The Cosmic Brains Round Tables are a three day series of roundtable discussions taking place within the Cosmic Brains workshop. These discussions will feature key speakers in conversation with a group of invited thought leaders, guests and citizens. The goal of these sessions is to foster an immersive, informal and evolving series of conversations around the guests’ work in progress, and to maintain several days of sustained exchanges leading to the public symposium on 25.11.23 to conclude the week. SCHEDULE: SESSION #01 - Synthetic Minds, Cosmic Brains 21.11.23 [16.00 - 19.30] Participants: Peter Watts leads the roundtable, with Julieta Aranda and Ed Keller participating. David Roden and Bani Brusadin will join in person. Sara Walker and Michael Garfield will join via ZOOM. Our first panel launches the week’s workshop and roundtable discussions. Selected topics will include models of cosmological mind explored in Peter Watts’ novels Blindsight and Echopraxia; gestural ecology...

In collaboration with Cineteca Madrid, "Cosmic Brains" brings a film cycle that explores the very ontology of the concept of intelligence through two cinematic works of Sci-fi. The two sessions of the series will be accompanied by conversations with artists, critical thinkers, and experts from various fields to explore the role that the deliberate composition of intelligent systems will play in shaping our collective future. In the first session, we will present "Ex Machina", followed by an enriching dialogue between science fiction writer Peter Watts and conceptual artist Julieta Aranda. Together, they will address the challenges we face when designing and creating Synthetic Minds. For the second session, we bring to the screen "Arrival", where we explore the potential ecological gesture between human and non-human minds and systems. This screening will be accompanied by a conversation between speculative political theorist Nandita Biswas Mellamphy and musician and technologist Ed Keller. PRACTICAL...

Synthetic Imaginaries exhibition cycle: Microbial Cosmologies Microbial Cosmologies presents three audiovisual works by Finnish artist Jenna Sutela, who engages with biological and computational systems, such as bacteria and artificial neural networks, to unravel the interconnections between humans, microbes, and machines. The works, Holobiont, Milky Ways and nimiia cétïi, explore the symbiotic relationship between humans and bacteria, as well as the influence of microorganisms on our consciousness and perception of the world. In Holobiont, Sutela highlights the bacteria Bacillus subtilis in a kind of creation myth. This bacteria, common in fermented foods like Japanese nattō, is depicted as playing a key role in the origins of life, suggesting life may have arisen from interstellar microbial contaminations. Milky Ways focuses its interest on the breast-gut-brain connection. Sutela examines how breast milk transfers microbial and cognitive worlds to newborns, drawing from current research on human digestion and the complex interactions between gut bacteria...