Event
Science on Screen: My Octopus Teacher (2020)
Real Art Ways’ new season of Science on Screen® invites you to experience the creative pairing of a feature film and a thought-provoking talk from a notable area scientist. This year, we will be presenting this series at the Connecticut Science Center.
Film Synopsis
A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world.
Program
3:00 pm: Dr. Elizabeth Casterly will lead a discussion on the fantastic and alien life form that is the cephalopod. She will talk about the complexities of interspecies communication and how relating to disparate life forms teaches us more about humanity.
3:30 pm: Screening of My Octopus Teacher
About Dr. Elizabeth Casterly
Dr. Elizabeth Casterly is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Trinity College. Her research and teaching focus on human cognition, particularly with respect to speech and communication. These are inherently interdisciplinary topics – understanding the mind requires knowledge from neuroanatomical connections and electrophysiology to schools of philosophical thought and contemporary computer science. Her particular study of language has involved physics, engineering, formal linguistics, fieldwork on Scandinavian languages in the North Atlantic, computer science, psychology, and the speech and hearing sciences. She believes that it is only when we bring these diverse views together that we can hope to unpack the complexities of humanity’s cognitive underpinnings.
Science on Screen is an initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.
