Phil.Art is a collaborative platform founded by Gaia Forlani to explore how art can diagnose and treat movement disorders. By merging neuroscience, art, philosophy, and partnering with the Parkinson Performance Centre, Phil.Art uses art and performative arts as predictive and therapeutic tools. This initiative brings together patients, neuroscientists, artists and cutting-edge thinkers to push the boundaries of traditional science and unlock new insights into conditions like Parkinson’s and Disorders of Movement.
Exploring the Science of Movement Through the Power of Art.
Projects
Dance Performance in NL
Live choreography-based performances exploring the connection between movement and Parkinson’s. These shows bring the physical and emotional aspects of Parkinson’s to life, using art to raise awareness, provide fresh insights into movement disorders and offering a new tool in the societal prevention of Parkinson’s and Disorders of Movement.
Art as a Predictive and
Feedback Tool
Dance and choreography, through physical thinking, serve as tools to monitor how Parkinson’s manifests and progresses. The movements of patients become a framework for exploring how symptoms evolve, potentially offering feedback loops that can be used in therapy and treatment.
Museum and Art Gallery Interventions
Interactive workshops, discussion series, art events, performances and lessons on Art, Neuroaesthetics, Neuroscience, and much more… all held in museums and galleries for an immersive experience. These sessions bridge art and science, offering participants new perspectives on how movement, the brain, and art interact, while exploring innovative ways to understand and manage movement disorders and other conditions.
Workshops and Open Classes
Engaging patients in dance, choreographers, neuroscientists, and other experts collaborate to test how choreography can be used as a therapeutic intervention. This interdisciplinary approach fosters deeper understanding and offers new ways to interact with patients, encouraging them to become part of the creative process.
Dance and Choreography as Diagnostic Devices:
Utilizing choreography as an "embodied" device to explore movement disorders. Through workshops and performances, choreography becomes a functional tool to track changes in a patient’s movement patterns, offering predictive insights into how Parkinson’s progresses and how it can be managed.
Docufilm and Dance Show
A docufilm capturing the intersection of art and Parkinson’s disease, along with performances that express the physical and emotional realities of movement disorders. These art forms raise awareness and engage audiences in understanding Parkinson’s from a fresh, artistic perspective.
Vision
Gaia Forlani founded Phil.Art to explore the untapped potential of art as a tool for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of movement disorders and other conditions. In doing so, Gaia and her team are merging neuroscience, art, and philosophy to gain unique insights over several disease (currently focusing on Parkinson’s). Through this multidisciplinary approach, Phil.Art pushes the boundaries of traditional science. Gaia is convinced that art reveals dimensions science cannot capture:
‘Art can let us see much more, reaching dimensions of understanding that are not encompassed by tools and methods used in science. These two worlds are both necessary and they need to complement each other. They are not in contrast, quite the opposite.‘
Art and choreography allow us to investigate dysfunctional, abnormal, or uncontrolled movement in ways that conventional methods cannot. By using choreography as a research tool, Phil.Art seeks to understand how dance can predict, diagnose, and even treat movement disorders, answering questions science alone cannot.
Background
In addition to being a neuroscientist, dancer, and coach, Gaia Forlani has developed a well-rounded philosophical and intellectual profile. She graduated in Philosophy of Contemporary Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics and later earned a Research Master's degree in Experimental Philosophical Sciences from the University of Milan, specializing in the Philosophy of Neuroscience and Movement, as well as the Phenomenology of Action and Perception. With her eclectic and versatile background, she is pushing the boundaries of neuroscience and neurology to intersect with art and artistic performance, convinced that art is still an untapped dimension when applied to science and medicine. Art has immense potential to reveal things we cannot capture with scientific tools and methods.
‘Art not only originates the moment we abandon the rational logical thinking, and fully abandon ourselves to intellect, art is even prior to all that, it is at the very beginning of being human.’
Collaboration
More than just a collaboration, Phil.Art is an active creative platform where patients play a vital role. It is well known that people with Parkinson’s Disease benefit from dance and art, but Phil.Art seeks to understand the behavioural and scientific mechanisms underlying this connection. Bringing together dancers, patients, artists, neuroscientists, philosophers, and intellectuals in a physical communication, we explore how the worlds of art and science meet in the unique dimension, pushing the boundaries of Parkinson’s care and Disorders of Movement.
Phil.Art highlights the unique intersection where philosophical inquiry and artistic expression come together to empower neurology and neuroscience to reveal new dimensions in the treatment and comprehension of movement disorders.
We invite decision-makers and potential funders who are in a position to support and invest in these ground-breaking projects to collaborate with us. For partnership inquiries, please contact Gaia at gaia@parkinsonperformancecentre.com.