Two perspectives on Neuroaesthetics

Introduction: The dilemma Neuroaesthetics in search of truth Neuroaesthetics in search of meaning Learnings about art and about us Resources Magritte

is it me? is it you? is it.... the Mona Lisa?

Magritte

empiricism!

Hume

Burke

idealism!

Kant

empiricism!

Hume

Pleasure Preference Taste Emotional Nature Taste can be normative: Some people can have better taste than others

idealism!

Burke

The body as a machine

Psychological explanations Not all Aesthetic Experiences have to be rewarding.

Passion, love -> Relaxation Fear, terror -> Pain

Kant

Judgement Reason Aesthetic judgment has no function, It is part of our non-practical interests, A normative evaluation: Right / Wrong

“scientiam sensitive quod cognoscendi”

The aesthetic experience is a blend of sensation and knowledge such that we may almost feel thought itself.

non-invasive technologies for brain imaging

Magritte

KEYWORDS Neuroaesthetics as a discipline Term coined by Semir Zeki in 1999 Interdisciplinary Focus on brain activity Evolutionary standpoint Uses art as input for experimentation Focus on visual stimuli

WHAT: Form and color (Object’s identity) WHERE: Luminance and motion (object’s location)

Impression, Sunrise Monet, 1972

ASSESSMENT OF ART ATTRIBUTES Visual: complexity, balance, color, saturation, temperature Content: abstractness, realism, symbolism

Judge animacy and symbolism evaluate places

8 LAWS OF AESTHETICS Grouping or binding Peak shift principal Contrast Attention Perceptual Problem solving Symmetry Abhorrence Art as metaphor

evaluate faces

Every act of perception involves making a choice (judgement) These attributes cut across cultures

The artist painted the scarf and the sky with blue because he had the desire to group the colors in the brain

Bacchus and Ariadne Titian, 1521

Burke

We perceive objects, landscapes and people with the same nervous system (Aesthetic and non-aesthetic experiences are the same).

The body as a machine

Zeki

- Proportions in the human body is what makes it beautiful, - There is a template for our perception of what constitutes a normal face.

What decides this activiy should be high when experiencing something beautiful, and low when it is ugly?

Neurodegenerative diseases (dementia, personality changes, difficulties with language, attention, obsessive compulsive disorders).

William de Kooning 1950

William de Kooning was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease 1950 1983

Loring Hughes Stroke in the right hemisphere

INHERENT ABILITITES

SELECTIVE HABITAT AND MATE CHOICE

BEAUTY = SUITABLE

AESTHETIC AS EXTENDED PHENOTYPE IMITATION

KEYWORDS

- Layered perception - Engages the senses - Blended with emotions (Sensory analogues, imagination) - Associated to memory circuitry and prior knowledge Cannot be predicted

METHODS Scientific experiments + Humanities Engages the materiality of art

DIRECTION Realm of ideas and questions Aesthetic life is open-ended. Why this matters?

What can the basic working of the human brain tell us about how art changes human experience and it reorders our perceptions and engages our emotions?

What kind of knowledge might aesthetic experience bring?

ALEXANDER BAUMGARTEN 1735 The aesthetic experience is a blend of sensation and knowledge such that we may almost feel thought itself.

FRANK SIBLEY 1957 It is impossible to arrive at objectively descriptive terminology that exactly accounts for the aesthetic evaluation

COGNITION EMOTION PERCEPTION MEMORY LANGUAGE Human brain + Subjective processes

Connected and coordinated brain systems

Flexible architecture

Necessarily dynamic

Sense of self-identity

Ability to imagine other worlds, other people

MEMORY

Much of this competition goes unnoticed or unremarked in daily life, but such moments of interference may have hedonic effects.

A dynamic form of learning - Corresponds to a dynamic neural representation

Value, emtions, ideas, perceptions Unique configuration Learning is unique Not fixed We don’t experience the same piece equally all the times Does not expiry with novelty There is pleasure in repetition

It is an ongoing process: we encounter art and may be changed, and each re encounter may leave us changed again.

- Events, not only objects.

- Emotions have varying durations and changing intensities - Objects diminish or increase in their pleasure and importance - Aesthetic value changes over time

Variation is fundamental to aesthetic evaluations

2. Finding and restructuring value in the world

Value is not inherent to the object but a feature of our experience of objects, perceptions, and ideas.

The arts mediate our knowledge of the world around us by directing attention, shaping perceptions, and creating dissonance or harmony where none had been before.

The knowledge to which aesthetic experience can lead may emerge because aesthetic value is both thought and felt; it is something “cognitive,” “sensory,” and “emotional.”

overlap between action perception, performance and imagery

Cross and Ticini, 2011

cognition!

HUMAN ACTION-OBSERVATION NETWORK Mirror neurons PHENOMENOLOGY - High degree of plasticity within and between seemingly disparate brain regions.

- Different components of this network work together to process action-information (both execution and appreciation) - There is a relationship between the dancer and the spectator.

- Integration of quantitative and qualitative methods.

who is the artist? what is she doing? how does he does it?

Artist’s virtue is to combine visual elements

WE CAN FORGE NEW WAYS OF THINKING AND QUESTION

WE MUST REMEMBER THAT AESTHETIC EXPERIENCES ARE PARTICULARLY MEANINGFUL FOR THE INNER LIFE OF OUR AUDIENCES What’s the meaning we want to communicate through our work?

WE CAN STIMULATE NEW CONNECTIONS IN PEOPLE

WE CAN REIMAGINE THE FUTURE ANTICIPATION?

WE CAN OPEN UP NEW PATHS FOR CREATIVITY

- Magritte’s images taken from: www.renemagritte.org - www.neuroaesthetics.net - An introduction to neuroaesthetics : the neuroscientific approach to aesthetic experience, artistic creativity and arts appreciation / edited by Jon O. Lauring.

- Feeling beauty : the neuroscience of aesthetic experience - Semir Zeki, Neuroscientist / / G. Gabrielle Starr. www.whyarewehere.tv/people/semir-zeki/ - Proust was a neuroscientist / Jonah Lehrer.

- Where Beauty Lights Up the Brain: An Interview with Neuroscientist Semir Zeki / Margaret Emory - Neuroaesthetics and beyond: new horizons in applying the science of the brain to the art of dance / Emily S. Cross, - How Creativity Works - Jonah Lehrer (Youtube) Luca F. Ticini - Neuroaesthetics: Researchers unravel the biology of beauty and art / Anjan Chatterjee

- Ultima Academy 2015: The Neurobiology of Aesthetics by Semir Zeki (Youtube)

- Beauty and the Brain: The Emerging Field of Neuroaesthetics/ Faith A. Pak, Ethan B. Reichsman

- Art, Reality, and the Brain: The Quest for Aesthetic Universals - Dr. V.S. Ramachandran (Youtube)

- Neuroaesthetics is killing your soul / Philip Ball

- Universal Principles of Art... and Design? / Marasigan

- How Beauty Is Making Scientists Rethink Evolution / Ferris Jabr

- The Science of Art. A Neurological Theory of Aesthetic Experience / Ramachandran, Hirstein