I am a philosopher of mind, perception, and psychology.

‌At Glasgow I am:

• Professor of Philosophy
• Director of the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience
• I sit on the Carnegie Lecture Series Committee
• Formerly, Head of Department (2014 - 2017)
• An investigator on the SENSOR Project

Outwith Glasgow I am:

• President of the British Philosophical Association
• Member of the UKRI Creative Industries Advisory Group
• Member of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Panel College
• Trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• Member of Academia Europaea
• On the editorial board of The Philosophical Quarterly
• On the editorial board of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (PhiMiSci) 
• Member of the Centre for Research into Inner Experience, University of Durham
• Member of the Board of Advisors of the International Association of Philosophy of Time
• Member of the Executive Committee, Centre for Perception, Rutgers University

Download my Curriculum Vitae.

For fun and art visit The Illusions Index or the Extreme Imagination Exhibition.

• The Dreamachine project, on which I am co-academic lead has won the following prizes and awards:

  2024 Winner the World Experience Awards (WXO) prize for Impact
  (https://worldxo.org/the-winners-of-the-first-wxo-experience-awards/)

  2024 Honorary Mention in the European Union Prize for Citizen Science
  (https://ars.electronica.art/citizenscience/en/winners/#honorarymentions)

  2024 Finalist in the Architizer A+Awards in the Architecture + Joy category.
  (https://winners.architizer.com/2024/Plus/)

  2024 Honorable mention in the Creative Review Awards 2024 for The Perception Census, in the ‘Creative Effectiveness’ category.
  (https://www.creativereview.co.uk/dreamachine-the-perception-census-digital-platform.)

  2023 Winner of the Columbia University and Digital Dozen, Breakthrough Award
  (http://digitaldozen.io/about-us/)

  2023 Winner of the Lumen Prize for Art and Technology in the Immersive Environment Category.
  (https://www.lumenprize.com/2023-winners/2023-immersive-environment-award-winner)

  2023 3rd Prize Winner in the Blooloop competition for Best Immersive Experience
  (https://innovation-awards.blooloop.com/2023/category/immersive-experience)

  2023 Winner of the 2023 CogX award for Best Innovation in Creative Arts.
  (https://x.com/Drea_m_achine/status/1701916141478715501)

  2023 Winner of the Muse Creative Award for Exhibition Design
  (https://museaward.com/winner-info.php?id=224105)

  2023 Shortlisted for the 2023 Design Week Awards for Best Exhibition Design
  (https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/12-june-16-june/design-week-awards-2023-shortlist-the-shortlist-in-full/)

  2022 Received a 5* review in The Guardian newspaper.
  (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/may/09/dreamachine-review-as-close-to-state-funded-psychedelic-drugs-as-you-can-get)

• Launched "Policy and Practice Recommendations for Augmented and Mixed Reality", the final output from the Augmented Reality Project. Received coverage in The Herald and wrote an opinion piece for The Herald together with Ben Colburn.
• January 2024 – December 2027, Received £750,000 jointly from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for a research project on Sensory Engineering (SENSOR). PIs are Derek Brown and Sascha Benjamin Fink, I am a Co-I, along with Jack Lyons.
• Dr. Andrea Blomkvist has won a prestigious British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, to work with me, on the topic of the imagination. January 2024. The fellowship will last for three years. Concurrently, Dr Blomkvist will hold a University of Glasgow LKAS (Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith) Fellowship.
• I am the Principal Academic Consultant for the Dublin World of Illusion museum (2023 - present).
• Interviewed about perceptual diversity and The Perception Census on BBC Radio 4, Inside Science, 12 October 2023.
• Shortlisted for the award of Knowledge Exchange Champion in the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2023.
• Interviewed about aphantasia for the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry’, Series 21, ‘The Case of the Blind Mind's Eye’, broadcast 10th January 2023.
• Together with Anil Seth, I lead the Perception Census, a major citizen science project that aims to reach tens of thousands of people worldwide, making it the largest study of its kind and the first major citizen science project into perceptual diversity.
• I am a regular guest on the “Philosophy Takes On The News” Podcast.

The material below is intended to provide preprints and offprints in electronic form, for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with "fair use" and the established practice of authors' providing single preprints and offprints for non-commercial use.

Books

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Brown, D. and Macpherson, F. (2021) (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Colour, Routledge.

Read the introductory essay 'Introduction to the Philosophy of Colour' by Derek H. Brown and Fiona Macpherson.

Read one of the essays in the book ‘Novel Colour Experiences and Their Implications’, by Fiona Macpherson.

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Macpherson, F. (2018) (ed.) Sensory Substitution and Augmentation, Proceedings of the British Academy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Download the introductory essay, 'Sensory Substitution and Augmentation: An Introduction', by Fiona Macpherson

Review in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews by Mirko Farina

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‌Macpherson, F. and Dorsch, F. (2018) (eds.) Perceptual Imagination and Perceptual Memory, Oxford University Press.

Download the introductory essay, 'Perceptual Imagination and Perceptual Memory: An Overview', by Fiona Macpherson

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Dorsch, F. and Macpherson, F. (2018) (eds.) Phenomenal Presence, Oxford University Press.

Download the introductory essay, 'Phenomenal Presence: An Introduction to the Debate', by Fabian Dorsch

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Macpherson, F. and Platchais, D. (2013) (eds.) Hallucination: Philosophy and Psychology, MIT Press.

Listen to a Philosophy Bites Podcast about Hallucination featuring Fiona Macpherson

Download the introductory essay "The Philosophy and Psychology of Hallucination: An Introduction" by Fiona Macpherson

Reviews:

"A vital addition to the literature on perception. Macpherson and Platchias have put together a lively, informative, and provocative collection of essays on hallucination. The scientific essays take us far beyond glib philosophical examples -- Lady Macbeth's dagger and so on. The philosophical sections relate to recent controversies: the much discussed doctrine of 'naive realism' and reflections on what hallucination teaches us about the nature of perceptual experience in general." -- Mohan Matthen, Canada Research Chair in Philosophy, University of Toronto

"Hallucination is the definitive collection on the philosophy and psychology of hallucination, offering a wide range of perspectives on this fascinating phenomenon. Macpherson provides a marvelous introduction, zeroing in with characteristic acuity on issues surrounding hallucination raised by experimental psychology, the metaphysics of perception, and epistemology." -- Susanna Siegel, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University

Review in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews by Clare Batty

Review in Metapsychology by Sascha Benjamin Fink

‌Review in Phenomenology and the Cognitve Sciences by Rami Ali

German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel has an article on the volume

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Macpherson, F. (2011) (ed.) The Senses: Classic and Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives, Oxford University Press.

Download the introductory essay "Individuating the Senses" by Macpherson.

Read the review of the book in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews by Peter W. Ross.

Read the review of the book in The Philosophical Quarterly by Louise Richardson.

The book was commented on by Mohan Matthen in the New APPS blog.

‌

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Macpherson, F. and Hawley, K. (2011) (eds.) The Admissible Contents of Experience,Wiley-Blackwell.

Download the introductory essay "The Admissible Contents of Experience" by Macpherson.

Also appearing (without the introductory essay) as a special edition of The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 59, Issue 236, July 2009.

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The whole book is available online at Oxford Scholarship Online.

Read the review of the book in Mind by Kieran Setiya.

Read the review of the book in the Times Literary Supplement by Tim Crane.

Read the review of the book in the European Journal of Philosophy by Fabian Dorsch.

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Papers

Macpherson, F. (2024) “Perception in Dreams: A Guide for Dream Engineers, a Reflection on the Role of Memory in Sensory States, and a New Counterexample to Hume’s Account of the Imagination”, in D. Gregory & K. Michaelian (eds.) Dreaming and Memory: Philosophical Issues, Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-68204-9_16

Colburn, B., Macpherson, F., Brown, D., Fearnley, L., Hodgson, C., and McDonnell, N (2024) "Policy and Practice Recommendations for Augmented and Mixed Reality", Enlighten, https://doi.org/10.36399/gla.pubs.326686

MacKisack, M., Aldworth, S., Macpherson, F., Onians, J., Winlove, C. & Zeman, A. (2022) “Plural Imagination: Diversity in Mind and Making”, Art Journal, 81(3): 70-87, https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.2022.2110444

Monzel M., Mitchell D., Macpherson F., Pearson J. and Zeman A. (Preprint April 2022) 'Proposal for a consistent definition of aphantasia and hyperphantasia: A response to Lambert and Sibley (2022) and Simner and Dance  (2022)', Cortex, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2022.04.003

Monzel M., Mitchell D., Macpherson F., Pearson J. and Zeman A. (Preprint February 2022) 'Aphantasia, dysikonesia, anauralia: call for a single term for the lack of mental imagery – Commentary on Dance et al. (2021) and Hinwar and Lambert (2021)', Cortex, doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2022.02.002

Brown, D. and Macpherson, F. (2021) ‘Introduction to the Philosophy of Colour’, in D. Brown and F. Macpherson (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Colour, London: Routledge.

Macpherson, F. (2021) ‘Novel Colour Experiences and Their Implications’, in D. Brown and F. Macpherson (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Colour, London: Routledge.

Macpherson, F. (2018) 'What Is It Like to Have Visual Imagery?', in S. Aldworth and M. MacKisack (eds.) Extreme Imagination: Inside the Eye's Mind, London: University of Exeter.

Macpherson, F. (2018) ‘Sensory Substitution and Augmentation: An Introduction’ in F. Macpherson (ed.) Sensory Substitution and Augmentation, Proceedings of the British Academy Series, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Howes, D., Clarke, E., Macpherson, F., Best, B. and Cox, R. (2018) "Sensing Art and Artifacts: Explorations in Sensory Museology", The Senses and Society, 13 (3): 317-334. doi:10.1080/17458927.2018.1516024

Macpherson, F. (2018) 'Perceptual Imagination and Perceptual Memory: An Overview', in Dorsch, F. and Macpherson, F. (eds.) Perceptual Imagination and Perceptual Memory, Oxford University Press.

Wilson, K. and Macpherson, F. (2018) ‘The Senses’, in D. Pritchard (ed.) Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy, Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/OBO/9780195396577-0368.

Winlove, C., Milton, F., Ranson, J., Fulford, J., MacKisack, M., Macpherson, F. and Zeman, A. (2018), “The neural correlates of visual imagery: a co-ordinate-based meta-analysis”, Cortex, 105: 4-25, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.12.014.

Macpherson, F. (2017) "‌The Relationship Between Cognitive Penetration and Predictive Coding", Consciousness and Cognition, 47: 6 - 16.

Macpherson, F. and Batty, C. (2016) "Redefining Illusion and Hallucination in Light of New Cases", Philosophical Issues, 26: 263 - 296.

MacKisack, M., Aldworth, S., Macpherson, F., Onians, J., Winlove, C., and Zeman, A. (2016) "On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery science", Frontiers in Psychology, 7: 00515.

Macpherson, F (2015) "The Structure of Experience, the Nature of the Visual, and Type 2 Blindsight", Consciousness and Cognition, 32:104 - 128.

Macpherson, F. (2015) "Cognitive Penetration and Nonconceptual Content", in J. Zeimbekis and A. Raftopoulos (eds.) The Cognitive Penetrability of Perception: New Philosophical Perspectives, Oxford University Press.

Macpherson, F. (2015) "Cognitive Penetration and Predictive Coding: A Commentary on Lupyan‌", Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 6(4): 571-584.

Macpherson, F. (2014) "Is the Sense-Data Theory a Representationalist Theory?", Ratio, 27(4): 369-392. Also to be published in J. Stazicker (2015) (ed.) The Structure of Perceptual Experience, Wiley.

Macpherson, F. (2014) "The Space of Sensory Modalities", in Perception and Its Modalities, D. Stokes, S. Biggs and M. Matthen (eds.), Oxford University Press.

Macpherson, F. (2013) "The Philosophy and Psychology of Hallucination: An Introduction", in Hallucination: Philosophy and Psychology, edited by F. Macpherson and D. Platchais, Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Macpherson, F. (2013) "Can Science Tell Us That We Smell?", online symposium on the Brains Blog on Louise Richardson’s “Flavour, Taste, and Smell” (Mind & Language, 28(3): 322-341).

Macpherson, F. (2012) "Cognitive Penetration of Colour Experience: Rethinking the Issue in Light of an Indirect Mechanism", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 84(1): 24-62.

Macpherson, F. (2011) "Cross-Modal Experiences", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 111(3): 429-468.

Macpherson, F. (2011) "Individuating the Senses", in her (ed.) The Senses: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Oxford University Press.

Macpherson, F. (2011) "The Admissible Contents of Experience", in K. Hawley and F. Macpherson (eds.) The Admissible Contents of Experience, Wiley-Blackwell.

Macpherson, F. (2011) "Taxonomising the Senses", Philosophical Studies, 153(1): 123-142.

Macpherson F. (2010) "A Disjunctive Theory of Introspection: A Reflection on Zombies and Anton's Syndrome", Philosophical Issues, 20(1): 226-265. Reprinted in Manidipa Sen (ed.) Self-Knowledge and Agency, New Delhi: Decent Books, 2012: 39-98.

Macpherson, F. (2010) "Impossible Figures", in E. B. Goldstein (ed.) the SAGE Encyclopedia of Perception, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Macpherson, F. (2009) "‌Perception, Philosophical Perspectives", in The Oxford Companion to Consciousness,T. Bayne, A. Cleeremans and P. Wilken (eds), Oxford University Press.

Haddock, A. and Macpherson, F. (2008) "Introduction: Varieties of Disjunctivism" in our Disjunctivism: Perception, Action Knowledge, Oxford University Press.

Macpherson, F. (2007) "Synaesthesia, Functionalism and Phenomenology", in Cartographies of the Mind: Philosophy and Psychology in Intersection , Series: Studies in Brain and Mind, Vol. 4, Mario de Caro, Francesco Ferretti and Massimo Marraffa (eds.), Dordrecht: Kleuwer, pp. 65-80.

Macpherson, F. (2006) "Ambiguous Figures and the Content of Experience",  Noûs, 40(1): 82-117.
        
Macpherson, F. (2006) "Property Dualism and the Merits of Solutions to the Mind-Body Problem: A Reply to Strawson", Journal of Consciousness Studies, 13(10-11): 72-89.

Macpherson, F. (2005) "Colour Inversion Problems for Representationalism", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 70(1): 127-152.
    
Macpherson, F. (2003) "Novel Colours and the Content of Experience", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 84(1): 43-66. (Novel colours, such as reddish-green and bluish-yellow, are also somtimes called "alien colours", "forbidden colours" or "impossible colours".)
    
Macpherson, F. (2002) "The Power of Natural Selection", Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9(8): 30-35. 
    
Macpherson, F. (1999) "Perfect Pitch and the Implicit/Explicit Distinction", Anthropology and Philosophy,(Philosophical Approaches to Consciousness, Monograph Issue, edited by Mariano Bianca and Luca Malatesti), 3(2): 89-101.

Bermudez, J. L. and Macpherson, F. (1999) "Nonconceptual Content and the Nature of Perceptual Experience", The Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy, Issue 6, (http://ejap.louisiana.edu/EJAP/1998/contents.html).

Book Reviews

Macpherson, F. (2004) review of A. D. Smith The Problem of Perception, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002) in Philosophical Books, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 256-257.

Macpherson, F. (2003) review of M. Tye Consciousness, Color and Content, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2000) in Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 213, pp. 619-621.

Macpherson, F. (1999) review of P. Jacob What Minds Can Do: Intentionality in a Non-Intentional World in Philosophical Books, Vol. 40, No.3, pp. 184-185.

PhD Thesis

Macpherson, F (2000) Representational Theories of Phenomenal Character, University of Stirling, supervised by Alan Millar and José Luis Bermúdez.

Online presence:

The Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience has a website that I set up and run that from 2004 - 2017 includes The Illusions Index, a fully searchable interactive curated collection of illusions aimed at the public . This was funded by £9,000 incentivisation funds, £5,000 from the School of Humanities and College of Arts, and £2,000 from the Knowledge exchange fund at the University of Glasgow. In August 2020 we launched the 'Master of Illusion' Quiz, completion of which earns you a 'Master of Illusion' certificate from the Universisty of Glasgow.

In May 2020 we also lunched our online art exhibition Extreme Imagination: Inside the Mind’s Eye – the digital counterpart of twin exhibitions hosted by Tramway, Glasgow, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, in 2019. Those exhibitions were organised by the Eye's Mind research project team and curated by Susan Aldworth and Matthew MacKisack. This online version was conceived and created by Fiona Macpherson and Joanna Helfer.

The Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience has a lively FaceBook page that I set up in November 2008 and now run detailing our activities and research news from around the world on perception. The page has received over 2,600 “likes” and some weeks our “total reach” is over 12,000 people. The Centre's Twitter account @UofGCSPE was started in 2014 and has over 1,500 followers. My own Twitter account, @ProfMacpherson, has over 4,800 followers.

Public Events:

8 & 9 June 2024 The Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience Research Stall, featuring illusions and numerous interesting perceptual effects, was showcased at the at the Riverside Museum, Glasgow, as part of the Glasgow Science Festival.

23rd May 2024 Policy report launch for industry, policy makers, and public to discuss our report on augmented reality: Colburn, B., Macpherson, F., Brown, D., Fearnley, L., Hodgson, C., and McDonnell, N (2024) "Policy and Practice Recommendations for Augmented and Mixed Reality", Enlighten, pp. 1-16, https://doi.org/10.36399/gla.pubs.326686.

May – December 2022 Dreamachine live experience in London (May 10 - July 24) and Cardiff (May 12 - June 18), Belfast (July 25 –September 04) and Edinburgh (August 13 – September 25): A new, one-of-a-kind immersive experience, created by Collective Act, in collaboration with Turner Prize-winning artists Assemble, Grammy and Mercury nominated composer Jon Hopkins, and a team of leading technologists, scientists (led by Prof Anil Seth, University of Sussex) and a philosopher, Professor Fiona Macpherson, University of Glasgow). Dreamachine invites you on a magical journey to explore the extraordinary potential.of your mind. Conjured entirely by stroboscopic light and music, the colourful world of the Dreamachine will unfold behind your closed eyes – created by your own brain and completely unique to you.

From May 2022 The Dreamachine Schools programme is a major UK wide programme, developed by A New Direction in partnership with the British Science Association and UNICEF UK, Prof Anil Seth and Prof Fiona Macpherson.

From June 2022: The Perception Census led by Prof Anil Seth and Prof Fiona Macpherson is the largest scientific research project of its kind inviting you to explore your senses and discover the similarities and differences in how people perceive both the world and themselves. You’ll be able to take part in a series of interactive tasks and experiments, playing with colours, shapes, and visual illusions, and reveal the fascinating ways your mind is unique. Connecting thousands of participants around the world, the Perception Census will shed new light on the diversity of our inner worlds, opening up major scientific opportunities and encouraging new dialogues and understanding about what it means to be human.

18 November 2021 Perceptual Illusion Café: Online presentation of illusions, focusing on mirror illusions and the watercolour effect

23 Nov 2020 Explorathon: Online presentation of illusions, focusing on ambiguities in visual and auditory perception, and discussion with the public

18 Nov 2020 Perceptual Illusion Café: Online presentation of illusions, focusing on after effects such a colour afterimages and the motion aftereffect, and discussion with the public

August 2020 'Master of Illusion' Quiz launched on The Illusions Index website.

May 2020 Online verson of the Extreme Imagination Art Exhibition launched

27 – 28 Sept 2019 Research Stall showcasing perceptual effects at Explorathon, Riverside Museum, Glasgow

8 – 9 June 2019 Research Stall showcasing perceptual effects at the Glasgow Science Festival, Riverside Museum, Glasgow

5 – 7 April 2019 Co-organiser of the Extreme Imagination Conference, University of Exeter aimed at those with aphantasia and hyperphantasia.

Jan – June 2019 Co-organiser of art exhibition ‘Extreme Imagination: Inside the Mind’s Eye’ shown at the Tramway, Glasgow (Jan – March) and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter (march – June). The exhibition included six exhibits by myself illustrating strange perceptual phenomena that are in some way like visual imagination. Funding awarded for this activity is detailed in the previous section.

12 January 2019 Co-organised and took part in a workshop for the public about the ‘Extreme Imagination’ exhibition and about aphantasia and hyperphantasia, at the Tramway, Glasgow. (60 attendees)

18 – 20 Jan 2019 Co-organised and co-ran virtual reality demonstrations and workshops to inform people about it and instruct them how to prepare a brief to give to a virtual reality developer at the British Council in Hong Kong Spark Festival of Ideas

15 – 16 June 2018 Organised stall demonstrating perceptual effects and virtual reality at the St Enoch Centre at the Glasgow Science Festival

28 – 29 April 2018 Organised stall demonstrating the Illusions Index and illusions at the University of Glasgow Teaching Conference on Visualisation

29 Sept 2017 Co-organised research stall at Explorathon at the Riverside Museum in Glasgow.

18 June 2017 Co-organised a research stall at Glasgow Science Festival, Kelvin Gallery, University of Glasgow.

6 - 11 June 2017 Co-organised a research stall at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

5 May 2017 Co-organised a research stall at a Glasgow Science Centre Lates Event, Glasgow Science Centre.

29 April 2017 Co-organised a research stall at the Question of Perception Celebration Event, Glasgow Science Centre.

30 September 2016 Organised the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience’s contribution to Explorathon 2018, consisting of a research stall at the Explorathon Extravaganza in the Glasgow Science Centre.

7 July 2016 Co-organised a lecture and poetry reading by Dr Nuala Watt at the University of Glasgow for the public as part of the Understanding the Senses: Past and Present project.

6 July 2016 Co-organised an event in Special Collections in the University of Glasgow Library for the public as part of the Understanding the Senses: Past and Present project. It consisted of a room displaying visual, audio and cross-modal illusions, illustrating the work of the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience and a display of some of the library’s collection of manuscripts and early printed books relating to the history of the senses.

17 June 2016 Co-organised the “Beer: History, Philosophy, Science" workshop and tasting that was open to the public.

11 – 12 June 2016 Organised the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience’s contribution to the Glasgow Science Festival, consisting of a research stall in the Kelvingrove Museum for two days. We presented a large number of visual, auditory, and, taste illusions and effects. The stalls were manned by myself and other members of the CSPE. Members of the CSPE also gave talks as part of the festival: Myself and David Simmons on the Philosophy and Psychology of Colour (over 150 registered participants), and David Bain on Pains that are Not Unpleasant (over 100 registered participants).

28 September – 29 November 2015 Organised the ‘Impossible Lego Object’ exhibit, one item in the Objects of Research exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

25 September 2015 - Centre for the Study of Perception research stall at Explorathon '15, European Researchers' Night.

6 & 7 June 2015 - Centre for the Study of Perception research stall at the Glasgow Science Festival at Kelvingrove

November 2014 - Helped to run “The Hidden Senses: the secrets of taste and smell” a day of talks, activities, experiments, demonstrations, and exhibitions for the public to challenge their understanding of the senses of taste and smell, involving philosophers, psychologists, perfumiers, neurosciencest,s artists, chefs, and technologists at the Dana Centre, Scoence Museum, London. The event showcased the work of the Rethinking the Senses project and was part of the national AHRC Being Human Festival of the Humanities.

September 2014 - I supervised Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience Postdocs Keith Wilson and Jennifer Corns in showcasing the CSPE’s research at the ‘Explorathon’ European researchers night at the Glasgow Science Centre.

June 2014 - Took part in “Moving Water”, an art participation project by Sensory Sites and collaborators at the October Gallery, London.

December 2013 - Attended and led discussion at the workshop, “Data, Dada, Data: the Next Big Confluence of Art, Science and Technology” organised by UCLIC, UCL, held at Cumberland Lodge, London. The event involved engineers, computer scientists, philosophers, psychologists, and architects and sought to address the challenges and opportunities of the new data revolution for Art, Science and Technology.

November 2012 - Took part in and was discussion leader for a workshop on ‘Creative Dining, Cooking and Technology’, organised by UCLIC, UCL, held at John Salt Restaurant, Islington, involving chefs, designers, a film maker, psychologists, philosophers and technologists. I also wrote an essay “The Future of Dining Practices” for the website of the project.

March 2012 - I organised a public exhibition of all the sensory substation and augmentation devices discussed at the academic conference on one afternoon and evening in the British Academy. This was the first time ever that all these devices were at the same location at the same time. A video was made of the event, which I present. It can be viewed online together with the presentations from the conference.

October 2011 - 'Sensory Substitution: Challenges for Philosophy and Science’, invited paper and practical demonstration of tactile-vision sensory substituion, jointly presented with Jon Bird (UCL), Undergraduate Philosophy Society, Umeå University, Sweden

May 2011 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture, University of Glasgow. I organised the public lecture given by Professor Barry Smith (Philosophy, London) and Professor Charles Spence (Psychology, Oxford) entitled “On the Blind Versus Sighted Tasting of Wine” and the tutored wine-tasting, sponsored by Quel Vin vintners, that followed.

My work in, or cited in, the media:

Wrote opinion piece (with Ben Colburn) “Exploring the risks and rewards in augmented reality” for The Herald, published 23 May 2024, about our Policy and Practice Recommendations for Augmented and Mixed Reality.

The launch and the content of the “Policy and Practice Recommendations for Augmented and Mixed Reality” report, was covered in The Herald, “Augmented reality - the next big tech wave?”

Interviewed about perceptual diversity and The Perception Census on BBC Radio 4, Inside Science, 12 October 2023.

Published advertorial to promote The Perception Census, “Which has a bigger tail: a squirrel or a rabbit?” in New Scientist, August 2023.

Interviewed about psychological and perceptual differences for the cover story, “How Are You Thinking?”, New Scientist, published 22 July 2023: 32-35.

Interviewed about aphantasia for the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry’, Series 21, ‘The Case of the Blind Mind's Eye’, broadcast 10th January 2023.

Guest on the “Philosophy Takes On The News” Podcast, Series 2, Episode 8, 9th December 2022, end of year special on constitutional reforms, crypto and effective Altruism, end of year round-up, plus hopes and fears for 2023.

Published article, “Perceptual Diversity: Do You See What I See” for ReSourcE, the magazine of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an accompanying blog post on 1st December 2022.

Guest on the “Philosophy Takes On The News” Podcast, Series 2, Episode 6, 10th November 2022, special episode on the 2022 US mid-term elections with a run-through of the results plus discussion of democracy, trust, compromise, Trump, information, and media. https://stkirchin.podbean.com/e/s2-ep-4-13th-october/

I was a guest on the “Philosophy Takes On The News” Podcast, Series 2, Episode 4, 13^th October 2022, discussing the absolute state of UK politics and artificial intelligence. https://stkirchin.podbean.com/e/s2-ep-4-13th-october/

I appeared as guest on BBC Radio Ulster radio programme Sunday Sequence 24^th July 2022 discussing the Dreamachine project.

I appeared as a guest on NewsTalk's FutureProof, on 19th July 2022, talking about the Dreamachine project.

I was interviewed by Harry Pettit, Deputy Technology and Science Editor for the Sun newspaper on optical illusions for an article, “Fame Game: You’re in the top 1% if you can spot the hidden celeb in this optical illusion – & there’s a clue to help” 16^th June 2022.

Guest on the “Philosophy Takes On The News” Podcast, Series 1, Episode 14, 9th June 2022, discussing the vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson, the Jubilee and values, and food policy.

Interviewed on Radio 4’s ‘All in the Mind’ programme about the Dreamachine, 11^th May 2022.

Guest on the “Philosophy Takes On The News” Podcast, Series 1, Episode 6, 24th March 2022, discussing discussing duties to others, climate change and energy, and beers in the metaverse.

Interviewed for RTE: Ireland’s National Public Service Radio for the programme, ‘The Science of Sense’, 18 March 2022

Interviewed as expert on aphantasia and hyperphantasia for Canadian podcast ‘Imagine that’, June 2021.

Interviewed as expert on hallucination for the documentary, “The Islanders Who Saw Visions”, January 2021. Film released on BBC Reel on 17 May 2021 https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09hgdgk/how-alicudi-s-islanders-experienced-mass-hallucinations

Appeared on ABC Illawarra Radio interviewed by Lindsay McDougall for DriveTime about virtual reality and the Mobius Project on 11 July 2019.

Appeared on the BBC World Service ‘Newshour’ programme being interviewed about my work on aphantasia and the Eye’s Mind’s conference on Extremes of Imagination on 6 April 2019.

Interviewed by Tom Metcalfe on augmented reality for NBC Mach, on 7 December 2017.

Interviewed by Harry Pettit for an article entitled, “Can you HEAR this silent GIF? Mind-bending audio illusion tricks your brain into thinking you hear a sound while watching a noiseless animation“, for the Mail Online, published 4 December 2017. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5143355/Silent-animation-hear-baffles-internet-users.html

Interviewed by Nicola Twilley for an article on "Seeing with Your Tongue", for The New Yorker, published 15 May 2017.

Interviewed by Jeff Gailus for piece entitled "We Should Count Balance As One of the Senses" for Nautilus science magazine, published on 3 March 2017.

Interviewed by Timandra Harkeness for a Blakeway Production programme for Radio 4 on sensory substitution and augmentation, to be broadcast in 2017.

Interviewed by Emma Shephard for Spring 2016 PhilonoUS, the University of Sheffield Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy.

Interviewed for a BBC Radio 4 programme ‘An Image of Sound’ for broadcast on 7 February 2015.

"", Research Professional, 15 January 2015.

Co-host of CBC's "Spark" programme about "Rewiring our Senses" (Programme No. 268) first broadcast December 7, 2014

German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel has an article on my and Dimitris Platchias' Hallucination volume.

Presented a video about the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience's demo event and my talk and slide show from the Conference on Sensory Substitution and Augmentation, 26 - 28 March 2013.

I am on Philosophy Bites Podcast speaking on Hallucination.

My piece "The Future of Dining Practices" on the Food for Thought: Thought for Food website, which in part records the Creative Dining, Cooking and Technology Workshop, held at the John Salt Restaurant in Islington, November 2012.

Interviewed about my work on perception and the senses  in "A Shift in Perception", University of Toronto Magazine, by Cynthia Macdonald.

My work is discussed in "Minds on Monday: Sense and Un-sense in the Animal Kingdom", New Apps Blog, by Mohan Matthen.

Interviewed for "Philosophy gender war sparked by call for larger role for women", National Post Newspaper, by Kathryn Blaze Carlson.

Public and Knowledge Exchange Lectures:

September 2021 ‘What is Synaesthesia?’, invited talk to cast and crew of the play “When Blue was Green”, in  partnerships with Beacon Arts Centre and Dundee Rep, funded by Creative Scotland.

May 2019 ‘Notes on Blindness’, talk and participation on panel discussion after VR and cinema screening of the film by the same name at the event, Making Sense: Exploring Altered Perception Through ‘Notes on Blindness’.

April 2019 ‘What Is It Like to Have Visual Imagery?’, keynote talk at the Extremes of Imagination Conference, for people with aphantasia and hyperphantasia, Eye;s Mind Project, University of Exeter

January 2019 Does Virtual Reality Consist in Veridical, Illusory or Hallucinatory Experience?’, Royal Institute of Philosophy lecture, Philosophy Department, University of Cardiff

April 2018 ‘Does Virtual Reality Consist in Veridical, Illusory or Hallucinatory Experience?’, invited talk, Stapledon Colloquium, University of Liverpool

June 2016 ‘The Philosophy and Psychology of Colour’ public lecture at the Glasgow Science Festival.

November 2015 'Illusion and Perception', public lecture in the Lunchtime Masterclass Series, at the Centre for Open Studies, University of Glasgow

November 2015 'Illusion and Perception', keynote lecture at the Hutchesons' Annual Approaching Philosophy Conference for school children

June 2015 'Vision, Perception and Illusion', public lecture at the Glasgow Science Festival on on the 8th of June

March 2015 'The Waterfall Illusion', public lecture at the Glagsow Science Cafe, Research Club, Ashton Lane, Glasgow

December 2014 ‘Philosophy of Hallucination and Perception, talk to Eye Surgeons at King’s College Hospital, London

October 2014 ‘Philosophy of Hallucination and Perception’, public lecture with over 100 registered participants, lunchtime master class series, Centre for Open Studies, University of Glasgow

June 2014 ‘Philosophical Views of Hallucination and Perception’, public lecture at the Out of Our Heads art exhibition on hallucination at Shoreditch Town Hall, London

May 2014 ‘Individuating the Senses’, keynote speaker, The Human Senses: Inspire Gatherings, School of Music and Fine Art, University of Kent

April 2014 Speaker at Conversations in Mind/Brain/Behaviour, interfaculty event, Harvard University, debating with Professor Robert Stickgold (Harvard)

July 2013 ‘How Many Colours Are in the Rainbow? Lessons from the Variability of Perception‘, Public Lecture, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

Consultancy:

I am the Principal Academic Consultant for the Twist Museum of Illusion, January 2022 – present. I developed a strategy for displaying different types of illusion, suggested individual illusion to include,  explained and wrote about the nature of illusions for the designers, and wrote the text that is displayed beside each illusion in the musuem explaining the nature of the illusions and the philosophy and science behind them.

I was a consultant during the development of the play ‘When Blue Was Green’ by Melanie Bell, in partnership with Beacon Arts Centre and Dundee Rep, with funding support by Creative Scotland. I gave a talk to the cast and crew on multisensory perception and synaesthesia and answered their questions in August 2021.

I was a consultant for and research collaborator with Cupboard Games, a small independent computer games firm from 2017 - 2019. I shared my knowledge on perception, the sensory modalities, and sensory substitution and augmentation to help them design games such as ‘Umwelt’. Cupboard Games and the University signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2017 to facilitate our connection.