What You Think You See

Enjoy a dinner and conversation with scientists and students during Science Dinner. The menu does not only offer surprising tastes, but also thought-provoking ideas on the subject: What you think you see. Do we all see the same thing? How do film directors play with what we (can’t) see? Does our brain make us see things that aren’t really there? Can research data fool us with correlations we think (and want) to see? Get inspired through talks by scientists Jacob Jolij, Julian Hanich and Casper Albers in between three courses and discuss over dinner your view. Performing arts collective Teddy’s Last Ride will artistically explore the theme and be our host for this evening. The three-course (vegetarian) meal is prepared and served by catering collective Kruimels: Canh Chua Soup (Vietnamese sweet and sour soup) as appetizer, a small rice table (a modest version of the Dutch-Indonesian ‘rijsttafel’) as main course and for dessert Kheer (Indian rice pudding).

Julian Hanich is Associate Professor of Film Studies and Head of the Department of Arts, Culture and Media. He is the author of two monographs: The Audience Effect: On the Collective Cinema Experience (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) and Cinematic Emotion in Horror Films and Thrillers: The Aesthetic Paradox of Pleasurable Fear (Routledge, 2010). In his research he focuses on film and emotion, cinematic imagination, the collective cinema experience and film style.

Jacob Jolij is head of the Department of Research Support of the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, and assistant professor Experimental Psychology. He studied Psychology, Philosophy, Physics, and Sociology of Science in Amsterdam, where he obtained his PhD in 2009 in Victor Lamme's group. After working in Switzerland and the UK, he was appointed as assistant professor in Groningen. Jacob's main expertise is on experimental philosophical study of consciousness.

Casper Albers is professor in Applied Statistics and Data Visualisation. He is part of the Psychometrics and Statistics group at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences of the University of Groningen. He studies the psychological factors underlying the interpretation of data visualisation  and writes columns (mostly in Dutch) for various outlets, including national newspaper De Volkskrant and local university newspaper UKrant.

Teddy’s Last Ride is a performing arts collective composed by dancers, musicians and actors founded in 2017 in Groningen. Through their work they try to make sense of the social dynamics that drive contemporary society and the ways people interact with each other. They translate their artistic investigations into contemporary theatrical forms that take all shapes and sizes.

Science Dinner / Kennisdiner is organized by Studium Generale and Grand Theatre twice a year. Once in English, once in Dutch.