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Aesthetic Experience

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From: Vicki Leishman (vicki_at_TeacherArtExchange)
Date: Fri Jan 09 2004 - 22:00:02 PST

Hi Everyone,

Further to the discussion of art aesthetics, the ABC (Australian
Broadcasting Commission) has recently broadcast the Reith Lectures 2003.
Lecture 3 was titled "The Emerging Mind: The Artful Brain". The following
is an abstract from the lecture:

Lecture 3: The Artful Brain

Can we come up with a "Science of Art" and bridge author C.P Snow's "two
cultures"?

Despite the diversity of artistic styles, are there universal aesthetic
principles that cut across cultural boundaries?

Professor Ramachandran draws on neurological case studies and work from
ethology (animal behavior) to present a new framework for understanding how
the brain creates and responds to art. He will use examples mainly from
Indian art and Cubism to illustrate these ideas.

There are 30 visual areas in the human brain that use a variety of short
cuts or heuristics to perceive the world. The artist can tap into this
circuitry to more optimally excite these areas using certain contrived
patterns, more than could be done by using "natural" looking pictures.

Hence abstract art which looks neither natural nor realistic.

The lecture is given by:

Vilayanur S Ramachandran, Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition
and Professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Program
at the University of California, San Diego. He is also Adjunct Professor of
Biology at the Salk Institute.

A printable version of the lecture is availabe at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/

The BBC site also has a link to download the article "The Artful Brain"
(PDF file) from Impact Academic.

Hope this might be of some interest.

Best Wishes,
Vicki, Perth, Western Australia 

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