RESEARCH IN THE ARTS SERIES: “The Aesthetic Brain” Dr. Anjan Chatterjee explores art and our brains

By Lauren Richmond and Kathie Beckett

What makes us appreciate beautiful art? Is art an essential part of being human? As part of the 2019- 2020 Research in the Arts series, the College of the Arts (COTA) hosted guest lecturer Dr. Anjan Chatterjee in January 2020. He discussed his groundbreaking research using neurology to explore our understanding of evolution, production, and appreciation of art.

The lecture, “The Aesthetic Brain,” explored Chatterjee’s research presented in his book of the same title. Delving into aesthetics with a neuroscientific lens, he examined the significance of art, beauty, and pleasure. Is art inherent neurologically, or is it a mere accident or outlier in our brain function? Why do we find people, places and even numbers beautiful and how that is related to pleasure? He discussed the challenges of defining, interpreting and understanding art from humanity’s first paintings in caves to contemporary art. Why is something that is seemingly useless––outside of its beauty––feel like such a fundamental part of our humanity? What if appreciating beauty is not just pleasurable, but essential to our survival?

An Elliot Professor and Chief of Neurology at Pennsylvania Hospital, Dr. Chatterjee is also the founding director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics. His main research interests include neuroaesthetics, neuroethics, and spatial cognition as it relates to language. He continues to explore these and other areas of neurology in the quest for understanding the human brain.

The event was designed to tie in with KSU’s current emphasis on interdisciplinary research and was developed in partnership with Dr. Phaedra Corso and the KSU Office of Research.. The event was widely attended by faculty and staff from all COTA disciplines as well as colleagues from units across campus. •