Life Perceives

Senses of Purpose: Talk at Life Perceives symposium, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex
20 January 2023

Life Perceives is a symposium bringing together scientists and artists for an open exploration of how “perception” can be understood as a phenomenon that does not only belong to humans, or even the so-called “higher organisms”, but exists across the entire spectrum of life in a myriad of forms. The symposium invites leading practitioners from the arts and sciences to present unique insights through short talks, open discussions, and artistic interventions that bring us slightly closer to the life worlds of plants and fungi, microbial communities and immune systems, cuttlefish and crows.

What do we mean when we talk about perception in other species? Do other organisms have an experience of the world? Or does our human-centred perspective make understanding other forms of life on their own terms an impossible dream? Whatever your answers to these questions may be, we hope to unsettle them, and leave you more curious than when you arrived.

Featuring contributions from:
Lucia Pietroiusti
Jeremy Niven
Filipa Ramos
Michael Levin
Anil Seth
Paco Calvo
Sissel Marie Tonn
Daisy Lafarge
Alex Jordan
Katie Bentley
Andrew Adamatzky
Jo Walton
Nicky Clayton
Mark Baldwin OBE
Irina Petrova Adamatzky