Fundación Épica La Fura dels Baus presents Workshop#19 – Neurotransmitters held from April 24 to May 7, 2023 at the Old CACI Factory in Badalona and the new Foundation headquarters located in the Port of Badalona.
The initiative’s main objective is horizontal collaboration between science, art and technology, involving researchers, creatives and technologists in equal parts. The result, a great collective experiment based on the performing arts that contributes to research, fosters critical thinking in society and puts reflection on plausible futures on the table.
Workshop #19 – Neurotransmitters
Introduction: the workshop and the neurotransmitters
Workshop#19 – Neurotransmitters was born from the dialogue between the entity and research groups dedicated to the study of Neurotransmitters.
“Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers of our body. They carry messages through a dense network of nerves that communicate neurons with other neurons, with muscle cells or with glands. These messages allow us to move our limbs, feel, keep our heartbeat and receive and respond to all the information our body gets from other internal parts and from our environment.”
The knowledge of this field, treated by researchers from different points of view, including pharmacology, musicology, neuroscience or biosemiotics, will be made available to the creative participants in the project: on the one hand, as inspiration, and on the other, in the form of a challenge, objective and/or task, or as a practical experiment in which both creatives and the public can play a leading role.
All this with the aim of presenting to the invited audience a final sample as a result of this art-science collaboration developed during two intense weeks of collective work.
The experts
The workshop is carried out in collaboration with research groups from the Faculty of Medicine and the Institut de Neurociències de la Universitat de Barcelona, the Department of Philosophy of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia.
What are neurotransmitters? How do they work? What happens when the receivers come into play? What does a cell do when it receives the neurotransmitter? What generates an excitation in a neuron? Why do we have brain diseases when neurotransmitters fail? What is cognition without the nervous system? The reflection on perception without representation, adaptive behavior or self-induction, work on concepts such as the brain circuits involved in musical pleasure or dopamine and opioids as key neurotransmitters, are some of the issues that have been addressed by researchers involved in this project.
– Dr. Ernest Mas, Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Institut de Neurociències de la Universitat de Barcelona.
– Dr. Sergi Mas, associate professor of the pharmacology unit of the Faculty of Medicine at the Universitat de Barcelona and researcher assigned to IDIBAPS and CIBERSAM.
– Dr. Oscar Castro, professor of Philosophy and Biosemiotics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
– Dra. Victoria Puig, researcher at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and Institute of Neurosciences of the UAB (INc).
– Dr. Thomas Gener, researcher at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and Institute of Neurosciences of the UAB (INc).
The experiments
Proposed by Dr. Oscar Castro from the UAB during the creative process, this human simulation consists of reproducing the perceptive and communicative capacities of blobs, single-celled organisms that live in humid areas of forests. Although blobs do not have a brain or nervous system, they are intelligent. They make their own decisions, they are capable of taking minimal routes to get their food, they recognize environments and relatives.
Dr. Ernest Mas, a researcher at the UB, and Dr. Sergi Mas, professor at the UB and researcher attached to IDIBAPS and CIBERSAM, propose a pharmacological experiment with creatives. The study aims to investigate the effect that a drug can have on the perception of pleasure. For two days, the researchers measured the level of pleasure generated by music after taking the drug.
The exhibition
The two weeks of creative art-science and experimentation process concluded with two final samples open to the invited public who actively participated in the actions and experiments proposed by the group of creatives.
The exhibition began with a collective experiment with the audience about placebo and its effects. The experiment, co-designed with Dr. Ernest Mas and Dr. Sergi Mas, raises related questions about the placebo effect. What emotions does the public feel? Can the placebo suggest enough to receive more pleasure? The public is in this case, the subject of study.
After the welcome experiment, the public enters the interior of the building to take part in the first scene of the exhibition. The action proposes a reflection on experimentation with human brains and neurotransmitters. Can dopamine generate or condition happiness through the stimulation of the senses?
Based on knowledge provided by our experts, in this second scene an AI offers the public the possibility of buying a dopamine concentrate that promises happiness. How far would you be willing to go to achieve it?
The creatives are inspired by the knowledge and experiments proposed by researchers Dr. Ernest Mas and Dr. Sergi Mas to design this sensory-spatial experience that refers to binaural sound. Acoustic stimuli that generate emotions and evoke memories. The public is deprived of sight through masks in an action in which stillness and hearing are key.
After the sensory-spatial experience, the creatives conceive this scene inspired by the concept of synapses, a space where neurotransmitters are released, a union without contact. Furthermore, the action proposes a route based on the observation of the micro and the macro, just as it occurs in the scientific process.
The exhibition concludes with an action that addresses the fluctuation of serotonin levels: from frustration and depression to euphoria. The scene has been inspired by the knowledge presented by Dra. Victoria Puig and Dr. Thomas Gener, experts who have participated in this workshop.
Selection process – deadline expired
The entity has received about 150 applications. At this time, the selection process of the participants has been completed.
Workshop dates: from April 24 to May 7, 2023, both included.
Schedule: Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The schedule can be more intense during the last days.
Location: Physical, facilities of the Fundación Épica La Fura dels Baus, Badalona Port and Old Badalona CACI Factory.
Places: 30 places available.
Price: This is a training activity with a scholarship (the training is valued at €1,350.00). The scholarship does not include diets, transportation and accommodation expenses, as well as management and registration expenses. The participant, only in case of being selected, must pay the entity when formalizing the registration the amount of €150, which will cover the expenses of management, registration and insurance.
Profile: The call is intended for artists, scientists and technologists, especially those multidisciplinary and hybrid profiles who want to be part of a disruptive and innovative experience.
Full availability is required.
Registration Period: From February 22 to April 2, 2023 (extended period).
Registration form: DEADLINE EXPIRED
Informative online sessions: 03/2/2023 at 6 pm | 03/9/2023 at 1:00 p.m.
Documentation required for registration:
Participation in the workshop is restricted to individuals, and it is not necessary to prove previous knowledge. Applications must be submitted using the registration form indicated above. The required documentation is the following:
– Personal data: Full name, date of birth, ID, email.
– Curriculum Vitae with photo (maximum 2 pages, .pdf format)
– Motivation Letter (maximum 2 pages, .pdf format)
– Optionally, it will be valued positively by awarding one more point in the evaluation of the candidate: Presentation video of a maximum of 3 minutes in which you must answer the following questions:
Who are you?
What do you do normally?
What can you contribute? (from your experience, your knowledge, studies)
What do you want to contribute? (your dreams, curiosities, what you do NOT normally do but would like to do)
What do you imagine you can get out of your participation in the experience?
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