain, actors in a play express genuine emotion or just fake it.
Professional actors go through arduous training and employ diverse methodology to convey complex feelings and stir genuine compassion in their audiences. But just how far acting really goes and to what extent the body merely impersonates emotion has long fascinated scholars of the performing arts. Put simply, when actresses and actors play lovers weathering relationship ups and downs, do they really feel what lovers feel or do they only pretend? And where would scientists look to find the answer?
The question has generated debate between the arts and science for years, with arguments often revolving around the brain and the notion of emotional memory, a core element of actor training but a controversial notion in the scientific community. With its research program, “Authenticity of Emotion,” (“Echtheit des Gefühls”), the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film (ipf), at the Zurich University of the Arts has partnered with scientists to probe the idea.
Supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and its DO REsearch (DORE) program, which encourages research projects in Switzerland’s Universities of Applied Sciences, “Authenticity of Emotion” teams ipf with the Institute for Neuropsychological Diagnostics and Imaging, a branch of the Swiss Epilepsy Center in Zurich. Using modern brain imaging technology, their joint research examines whether top actors use true emotion in their performances or not. The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests to date, obtained from actors recalling and reciting their lines while lying in a scanner, have investigated if different acting techniques activate the key neural structures of emotional processing in different ways.
Aided by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet balcony scene, research heads Anton Rey (ipf) and Thomas Grunwald (Swiss Epilepsy Center) present their findings in a part scientific lecture, part performance. Assisting them are Yohanna Schwertfeger and Daniel Sträßner, who are presently (autumn 2011) performing „Romeo und Julia“ at the Burgtheater.
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