Geneva plans futuristic brain and arts complex

The very point where the Rhône and Arve rivers flow into each other in the centre of Geneva is set to become a unique rendezvous for neuroscientists and artists.

On Thursday the government presented a multi-million-franc project to regenerate the 11-hectare Jonction area, which will incorporate a new neuroscience-arts research complex, teaching facilities, accommodation and park.

Geneva is keen to expand its extensive neuroscience hub by forming 20 research teams to study the influence of the arts and creative processes on the human brain.
 
“Our ambition is to create a world-class research centre – a Cern of the 21st century,” Mark Müller, president of the Geneva government, told reporters.
 
As well as the new research complex, the government intends to regroup in one location the 1,400 students from Geneva University of Music (HEM) and Geneva University of Art and Design who are currently scattered across the city’s 14 sites.
 
Public areas, a park and walkways will also be built close to the rivers, together with exhibition areas, a media library and a “high-tech” 1,200-seater concert hall. The total budget for the public-private venture will be in the “hundreds of millions of Swiss francs”, say officials.
 
According to the authors of the project report, jointly developed by Geneva University and the University of Applied Sciences for Western Switzerland, the potential offered by the meeting of neuroscience and art is “immense”.
 
Possible new areas of research could include improving our understanding of how the brain functions when playing or listening to music, dancing or acting, either alone or in groups; the design of instruments; and the impact of art on emotions, cognitive learning and perception.
 
“What pleasures do we get from listening to music? What are the differences in perception for a listener that are innate or acquired? Some artists are worried that we want to start opening up their heads while they are playing an instrument, but that’s not the idea; it’s about posing the same questions together,” said Geneva University’s rector Jean-Dominique Vassalli.

by Simon Bradley, swissinfo.ch

Source: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/science_technology/Geneva_plans_futuris...