Events

Date: 14 October 2026   Time: 14:00 - 15:00     

Location: Graduate Center Room GC601

Abstract: What makes live experiences special? Liveness is a central feature of music concerts, dance performances and theatre plays, but it is also relevant to political rallies, sporting events and meeting online. In this talk, I will discuss recent from findings from the NEUROLIVE project, a five year project combining dance and neuroscience research to understand what makes live experiences special. Using mobile EEG, eye tracking and continuous ratings of audience engagement, live experiences can be conceptualized and measured as a form of sustained entrainment between the minds, brains, and bodies of performers and spectators. Moreover, we differentiate between physical liveness (being in a here and now) and social liveness (being together with others). By their very nature, live experiences are unique, context-dependent and social. Our research combines theories from theatre and performance studies, mobile neuroimaging, psychological experimentation and artistic research to show that the ancient social function of the performing arts are preserved in engagement with contemporary dance.

Bio: Guido Orgs is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and group leader of the Movement and Performance group at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. His research focusses on human movement in real-world contexts and evolves around three broad research areas: the cognitive neuroscience of dance and the performing arts, the role of creative movement, sport and exercise for physical and mental health, and mobile neuroimaging in real world contexts. He studied Psychology and Performing Dance at the University of Düsseldorf and the Folkwang, University of the Arts in Germany. Before moving to London to take up Postdoctoral Fellowship at the ICN in 2009, he worked full-time as dance artist and performer with German dance company NEUER TANZ/VA WÖLFL. In 2015 he became Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London where he founded the MSc in Psychology of the Arts, Neuroaesthetics & Creativity in 2018. From 2020 until 2025 he was Principal Investigator of NEUROLIVE, a 5-year EU-funded interdisciplinary research project that aimed to understand what makes live experiences special. At UCL Guido teaches Exercise Neuroscience and Sport Psychology.