Critically-acclaimed historian, author of 12 books, journalist and former Sunday Times correspondent, Australian writer Paul Ham has just released The Soul: A History of the Human Mind. For thousands of years, the soul was an “organ,” an entity, something that was part of all of us, that survived the death of the body. It could be saved, condemned, tortured, bought. Then, in the Enlightenment, the “soul” disappeared: It became the “mind.” Today, neuroscientists demonstrate that the mind is the creation of the brain. And what to say of the synthetic spirit of artificial intelligence? “This is a vastly ambitious book. It is also wonderfully entertaining… “ (Michael McGiir, The Sydney Morning Herald, August 2, 2024). “A milestone book.” Bookoccino.
Sculptor, painter, opera director Alexander Polzin, born in East Berlin in 1973, completed training as a stonemason before beginning a career as a sculptor and painter. His works have been seen in galleries and public spaces around the world. He also collaborates with writers, composers, musicians, choreographers, and scientists. In the last decade, his artistic curiosity has led him towards stage design for dance, opera and theatre, as well as direction, including Tristan und Isolde at La Monnaie de Bruxelles. His projects include a series of sculptures called “Angeles,” a series of paintings auprès W.H. Auden’s The Age of Anxiety, later Leonard Bernstein’s musical composition of the same name, and The Art of Being Human.
Reservations are required: rsvp@artsarena.org