They each had 15 - 20 minutes to speak separately and then they sat down together and the audience had a chance to ask questions. Roman showed at least a dozen of his works as a PowerPoint-type presentation. Many of his works are finely crafted sculptural pieces that juxtapose diverse materials and play on our sense of how things 'should' be. Some of his pieces are playful enough to create laughter. He said he enjoys working with the element of surprise and with irony. He called himself, "A conceptual artist that works with my hands".

Dr. V.S. Ramachandran is a neuroscientist and his talk was focused on his analysis of some so-called 'artistic universals'. He asked, "How does the brain respond to art?" He spoke of how we can all identify 'kitsch' yet stating what the difference is between art and kitsch is not obvious. He spoke of the concept of "rasa" — a term from India that means essentially spirit. He asked how does an artist capture rasa? Personally, that is a question that I find very intriguing. As an artist, if I create something that has a sense of its own life, I feel I have succeeded. In my opinion, rasa is not simply found in representational styles, though Rembrandt is someone that frequently was able to capture the rasa of his subjects. For abstract works, though, the masters gave extraordinary rasa to their works. Think of a Rothko or a Ryman and their works hum with a vital spirit unlike anyone else's work.

Ramachandran spoke of how one third of our brains are dedicated to visual perception, and how there are over thirty areas of the brain where visual information is processed. Our perception of visual information has been shown to alter our perception of many other things, including pain. I would go so far as to say that much of scientific progress can be attributed to our increasingly accurate visual understanding of the material world due to improved technology and the increased understanding of actual function. In other words, the understanding of processes is often due to our ability to see things better.

During their conversation with the audience, Roman posed the question, "What do we live for — moments of comfort or moments of intensity?" He answered that the moments of intensity experienced while creating his art are what he lives for and I would agree, the artist's path is generally not one of comfort.

The evening was a terrific success, and I look forward to more dynamic conversations between artists and scientists. Check out the website at http://www.bronowskiforum.org/Site/Home.html for more info.