The Source

Curated by Michelle Cotton

Friday 13 November 2009

Public Lecture: Friday 13 November 2009, 5:30PM to 7:00PM

“A man found that when he went to the cinema he would suddenly feel an irresistible impulse to strangle the person next to him; he never did actually throttle anyone, but came to himself with his hands around his neighbour’s throat. The impulse was not dependent on upon the subject of the film, but occurred most often if he moved his head suddenly while the film was on. When subjected to artificial flicker he developed violent jerking of the limbs when the flash rate was high — up to fifty per second — about the flicker rate of the cinema projector.”

— William Grey Walter, ‘The Living Brain’ (1953)

The Source is a lecture on light, based on an essay written for Jahresring 55: Psychonauten Kunst in Ekstase / Art in Ecstasy (Veit Loers ed. Walther Koenig: Cologne, 2008).

Featuring work by artists Andreas Bunte, Mary Ellen Bute, Làszlò Moholy-Nagy, Paul Sharits, Mark Titchner and Jennifer West, with literature by Aldous Huxley, Robert Lynd, Lewis Mumford, John Ruskin and William Grey Walter.

Limited capacity, no booking required.

Download The Source essay here.

With kind assistance of LUX, Matt’s Gallery, Royal College of Art, Loughborough University, University College London, and the Design and Artists Copyright Society.