Week 4: Neuroscience + Art

While reading this week’s article on Neuroculture written by Giovanni Frazzetto and Suzanne Anker, I was drawn to the new sub-discipline “neuroaesthetics.” Neuroaesthetics is a new field of research emerging at the intersection of neuroscience and psychological aesthetics, mainly to characterize the neurobiological foundations of the cognition involved in aesthetic experience and engagement. Right off the bat, we are able to see a link between the two fields of study (of art and neuroscience) and how it is currently being merged for further understanding of the human behavior. This field seeks the neural correlates of artistic judgment and artistic creation. Although neuroaesthetics is still in its infancy compared to other widely sought disciplines, it can help pinpoint the origin of the human response through the use of brain imaging and proper mapping of brain circuitry.

Neuroscience carries promises of revealing the underpinnings of our individuality and personality, consciousness, the way we make decisions, and our socio-psychological interactions. As Semir Zeki, a neuroscientist at University College London, likes to say, “Art is governed by the laws of the brain. It is brains that see art and it is brains that make art.” An example that perfectly depicts how the brain sees art and catches our attention is the visual illusions that strike the mind when observing the famous Italian painting, Mona Lisa. This iconic painting has caused confusion in a lot of viewers because of her seemingly vanishing smile. Leonardo Da Vinci gave her facial expression a dynamic quality by playing with a discrepancy that exists in our vision system. The human visual system is organized such that the center of gaze is specialized for small, detailed things, while the peripheral vision has a lower resolution. As Harvard Medical School’s neuroscientist Margaret Livingstone deconstructed, the smile is more apparent in peripheral vision than foveal vision. In other words, when looking directly at the mouth, she appears to smile less than when you’re staring into her eyes. When you look away from her mouth, your peripheral visual system picks up shadows from her cheeks that appear to extend the smile. Moreover, an American neuroscience team also suggested that random noise in the path from retina to visual cortex determines whether we see a smile or not.

[The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci]

Aside from how the brain processes an image based on the visual retina transmission, artists have also frequently experimented with mind-altering substances to determine whether they enhance or diminish creativity. One of the craziest experiments, conducted by artist Bryan Lewis Saunders, involved him taking a different drug every day and creating a self-portrait of himself while under the influence of these drugs in attempt to experience how his perception of self can change. Inevitably, he suffered brain damage, but he is still conducting this experiment—just over greater lapses of time to allow for even the slightest of recovery.

[Examples of his self-portraits while under the influence of drugs -- really interesting right?]

[The link below is the link to artist Bryan Lewis Saunders' website. He is a performance artist and performance poet known for his disturbing spoken word rants, tragic art performances and stand up tragedy, so it was intriguing to look through his website.]

http://bryanlewissaunders.org/

["Near Death Experience" is a video Saunders created with over 3,000 of his self-portraits to piece together moments of his life. He intentionally pieces together self-portraits demonstrating pain and anxiety to convey and image of "Hell". It is mildly disturbing to see how drug plays a huge role in perception, but at the same time, seeing these under the influence self-portraits is mind-blowing.]

[The link below is another example of an artist taking drugs to experiment with perception and how drugs alter brain activity. This artist chose to remain anonymous, but the video and time stamps of drug influence are thought-provoking.]

Artist Draws Nine Portraits on LSD During 1950s Research Experiment

[Lastly, I came across this work written by a professor of UCLA, Dahlia W. Zaidel. The book itself (which contains her chapter), The Aesthetic Mind is a phenomenal read. I was fortunate enough to catch a portion of while taking a Psychology class. It, along with Professor Zaidel's addition, breaks new ground in bringing together empirical sciences and philosophy to enhance our understanding of aesthetics and the art experience. The pdf below in particular covers a broad spectrum of focuses: peripheral sensory influences, brain aesthetic sensations, brain damage effects in artists, biological motivations in art production, and evolutionary cognitive and neurological changes.]

http://dwz.psych.ucla.edu/DWZaidelAestheticMind.pdf

The questions that neuroscience is attempting to answer have engaged artists and scholars since the time of ancient thought. While neuroscience continues to reveal the riddles of the brain and mind, the arts will continue to portray and interpret neuroscience findings and engage the general public because art provokes thought and imagination.

Works Cited

Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. "Science and Society - PERSPECTIVES." Neuroculture 10 (2009): 815-21. Nature Reviews. Macmillan Publishers, Nov. 2009. Web.

http://bryanlewissaunders.org/

Colman, Dan. "Artist Draws Nine Portraits on LSD During 1950s Research Experiment." (n.d.): n. pag. Open Culture. 15 Oct. 2013. Web. <http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/artist-draws-nine-portraits-on-lsd-during-1950s-research-experiment.html>.

Near Death Experience. Dir. Bryan Lewish Saunders. Perf. Bryan Lewis Saunders. Vimeo. N.p., 2011. Web. <http://vimeo.com/19566969>.

Schellekens, Elisabeth, and Peter Goldie. "3. Neuroscience, Biology, and Brain Evolution in Visual Art." The Aesthetic Mind: Philosophy and Psychology. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. 44-53. Print.