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Adventure II · 5 episodes

The Emotion Factory

Music, film, stories, colors: the art of hacking the brain

Why do we cry over things that don’t exist?

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  • about 64 min
  • Not started yet
  • Music · Film · Storytelling · Painting · Neuroscience
Painting: four racehorses ridden by jockeys gallop with their legs stretched forward and back, as if flying, under a stormy sky.
Théodore Géricault · Public domain

In this adventure…

  • You will guess the end of a melody you have never heard.
  • You will spin the loop that gave birth to hip-hop.
  • You will see a face change emotion without moving a single pixel.
  • You will see red where there is none.

What’s inside: 5 episodes with experiments, 4 episodes with bets, 3 episodes to listen to, 1 episode with films.

The episodes

  1. The ChillsA melody stops before the end. You know how it ends.Your brain predicts music note by note. The chills come when it is right… or wrong. 12 min
    • Sounds
    • Experiments
    • Bets
  2. Four Chords and a LoopFour chords. Hundreds of hits. Listen.The loop, the sample, the drum machine, the corrected voice: four ideas made today’s music. 14 min
    • Sounds
    • Experiments
    • Bets
  3. Twenty-Four Lies a SecondDoes a galloping horse ever have all four hooves off the ground? Place your bet.Cinema is made of nothing but still images… and your brain. 15 min
    • Films
    • Sounds
    • Experiments
    • Bets
  4. Once Upon a TimeThree geometric shapes move around. You will see a drama.Your brain can’t help seeing stories. Even where there are none. 11 min
    • Experiments
    • Bets
  5. Red Does Not ExistWhat color are these strawberries? Check with the eyedropper.Colors are not in the world: your brain makes them, and painters know it. 12 min
    • Experiments

You will meet

  • Photograph: an elderly Eadweard Muybridge, with a long white beard, seated with his hands clasped.Eadweard Muybridge1830 – 1904
  • Photograph: Georges Méliès, with a receding hairline and an upturned mustache, in a suit and tie.Georges Méliès1861 – 1938
  • Black-and-white photograph: Kurt Vonnegut, with curly hair, glasses and a mustache.Kurt Vonnegut1922 – 2007
  • Photograph: Claude Monet, with a long white beard, looks at the camera.Claude Monet1840 – 1926

The whole journeyNext adventure: Other People