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SUMMARY:Musical groove: body-movement\, pleasure and embodied cognition - 
 Maria Witek\, University of Birmingham
DTSTART:20240514T160000Z
DTEND:20240514T170000Z
UID:TALK216211@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Peter Harrison
DESCRIPTION:*Abstract*\n\nWhat is it about rhythm in music that makes peop
 le want to move? And why does moving to the beat feel so good? In this tal
 k\, I will review a selection of my research studies focusing on musical g
 roove – defined in psychology as the pleasurable desire to move to a mus
 ical beat. Using online surveys\, motion-capture and fMRI\, I show how the
  rhythmic structure of syncopation affects pleasure and movement in an inv
 erted U-shaped way\, suggesting there’s a balance between complexity and
  predictability in groove. I finish with some reflections based on a cogni
 tive-philosophical analysis of groove\, casting syncopation as a route to 
 physically enacting the beat\, by using our bodies to fill in ‘gaps’ i
 n the rhythmic surface. Groove thus becomes a palpable example of the embo
 died mind where boundaries between music\, body and mind become blurred.\n
 \n*Biography*\n\nMaria A. G. Witek is Associate Professor at the Departmen
 t of Music\, University of Birmingham\, UK. Before taking on this post\, s
 he worked at the Center for Music in the Brain\, Aarhus University and the
  Royal Academy of Music\, Denmark\, where she remains an affiliated resear
 cher. She holds a DPhil in Music from the University of Oxford\, an MA in 
 Music Psychology from the University of Sheffield and a BA in Musicology f
 rom the University of Oslo. Her research addresses the psychology\, cognit
 ive neuroscience and cognitive philosophy of musical rhythm\, body-movemen
 t and affect\, using methods such as brain imaging\, motion-capture\, phys
 iological recording\, participatory research methods\, and phenomenologica
 l and music analysis. She is currently PI on the AHRC funded project ‘Em
 bodied Timing and Disability in DJ Practice’ and co-I on the ‘Augmente
 d Reality Music Ensemble’ project\, funded by the EPSRC. She is also the
  meetings chair of RPPW – the Rhythm Perception and Production Workshop.
 \n\n*Zoom link*\n\nhttps://zoom.us/j/99433440421?pwd=ZWxCQXFZclRtbjNXa0s2K
 1Q2REVPZz09
LOCATION:CMS computer room\, Faculty of Music (11 West Road\, Cambridge\, 
 CB3 9DP)
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