Berke Alp

Join us at Toyohashi PLAT on Sunday 6/15 for a talk by artist and educator Berke Alp regarding the balance and management of academic and creative life.

The chapter will also be recruiting new officers and soliciting presentation proposals for 2026, so please do attend if you are interested!

Links for RSVP and directions are below.

Abstract:
Conceptual photography involves long hours of contemplating philosophical, scientific, historical, and literary ideas, and creatively blending them into a cohesive project that can be shared with the world. Over the years, this artistic process has allowed me to build a diverse portfolio that includes various domestic and international exhibitions, performance art shows, and group projects.

Understanding the brain cognitively to grasp its functions, especially while learning a new language and teaching my university students, requires extensive reading of articles, attending courses and conferences, writing academic papers, and applying theoretical knowledge in my classrooms. Although both pursuits appear extremely time-consuming and demanding, they seem quite different from the outside. Are they truly distinct?
With advancements in technology, an increasing number of studies are focused on understanding how creativity arises in our brains from a cognitive perspective. Recent research suggests that scientific thinking may share similar neurocognitive mechanisms with ‘domain-general’ creative thinking (Beaty et al., 2023). In this presentation, I will discuss how domain-general creativity operates in our brains, drawing from my personal experiences as an academic and a photographer to offer a unique perspective that intersects both fields.