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Special Performances
Film Screening: FLicKeR
Date: Wednesday June 10, 2009
Time: 6:00 - 8:00pm
Venue: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chiang Chen Studio Theatre
Pirce: 65 HKD
Featuring greats like Burroughs (in archival footage), singer Marianne Faithfull, singer/artist Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV, poet John Giorno, rocker Iggy Pop, filmmaker Kenneth Anger, and artist/turntablist DJ Spooky, FLicKeR is a hypnotic documentary. Taking the dream machine as the basis of its explorations, FLicKeR asks crucial questions about the nature of art and consciousness, and imagines a humanity liberated to explore its creativity in complete freedom.
Including a talk By Basstian C. ter Meulen.
Bastiaan is completing his studies as a neurologist with focus on neurological disease as a conscious experience. Bastiann features in the film FlicKeR and will talk about how Brion Gysin’s dream machine is a tool for exploring hidden realms of consciousness and the mind at large. His talk will provide both a neurological and personal perspective on the workings of the dream machine.
Watch the trailer.
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| Martha has an amazing story of love of music and the determination to be seizure free by convincing a team of doctors to remove much of her right brain. Martha Curtis is a concert violinist who learned how to co-exist with epileptic seizures even from the stage. Curtis suffered from epilepsy all her life. She began playing violin at age 9 and managed to graduate as salutatorian from the Interlochen Arts Academy and graduate with honors from the Eastman School of Music. Although experiencing seizures regularly, she was able to perform as a professional musician with various orchestras. The other musicians, she says, knew what to do if she experienced a seizure.
The story of Martha Curtis indomitable courage and achievement is inspiring and uplifting, a testament to the untapped possibilities of the human mind and will.
On stage, Martha Curtis plays a tender melody from a Beethoven Symphony when a powerful force engulfs her…30 minutes later she awakens…she has suffered yet another gran mal seizure. After years of taking medication and suffering four grand mal seizures in a single month – three of them while performing on stage – she underwent the first of three major surgeries to stop the neurological storms. In 1991 Curtis, under the care of doctors from the Cleveland Clinic, underwent the first of what would become three major brain surgeries. Putting her music career at risk, she eventually had nearly 50 percent of her right temporal lobe removed. Today Martha is seizure-free and her ability to perform and memorize difficult pieces of music is greater than before the operations. Martha Curtis’ success story has single-handedly changed preconceived theories about brain and memory function.
Martha co-existed with adversity and persisted past society's limiting view of physical challenge. In a moving lecture performance, Martha shares her belief that everybody needs to touch beauty and order.
* The Martha Curtis performance and presentation is made possible through funding arranged by Enlighten-Action for Epilepsy, Hong Kong |
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The wheel of Consciousness
Jeff Warrren Author of the Head Trip 9-10pm
Come join Jeff on a mind-boggling audio-visual journey through ten different states of waking, sleeping and dreaming consciousness. Over the past several years, Author Jeff Warren has served as a guinea pig by volunteering for countless consciousness studies experiments that include sleep studies, lucid dreaming, deprivation tank, the ingestion of Ayahuasca and other mind-altering substances, EEG brain workshops, and meditation retreats. He chronicles some of these experiences in his book Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness. Jeff Warren has transformed his book into a one-man multimedia performance extravaganza specifically for the Asia Consciousness Festival. |
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Saturday Evening Performances
Date Saturday June 13
Time: 7:30 –10:30
Venue: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chiang Chen Studio Theatre
Percussionist Ed Mikenas will kick-off the evenings festivities with a highly energized interplay of rhythm and consciousness. Ed will set the stage for violinist and lecturer Martha Curtis who will tell her story of music, seizures, and brain surgeries. Then join Jeff Warren, author of The Head Trip on a tour of the states of
consciousness one can experience during both waking and sleep in an audiovisual extravaganza titled the Wheel of Consciousness.
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