PARTICIPANTS
BrainMind Summits are invite-only, with space limited to around 250 attendees. All participants are members of the BrainMind ecosystem and are carefully selected for potential contribution, influence, and intent. Because only a small subset of the ecosystem can participate, only the most active members of the community will attend multiple summits.
GOALS
BrainMind Summits are built around the following principles of BrainMind:
Build a collaborative roadmap for effective forward progress in the science of the brain and mind with top scientists and leaders in the field.
Within this wider roadmap, surface and focus special attention on the areas and ideas in most need of coordinated support.
Leverage new forms of capital and infuse leaders in the entrepreneurial, investing, and philanthropic communities to support these pivotal ideas from the lab to society.
EXPERIENTIAL NEUROLAB
The BrainMind Summits include a hands-on Experiential NeuroLab with exciting inventions, technology demonstrations, and artistic exhibits. Experiences include mind-controlled visual media, AR and VR-based technologies, real human brains and 10-100x expanded brains, neuroscience-driven perceptual illusions, immersive education experiences, and more.
MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
Key performances were selected by our Musical Curator, composer Jonathan Berger. Berger is the Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at Stanford University, where he teaches composition, music theory, and cognition at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He was the founding co-director of the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts (SICA, now the Stanford Arts Institute) and founding director of Yale University’s Center for Studies in Music Technology.
Described as “gripping” by both the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, “poignant”, “richly evocative” (San Francisco Chronicle), “taut, and hauntingly beautiful” (NY Times), Jonathan Berger’s recent works deal with both consciousness and conscience. His chamber operas, Theotokia and The War Reporter explore hallucination and haunting memories, while his monodrama, My Lai portrays the ethical dilemmas of an individual placed in an impossible situation.
Van-Anh Vanessa Vo is a visiting artist at Stanford, world-renowned for her distinctive modern music blended with a cultural essence from traditional Vietnamese instruments. Among her accomplishments are the 2009 Emmy® Award-winning soundtrack for the documentary “Bolinao 52”, which she co-composed and recorded, and the soundtrack for the Sundance best documentary and 2003 Academy Awards® nominee “Daughter from Danang”.
Baba Brinkman is a New York-based rap artist and playwright. He is best known for his "Rap Guide" series of science-based hip-hop albums and theater shows, playing off-Broadway throughout 2019.
Fernando Lopez-Lezcano works magic with computer hardware and software, controllers, music composition, performance, and sound. His music blurs the line between technology and art, and is as much about form and sound processing, synthesis, and spatialization, as about algorithms and the custom software he writes for each piece.
Jamie Pabst spent years DJing in exploratory and non-traditional formats, using sound and visualization techniques for transformative experiences. She is now launching a commercial venture using the neuro-scientific underpinnings of music to impact emotional health and improve lives. Pabst will provide a sample of this new type of aural/neural experience.
Elena Georgieva is a researcher at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). She studies music information retrieval (MIR) and music cognition, and is also a recording engineer/producer, specializing in vocal music.
BRAIN | MIND | BODY
During the Summit, Qigong Master Guan-Cheng Sun and Integrative Health and Healing faculty William Spear will lead a series of somatically based experiences meant to balance the “heady” content of the presentations. These experiences will include stretching, moving, and breathing exercises, enriched with immersive visuals and contextualized with the Chinese view of brain and mind. “With two primary forces at work: the intellect and cognition, and the dream state and ideation, that which lies beyond those two is a non-dualistic form -- wei wu wei, or "doing non-doing," neither left or right, yang or yin, what is often said to be the source of 1+1=3, the nameless Dao.” Some exercises will focus in the “hara”, or “Dan Tian” through deep breathing, giving attendees an opportunity to return to a sense of emptiness, and to find and release tensions in the body. All of these sessions could potentially, though subtly, enhance participants’ experience by breaking up time spent sitting, thinking, talking, note-taking, etc. with quiet, contemplative practices that calm the busy mind and revitalize presence. Meant solely as a complement rather than a distraction, we sincerely believe these experiences will contribute value to the gathering.
ARTISTIC EXHIBITS
BrainMind will be featuring brilliant artists exhibiting artworks exploring themes of “digital consciousness.” These tech-forward exhibits will incorporate tools such as augmented reality, closed-loop BCIs, and data visualization. Below is a sample of the artistic exhibits featured at previous BrainMind Summits.
Grace Ng’s Mind Paint Interactive Installation was featured on stage during the summit.
Andrew Paul Leonard’s artwork was featured in video form during the main program on Sunday.
David Bolinsky’s animations of molecular machinery in neurons and somatic cells will be featured in video format as well as in print.
BRAIN-HEALTHY CUISINE
New research indicates that diet plays a significant role in brain function, impacting everything from memory to risk for brain diseases. We put these exciting findings into practice at our Summits. You won’t find junky conference fare at our event. Meals and snacks served at the Summit feature foods and ingredients with published findings for brain health benefit. Learn more about our approach here.
DETAILS
Dates: Saturday October 12th through Sunday October 13th
Location: This is a private gathering. Further detail was disclosed to invited participants. Visit the application page here.
Lodging: Please refer to Stanford’s comprehensive lodging guide.