
talkPOPc's Podcast
talkPOPc (Philosophers' Ontological Party club), is public philosophy + cognitively-engaged art nonprofit founded by Dr. Dena Shottenkirk, who is both a philosopher and an artist. As a topic-based project (we are now on our fourth) talkPOPc sponsors one-to-one conversations between a participant and a philosopher (who always dons our amazing gold African king hat, along with our mascot Puppet!) These conversations are consensus-building conversations and feed back into Shottenkirk's related artworks and published philosophy. The conversations become collaborative acts of making both philosophy and art. Thus, each topic - #1. nominalism, #2. censorship, #3. art as cognition, and #4 power - has three "pillars" the associated artworks, the published philosophy book, and podcast conversations. Various philosophers participate (see our website talkpopc.org for the list of philosophers) and these conversations happen in various places. For example, we go into bars and have one-to-one conversations. We sit down next to the deli counter and hold a conversation with someone who has walked in to get a ham sandwich and walked out knowing so much more about their own thoughts. We go into the MDC prison in Brooklyn and have conversations. We set up in galleries where the artworks and the philosophy are also displayed. And we listen. Here are some of those conversations.
Change happens when people talk.
talkPOPc's Podcast
Episode #106: Danielle - Art, Fiction & Truth
talkPOPc Resident Philosopher Dr. Dena Shottenkirk speaks with Danielle at the Center for Fiction in Downtown Brooklyn
Timestamps:
- 00:10: Introductions
- 01:00: What does Danielle think about Art? Defining cognition is step #1
- 02:10: Is Art cognition? Art allows people to process and express what happens inside their brain. It's a tool for the Artist.
- 04:05: Taking the inner experience and making it evident to outsiders. A 3rd person PoV of a 1st person experience
- 05:30: Art as the nugget of fun for problem solving. Art is a non-stressful way of solving problems, but maybe fun is not part of this
- 06:55: Does non-fiction count as Art? Writers think they're telling you a truth.
- 08:55: Cognition is part of reading. Any new information needs cognitive processing. Non fiction changes your experiences of the world and how you process. Jennette McCurdy's memoir and her experiences as an actor and how it changes a viewer's perspective.
- 13:10: Is Art a kind of cognition? Art adds to the picture. A year-long playlist, songs and connections to places/experiences/time periods.
- 15:05: Music and smell in particular make us recall time and place, but why? We edit visually, and perhaps auditory and smell don't operate exactly like visual editing.
- 17:25: You don't realize your senses in the moment until they're taken away or significant change occurs
- 18:35: Maybe music makes us remember where our bodies were at a specific time and place
- 19:45: Music places you in ways because it's auxiliary instead of primary. It's a background element.
- 21:45: Art is inherently connected to cognition. It's how artists process what they're going through, like an external hard-drive. It triggers a process of connection.
- 23:10: A corny violin at MoMA. Now it makes every violin trigger a memory/idea of corn