Conversations on Culture Salon
This is series of conversations between the audience and invited guests that explore topics related to modern culture from a psychoanalytic perspective.
Topics range from contemporary social issues to literature and the arts, from philosophy and religion to science and technology.
These conversations are intended for artists, scientists, scholars, psychoanalysts, and other mental health professionals interested in psychoanalytic ideas and modern culture.
The salons are held two to three times annually. An archive of past salons can be viewed below.
Conversations on Culture and NEXMAP present
"Grain de sable" by Louis Dufort.
Sunday, December 2, 2007, 4-6 pm.
Out of his increasing engagement with some of the deepest human experiences, Quebec digital music composer, Louis Dufort, has created a powerful piece entitled "Grain de sable"(Grain of Sand). The Conversations on Culture Committee of the Friends of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is proud to co-produce with NEXMAP a performance of this piece accompanied by a discussion of its relevance to psychoanalytic conceptions and experiences of the power of sound throughout the life cycle. The piece will be played twice, first for the audience, followed by a collaborative discussion among the audience, the composer, and psychoanalyst Jeanne Harasemovitch, L.C.S.W., and then a second time in order to enrich the participants experience of the piece.
We are excited to collaborate with NEXMAP, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the production and appreciation of contemporary, experimental art. NEXMAP serves as a vehicle and forum of exchange for local and international artists working in diverse media - contemporary music, music theatre, dance, visual arts, and multi-media. By pairing concerts, festivals, special events and performances with related education and outreach programs, NEXMAP provides opportunities in intimate settings where artists and audiences can explore the new artistic landscape shaped by the advent of new technologies.
Please join us for a unique performance and stimulating discussion.
Event location:
Recombinant Media Labs, 763 Brannan St, San Francisco, between 6th & 7th Street.
Tickets: Limited seating. Advance ticket purchase available at www.nexmap.org, under Louis Dufort Double take event.
Fees: $18 professionals, $13 students.
Please contact Esther Ehrensaft, Ph.D., for further inquiries at (415) 749-1060.
Archive:
The Bionic Mind: Biotechnology and the Human Psyche
Science is fast approaching what might be the most consequential technological threshold in human history: the ability to alter the genes we pass to our children and the ability to create desired psychological functioning and experience through manipulations of brain processes.
Genetic enhancement - the anticipated ability to modify nonpathological human traits – holds great promise but at the same time conjures up images of techno-eugenics and designer children.
Similarly, robotics and nanotechnology are heralded by some as routes to changing human nature itself.
Join us for a lively and open discussion with a philosopher, an historian, and a psychoanalyst on this controversial topic.
We'll consider questions such as: Does the coming age of biotechnological control over human nature mark an occasion for celebration, or does it represent the doom of a brave new world?
What are the social, psychological and political forces that will be put into play?
What are the threats and promises that biotechnology presents for individual integrity and autonomy, for family and community life, and for social and economic justice?
Panelists:
Gopal Balakrishnan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz
Erik Gann, M.D., Psychoanalyst, San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and Society
Joseph Schear, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Cal Poly
Monday, March 5, 2007
SFPI&S Library
2420 Sutter Street
San Francisco
7:00-7:30pm Light Refreshments
7:30-9:00pm Salon
Cost: $20 payable at the door
The Culture Industry
With Dr. Peter Selz, Professor Emeritus of Art History, UC Berkeley and Psychoanalyst Lee Grossman, M.D.
This will be the first in a series of conversations artists, scientists, scholars, psychoanalysts, and other mental health professionals interested in psychoanalytic ideas and modern culture.
For our first program, we look forward to thinking about what lies beneath the rapacious culture industry and what motivates both individual artists and the culture at large to take the turns they do.
Dr. Peter Selz, Professor Emeritus of Art History at UC Berkeley will discuss culture’s symbols and institutions at the end of the 20th century and into the 21st.
Psychoanalyst Lee Grossman, M.D. will apply a psychoanalytic lens to the discussion and art historian Catherine Schear will moderate the program.
Please RSVP to 415-563-5815 or finance@sfpis.org.
Thursday, October 19th, 2006
SFPI&S Library
2420 Sutter Street
San Francisco
6:30-7:00pm Light Refreshments
7:00-9:00pm Salon
