1. Finding Oneself Brain, Body and World: An ekphrastic collaboration Jake Campbell Mike Corcoran

2. Finding Oneself Part 1 - People, Stories and Surroundings Part 2 - A Scientific Underpinning Part 3 - Jake’s Creative Process Part 4 - Mike’s Creative Process Part 5 - Ekphrastic Collaboration

3. People, Stories and Surroundings Part 1

4. 10 minutes - Jake - Introduction - An introduction to the theme of the talk. A discussion of our shared belief that people, their environments and the stories they grow up with are interconnected.

5. A Scientific Underpinning Part 2

6. Where are you? Where is your mind right now? To understand the mind, we need to establish what it’s made of. We should attempt to locate every causally active element in a person’s cognitive system. Cognitive Processes = Processes such as recalling a memory, calculating a sum, or making a decision. If it’s causally active, it’s included.

7. A Little Thought Experiment... Two twins go to a family reunion; TWIN 1 sees his aunt walking towards him He matches his aunt’s face with name and face previously associated, endorsed, and stored in the brain. He greets his aunt successfully. TWIN 2 sees his aunt walking towards him He matches his aunt’s face with name and face previously associated, endorsed, and stored in the photo album. He greets his aunt successfully.

8. “If, as we confront some task, a part of the world functions as a process which, were it done in the head, we would have no hesitation in recognizing as part of the cognitive process, then that part of the world is part of the cognitive process.” Clark, A and Chalmers, D, 1998 “The Extended Mind” Analysis 58: 1: p.10-23 Cognitive processes are constituted and driven by features of the brain, body and world working as one coherent distributed system. Extended Cognition

9. Richard Feynman: I actually did the work on the paper. Charles Weiner: Well, the work was done in your head, but the record of it is still here. Richard Feynman: No, it’s not a record, not really. Its working. You have to work on paper, and this is the paper. Okay? Gleick, J, 1993 Genius: The Life and Times of Richard Feynman p.409 Examples of Extended Cognition

12. People, Stories and Surroundings We don’t think about our stories and surroundings, we think with them. There are times when they play a causally active role in our cognitive process: through memory recall, our creative processes, or otherwise. At the times when they are causally active, they are a part of our own cognitive system. We are entwined with the stories and surroundings, and we cannot be fully understood without them.

13. Jake’s Creative Process Part 3

14. 10 minutes - Jake - Jake's artistic process - A discussion of how these themes influence your work and creative process - with particular reference to, and presentation of, Spelks.

15. Mike’s Creative Process Part 4

16. 2011- Oil on Canvas Space and time needn’t be fundamental features of our Universe. They may be emergent phenomena, appearing only at a suitable level of abstraction. Emergence

17. 2011- Oil on Canvas Our sensory organs are our gateway to the Universe. The world we see is our own conscious interpretation of these sensory inputs. This is a personal and subjective interpretation. In that sense we are the creators of our own Universe. Emergence

18. Emergence – oil on canvas

19. 2014 – Oil on Board “During the 12th century, Owain, prince of Gwynedd, decided to entrust the care of his son Idwal to Nefydd Hardd. Nefydd was envious of clever Idwal because his own son Dunawd was untalented. Dunawd decided to push Idwal into the lake so that he would drown. Owain banished Nefydd from the kingdom of Gwynedd and named the lake Idwal in memory of his son. It is said that no bird flies over the lake’s surface and that a wailing voice can be heard when there is a storm in the Cwm.” Idwal www.eryri-npa.gov.uk

20. 2014 – Oil on Board Idwal

21. Idwal – oil on board

22. 2013 – Ink on Paper “Branwen reared a starling at the end of her kneading-trough, and taught it to speak, and told the bird what kind of man her brother was. And she brought a letter telling of her punishment and dishonour. The letter was tied to the base of the bird’s wings, and it was sent to Wales, and the bird came to this island.” The Mabinogion - Branwen ferch Llŷr Branwen

23. Branwen – ink on paper

24. 2012 – Ink on Paper ‘Lord,’ they said, ‘we have extraordinary news; we have seen a forest on the sea, where we never before saw a single tree.’ ‘That’s strange,’ he said/ ‘Could you see anything else?; ‘Yes, lord,’ they said, ‘we could see a huge mountain beside the forest, and it was moving; and there was a very high ridge on the mountain, and a lake on each side of the ridge; and the forest, and the mountain, and all of it was moving.’ The Mabinogion - Branwen ferch Llŷr Bran

25. Bran – Ink on paper

26. Ekphrastic Collaboration Part 5

27. 10 minutes - Jake - Ekphrastic collaboration - A discussion of your experience of collaboration, with particular reference to, and presentation of, Bran.

28. 2014 – Pencil and Ink on Paper A new creative process. STEP 1 – Translate STEP 2 – Research STEP 3 – Immerse myself in the story STEP 4 – Many attempts! Spelks

29. Spelks – ink on canvas

30. Text Summing Up...

31. THANK YOU Jake Campbell Mike Corcoran (m.corcoran@glyndwr.ac.uk)