On Sunday, September 11th, the Fest Center curtain rose with the opening movement of “Step the Brain Along a Path,” with a lone dancer in blue standing on the right side of the stage in the spotlight. I saw.clustered on the left A neutrally dressed ensemble, meant to symbolize her brain cells. React with almost jerky, externalized movements. of her own. Later, the audience learns that the dancer’s name is Rachel, and that she is one of her four humans in the ballet experimenting with her interface with her brain to achieve her goals. I know that

Created in collaboration with Georgia Tech Arts, the multimedia performance “Step the Brain Along a Path” is the brainchild of the school’s professor and researcher, Christopher Rozell. electrical and computer Engineering, Aaron Shackelford, Georgia Tech Arts Director. Rozell’s path to neuroscience began with research. music in college, and he later approached Shackleford hear the vision of the latter what art and science should be Integrated with Tech.

“When Aaron came back to me and said he was going to use dance for the project, I thought He was insane,” said Roselle. “I didn’t know much It’s disciplined, but I thought it lacked the necessary narrative presentation. ”

Troy Schumacher is a dancer, director and choreographer who has performed with the New York City Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company and the Joyce Theatre. Schumacher always wanted to work with scientists. When I pitched him the ballet idea about neuroethics, he couldn’t turn it down.

“This area of ​​neuroscience and AI is one of the most important things happening to humanity,” said Schumacher. “It will change the world. There are also many. Scientists do this to achieve the following: I can’t do anything else.

Roselle’s initial skepticism about dance-based projects Short-lived.

“I could see I fell in love with the genius Troy brought to the table power to integrate Art to what we do. Both engineering and dance are fundamentally creative disciplines.both are about designing something under enforced constraints You get even more creative,” said Roselle.

With great technology comes great responsibility. The work Rozell is doing with technology that works with the brain is no exception. There are a lot of ethical issues with this issue. Should these technologies be used to treat mental illness? To improve performance? How to perfect your memory? Who regulates this kind of technology? should it be used for children? These are the questions that “Step the Brain Along a Path” undertakes.

“Because the technology that reveals them is so new, the language around It’s still emerging,” Rozelle said. “We are at the limits of what we know. Art can uniquely offer a way of communicating and reasoning about concepts that we do not yet have language for. As I learned more, I realized that using a movement-based discipline made perfect sense.Movement is fundamentally concerned with how humans interact with the world around them. .”

To realize this project, Shackelford turned to Atlanta-based dance company Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre. She has a vision to push the boundaries of classical ballet.

Terminus is small but mighty task. Transforming complex scientific challenges into accessible ones work of art.

“Step the Brain Along a Path” opens with a loose narrative of four humans interacting with the brain-human interface. The goal of each is to control physicality, time, emotions, or memory.

After setting the initial premise, it quickly meanders to another even more abstract possibility: the potential risks and benefits of such control, and its impact on memory. and loss.

Set to a hypnotic score by Alex Sommers and presented alongside the stunning work of projection artist Sergio Mora Diaz, this piece is an immersive deep dive into the brain that must be experienced as much. . Understood.

The Terminus dancers offer a classical underpinning and contemporary bravado, captivating as you step in and out of Schumacher’s work. of classical shape.

“To fully understand the brain, we need multiple disciplines.” Institute of Neuroethics Think and Do Tank, at a post-Sunday performance panel. “The future of neurotechnology is as unimaginable today as it was when smartphones first came out, but dancing Vocabulary for imagining it.