A look back at the Researchers' Night 2021 - Laboratoire Parole et Langage

As a reminder, Clément François, Philippe Blache, Thierry Legou and Léonardo Lancia from LPL (Aix) and LPP (Paris) were present for the preparation workshops as well as the artistic performance, debates and scientific demos on September 24 and 25. In addition, four doctoral students from the COBRA project - Emilia Kerr, Lena Marie Huttner, Salomé Antoine and Dorina de Jong - joined them in order to collect data (EEG hyperscanning & interaction).

The Catalan project - co-funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions - aimed to bring scientists closer to the general public through an innovative language based on live performance and new language tools for researchers. The part of the LPL / LPP consisted first of all in designing and setting up an experiment to highlight the effects of the collaboration between the actors over the fifteen days of preparation for the show. The experiment aimed to measure in particular possible effects of synchronization or convergence from a linguistic, mimogestual, physiological and cerebral point of view.

The second contribution of the LPL / LPP consisted in the preparation and participation in the show, by capturing and showing live the brain activity of 5 members of the team integrated into one part of the show.

This experiment was conducted using Emotiv 14-channel Electroencephalography (EEG) systems recently developed and never previously used in research at LPL. This wireless headset allows, unlike the EEG Biosemi or EGI devices of the platform, the capture of electro-physiological information in field research situations or for educational purposes.

Event web site: https://epsn.epicalab.com/

Performance replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOg0UvEB-7E

Complete photo gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/epicalab/albums

Interview with Clément François (LPL): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TSRQ4CNgOw

Dorina's article on the COBRA research blog: https://www.cobra-network.eu/2021/10/01/how-we-ended-up-in-theatre-when-doing-a-phd/