Actors and monkeys
2. 6. 2011 // Eric Joris // Kategorie Randnotizen 2011May. First week with actor Robby CLEIREN. What kind of actor will he be in Terra Nova?
Originally we thought about him as a talking head. A head on a pedestal.
Like the monkey cages in which the macaques of Prof. Rizzolatti are being tested, their heads peeping out of the structure which immobilizes part of their body.
Didn’t find an adequate picture of it.
(Rizzolati’s team discovered the mirror neurons in the brain, research which is extremely inspiring as to understand empathy.)
They implanted electrodes in the brain. You can really hear the neurons firing when the macaque is undertaking specific motoric actions i.e. grabbing food or chewing.
When the monkey is immobilzed, could no longer grab food himself, but SEES a man undertaking the same motoric actions,
you can hear the same neurons in his brain firing.
Furthermore:
When watching the pictures of a amonkey’s brain connected to a robotic arm:
It is not the cruelty of the combination, but rather the solitude of a head towards the outer world, which is interesting
It even read as a solitude of the brain towards the other parts of the body.
We tried to visualise this separation of the head in several set ups.
By literally separating it on a pedestal, or making it shrink.