Collaboratory Projects

The development process utilized to create Collaboratory projects is particularly unique because:

• Scientists and artists are together in the same room, at the same time, collaboratively engaged in the creation of original stage work.
• The development process is based, in many ways, upon the exploratory process of experimental science; in other words, new ways of investigating ideas are created, some of which may or may not be successful, and, with enough feedback during the process, the most powerful material that emerges is that which is explored in greater detail and eventually makes its way into the performance.

The Art of Questionable Provenance

The Art of Questionable Provenance, (formerly titled The Brain Project), a new play collaboratively created by professional actors and eminent scientists, is the STAGE Collaboratory’s first theatrical creation. It is a collaboration between the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Chicago.

In The Art of Questionable Provenance, the lives of a photojournalist, a detective, an art authentication expert, and a fortune teller intersect around a bizarre crime. A tale of perception that parallels the functions of the brain and explores critical themes emerging from modern neuroscience, The Art of Questionable Provenance examines how we piece together the stories – real or illusory – of our selves. Do the firings of certain neurons in a particular pattern ultimately determine who we are?

The Art of Questionable Provenance participants include prominent scientists and professional artists.