Alex (Chimera’s PI) meets Marko Zivkovic (Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Alberta, Canada). Marko is a remarkably multi-disciplinary gentleman whose expertise encompasses the anthropology of art, philosophy of science and the sociology of knowledge.  His current research explores ‘art and the brain’, particularly the response of artists to the current growth of neuroscience. He’s been following Marina Abramovic’s Magic of the Mutual Gaze, a neuroscience experiment exploring the neurological ‘synchronizing’ effect of mutual gaze (http://abramovic.garageccc.com/en/works/10). Marko has some fascinating insights into the project – and he’ll be writing on this for a book on Performance and the Medical Body, edited by Alex and Gianna Bouchard due for publication in 2015.

We also consider the synchronization of sociology, anthropology and performance. Marko’s anthropological/social perspective on rehearsal and performance as a ritual act (we’ve both been involved in performances based on traumatic personal experience: Marko mourning his late wife, the artist Gordana Zivkovic, me with Bloodlines, on my brother’s encounter with Leukaemia) and on the sociology of collaborations across disciplines (particularly the current ‘infactuation’ with scientists by artists) is fascinating.  More on Marko here: http://www.artdesign.ualberta.ca/en/Faculty_and_Staff/Adjunct_faculty/Marko_Zivkovic.aspx