Paul,

I will make one last attempt to clarify the basis of our disagreement. It is not unusual, and I have experience it before. Lets make an analogy:

There is a field of architecture in which professional architects push the limits of emerging technologies and their imaginations and generate works which are sometimes, and historically, regarded as significant markers of human achievement. These people may have psychological issues but in the bigger picture that is irrelevant.

Then we have people who like to renovate old houses, build kitchens and paint walls. They find this rewarding and satisfying on a personal level. Those people do not call themselves architects and if they did someone would sue them for appropriating a legally definition.

Do I get to call myself a mechanical engineer just because I built, ie a lego robot - no, and mechanical engineers would be right to be annoyed at my presumption. They would be right to send me 'cease and desist' letters.

So it is with art. A combination of factors - paucity of language; a general naivety or confusion about what artists do; the influence of psychoanalysis; the emergence of art therapy: have led to the absurd idea that 'anyone can be an artist'.

We have a confusion between the therapeutic activities of self expression you want to call 'art', and what serious artists engaged in a high level international professional discourse do. I find this infuriating and demeaning. I do not denigrate 'art therapy' (in fact a member of my family is a professional art therapist). But we must understand that the two things that get lumped together under the banner 'art' are as different as chalk and cheese.

I am actually very interested in dance and neuroscience. I designed and taught a course titled Dance, Exercise and Brain Function, which discussed how dance differs from exercise, and how physical and cognitive demands of dance is supported, and how in return dance effects the brain function.

My focus has been upon fine art and neuroscience but I am very interested in neuroscience and other forms of artistic expression. Do you have publications or other information you could point me towards?

I do not have publications in that field. However, Bläsing B and Calvo-Merino B both have quite a few papers on dance and neuroscience, and a review that discusses neuroaesthetics as well which you may find interesting. "Neurocognitive control in dance perception and performance" Foster PP also has a paper that discusses the effects of dancing in reducing the age-related decline.

Dear Dr. Hackett: In order to make matters simple, I will restrict my comments to visual art and I will use one example of an artist (Escher) whose style of painting takes advantage of what I will call the visual illusion. The neurophysiological basis for visual illusion certainly does have its grounding in how the visual system is organized - even though the precise mechanisms whereby visual illusions arise are unknown. In that sense, as with most aspects of human experience, including how we discern that something is visually atractive, must have a grounding in neurophysiology. The elegant work of Hubel and Weisel and of Roy Pritchard, showed that the environment conditions the organization of the brain - so in some sense, what we experience in our environment during developement can condition what our nervous system can most efficiently process. Taking that concept to a psychological level, I would suggest that the fulfillment of an expectation is pychologically gratifying. Visually, the fulfillment of an expectation, perhaps is regarded as beautiful. This brings us back to the visual illusion. The visual system, by virtue of its organization, fulfills an expectation, even though reality is at odds.with the perception. Voila!

Eric Kandel wrote a short essay in the NY Times (April 12, 2013) about "What the brain can tell us about art"'. He wrote also a book recently on that subject, which reference you can find in the NY Times article.

The perception of the 3D volumetric space that we live in is a very deep neuroscience problem. It is obviously also a fundamental aspect of many of our arts. Just for example, how is it that artists can evoke an experience of spatial depth in 2D perspectival drawings and paintings? An neuro-scientific explanation of this is given in my article "Where Am I? Redux" which can be seen on my RG page.

I've been working on a project that involves analyzing the work produced by a painter as she developed frontotemporal dementia (FTD). There are several published cases of this sort, mostly in the neurology journals. There is also a literature on the changes seen in artwork produced over the course of Alzheimer's Disease - plus, of course, a couple of popularized case studies written up by Oliver Sacks.

You should ask Dr Richard Wingate at Kings College London, who has made significant contributions to this field. His email is .

Thank you David.

Please look up the work of Anjan Chatterjee, including his recent book: The Aesthetic Brain (OUP 2013).

Just from another angle. Santiago Ramon, a Nobel prize owner since 1906, did many improvements in neuroscience using drawing or visualizing the object under research. There is also a movie about what happens with brain during producing or listening music: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1406170/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. Also Etienne-Jules Marey, a french physiologist did a big improvement with cronophotography.

Charles, Arnold, Steve, Lennart, This post may interest you, I have done some research recently in the area of frequency and vibration. I have found that there is a frequency and vibration for everything. I have found that everything is made up of energy vibrating at different speeds, always in flux and always in motion. It can be sensed and measured. It can be filtered and reintroduced into an environment.. I have 2 patents pending in this area .You might want to check out the it's so old but that it's new brainwave entertainment- solfeggio tones, Schuman theory, Tesla, Rife ect........ it would really put an edge on your projects and just might bridge your current research and create a whole new avenue.

Susan thank you for these links.

Mikkel, thank you.

Kimberley, does your work consider visual art?

I have been interested in this area since my days as an art student in the late 70s. Lately having to teach research methods to a new generation of art students has led me to look into recent research. Following are some useful publications that I added to my library last year (and which I am in the process of assimilating), from Arnheim's classic study to more recent research. I think that confronting our ideas on the aesthetic experience with recent advances in the neurosciences is a necessary step if we are to advance in our understanding of art. A few students are reluctant to take this step; some even declare that "Science has nothing to do with art." The challenge is to help them realize the fundamental importance of transdisciplinary studies in this and other areas.

ARNHEIM, Rudolf

1974 Art and visual perception, a psychology of the creative eye, the new version, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, University of California Press.

1997 Visual thinking, reprint, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, University of California Press.

BLACKMORE, Susan

2012 Consciousness, an introduction, 2a. ed., New York/Oxford, Oxford University Press.

2013 Dr. Susan Blackmore (http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/index.htm, updated: October 24, 2013, access: January 1, 2014).

n/d “Susan Blackmore,” in Academia.edu (http://plymouth.academia.edu/SusanBlackmore, access: January 1, 2014).

HOFFMAN, Donald D.

2000 Visual intelligence, how we create what we see, reprint, New York, W. W. Norton & Company.

ISBELL, Lynne A.

2011 The fruit, the tree, and the serpent; why we see so well, Cambridge/London, Harvard University Press.

LIVINGSTONE, Margaret

2008 Vision and art, the biology of seeing, reprint, New York, Abrams.

ONIANS, John

2007 Neuroarthistory, from Aristotle and Pliny to Baxandall and Zeki, New Haven/London, Yale University Press.

TREHUB, Arnold

1991 The cognitive brain, Cambridge, MIT Press (http://people.umass.edu/trehub/, acceso: January 1, 2014).

2007 “Space, self, and the theater of consciousness,” in Consciousness and Cognition (Elsevier), vol. 16, pp. 310-330 (http://people.umass.edu/trehub/, access: January 1, 2014).

2012 “Where am I? Redux,” in Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (http://theassc.org/documents/where_am_i_redux, updated: 2012, access: January 11, 2014).

ZEKI, Semir

2009 Splendors and miseries of the brain; love, creativity, and the quest for human happiness, Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell.

Thank you David for this very interesting and comprehensive list. I totally agree with you that as artists we need to connect with psychological / neuroscientific research in our practice that goes way beyond the seminal work of Arnheim. I have attempted to do just this in my recent book Fine Art and Perceptual Neuroscience, Routledge, 2014. I would be very interested to hear your opinions about this research.

Checking out Susan's link, I was delighted to find free access to the entire issue of the Journal of Anatomy dedicated to the blurry border (as most are) between anatomy and visual art. I just downloaded all the articles, then saved and printed them, and added a few to a syllabus. The ones with the most relevance to this thread, I think, are the following:

JACOBSEN, Thomas

2010 “Beauty and the brain: culture, history and individual differences in aesthetic appreciation,” in Journal of Anatomy (Wiley), vol. 216, no. 2, pp. 184-191 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.2010.216.issue-2/issuetoc, access: January 11, 2013).

MORRISS-KAY, Gilian M.

2010 “The evolution of human artistic creativity,” in Journal of Anatomy (Wiley), vol. 216, no. 2, pp. 158-176 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.2010.216.issue-2/issuetoc, access: January 11, 2013).

ZAIDEL, Dahlia W.

2010 “Art and brain: insights from neuropsychology, biology and evolution,” in Journal of Anatomy (Wiley), vol. 216, no. 2, pp. 177-183 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.2010.216.issue-2/issuetoc, access: January 11, 2013).

¡Muchas gracias, Susan!

Paul, I see your new book just came out. Congratulations! It looks interesting. Do you have any related work that you can upload to ResearchGate?

If others have read any of the publications I mentioned in my previous posts, I would be very interested in reading any critical reviews that they may post here.

Francis Crick has a lot to say about visual perception in his book, which I eagerly devoured shortly after its publication. Any criticism of his ideas would also be interesting to read.

CRICK, Francis

1995 The astonishing hypothesis, the scientific search for the soul, New York/London/Toronto/Sydney/Tokio/Singapur, Touchstone.

And of course this thread would be incomplete without a discussion of Betty Edwards's classic method for teaching drawing:

EDWARDS, Betty

1989 Drawing on the right side of the brain, a course in enhancing creativity and artistic confidence, revised edition, New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

1999 The new drawing on the right side of the brain, New York, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.

My impression (with the benefit of hindsight, of course) is that she exaggerates the cognitive implications of brain lateralization, although her method does seem to be quite effective for learning to draw.

I will work on gathering up some of my research findings and put something together for you to consider and or experiment with/ explore, add to, possibly building a bridge to a vibrational frequency approach in relation to an artists depth of thoughts, emotions and feeling which becomes a technique. Basically how they may transfer/ imprint their energy into the paint itself ( along with Color, shape. Texture ect.. to make a "live" painting) Anyone who views this painting will pick up the artists energy vibration and will "feel" and understand what the artist was feeling as he or she painted it. The finished work becomes a "live" extension of the artist himself as well as a silent teacher.

Here is an experiment to try that may help you better understand what I am talking about. Take an ordinary 8oz. glass of H2O. Before you lay down to go to sleep, sit at the edge of your bed and hold this glass physically to your forehead. Think of a problem, a project, how to do something or complete something. Think about this for about 3 to 4 minutes. When you are finished thinking, drink half the water and set it on your nightstand. As you lay down to go to sleep continue to think about this problem as you move between wake and sleep. In the morning before drinking the rest of the water from the night before, write down anything you may remember about a dream you may of had. Now drink the rest of the water from the night before. You should have a pencil and paper ready to record the solution to the problem or situation. If not at that moment, you will get a solution, sometime during the day . My point is this: If we can transfer our thought energy into this glass of water, an artist with practice can do this with his or her paint. Let me know the results of this experiment.

Hi,

No doubt you've come across Alain De Botton's recently published 'Art as Therapy'? I'm currently investigating the notion of using colour (via art expression) to identify, connect with, and express affective and cognitive responses.

Hi

thank you very much for your very useful suggestions.

I am a Neurologist and I am working with theatre actors and we have focused on parkinsonian patients.

Patients are trained to act and to play with their emotions and we observed significant improvements of quality of life and non motor symptoms of the disease.

I have the impression that theatre and other form of art such us painting and dancing could help significantly in the symptomatic and neuroprotective treatment of some neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's Disease and Dementia.

Nicola, This sounds like the experiments that are being done with past life regression. This, (The acting out) is a most excellent practice because it is not only helpful with releasing unexpressed toxic emotions, it is helping the patient recognize a pattern, (Vibration they are sending and receiving), they unconsciously keep re- creating the same circumstance over and over again. , (The Shaman say that patterns are caused by soul wounds). As for Parkinson's disease and Dementia, I have been experimenting with some Nano-vitamins that specifically target the brain and nervous system(Empower plus Q96), qsciences.com, It's worth a good study and read. I would like to refer a book to you to help with your project. It is an interesting read though a little unconventional. It is called: "Principles and Practice Of Past Life Therapy, The Authors are: Ruth E. Norman and Charles Spaegel. Keep us posted.

Dear Dr Wright-Carr,

Thanks for the links to the Journal of Anatomy. I would not have thought this journal would have this kind of articles.

Best regards/ Bo Schenkman

Zena, could you give me mores details about your work with colour?

Charles, we also seem to like novelty and surprises in art (and in life in general) as long as this is within bounds that do not destroy the experience. So, happiness or joy may not just come from fulfilment of expectations but also the expanding of these. I believe I have read literature to support this claim.

Thanks Giuseppe, do you have any publications in this area?

Stephen, Have you published your studies on FTD?

Kimberly, thank you for your comments. Can you clarify what you mean by vibrations and how these are perceived? Thanks.

Does anyone knows of social neuroscience research that has considered aesthetic and artistic experiences (gallery viewing, purchasing or art, non-art-oject aesthetic experience) and/or artistic practice (the creation of work that is perceived to be aesthetically pleasing)?

I have been re-reading the comments that were made to my original posting which asked about connections between neuroscience, psychology and fine art in terms of art creation by artists and also in terms of art perception and reception by viewers. Thank you all for your comments and references to published work. Even though this was not my original focus, thank you also for the answers that interpreted this question to include psychology and neuroscience metaphorically understood as a way of talking about mental processes.

Most interesting to follow this link on art, neuroscience and psychology. Thanks for the suggested articles in J of Anatomy. Looking forward to reading them and find out more about the subject.

Do you work in this area Soly?

No not exactly, but I am a clinical psychologist and my research touches sometimes on issues linked to neuroscience within the field of tinnitus suffering. I have an interest for art (it is part of my identity) and its relationship to human conditions and health is of great interest to me. Psychotherapy is in fact like artistic work!

I find your comments fascinating Soly. I too am a psychologist but not clinical and also an artist and I write about art and neuroscience. Does your tinnitus research touch on art? I agree that psychotherapy can be like artistic work and I feel some of the therapeutic effects of art can be attributed to the way involves the person in a process from which they feel positive and where others may like their work. This is a very positive process for a person to be engaged in especially when the therapist endorses their activities and spends time attending to them.

In this area I would like to recommend "The age of insight" by Eric Kandel. He received the Nobel prize in medicien, but his book deals with art and with a special focus on artists (painters) in Wien around 1900. Doing se he gives exposes of modern art, psychology, psycho-analysis as well as of physiology and neurology. The illustrations are superb.

I recommend this book: Fine Art and Perceptual Neuroscience: Field of Vision and the Painted Grid (Explorations in Cognitive Psychology)

http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Art-Perceptual-Neuroscience-Explorations/dp/0415841518

Have you read my latest book Mir?

Many of my readers have been curious about my research and have asked about its basis and findings. I am in the midst of writing a series of essays to later bridge on and explain the theories that I have developed in my individual projects. A clue to what I have researched; and my approach to it, is what I speak about in the answer's to the many questions that are asked on this forum. As I publish these essays that I spoke about earlier in this post, I hope to post them here one by one in my profile. Perhaps the information in the content has become common knowledge, but the associations made and the approach with its findings, lead to new and innovated avenues of inspiration, investigation, exploration, and application; when applied to the infinite number of sciences. The intention behind my research is not one of greed or self importance, or recognition. It is to inspire others to pursue their passion in their area of/ expertise pertaining to the sciences without fear of condemnation. It is also to encourage others to break away from selling out to the corporate, organizations in general and governmental, greed,politics and its pressures in their pursuit to exploit/ pervert and control what others have worked so hard for. My rationalization on this is: "Sometimes You Have to Shake Things Up to Get Them Right!" Your thoughts on this please.

Your topic is definitely up my alley. I am less aware of the neuroscience part, but I research psychological well-being links. What is FTD, please?

dear All

I believe strongly there is a connection - Excessive use of Brain ( in layman parlance)- Creative people are eccentric as seen by others - They live in their own world - Neuroscience essentially deals with neuro transmission and nerve conduction - Psychological malfunctions are due to these- Not all of us are creative - only a few -

dear Hackett , i wrote papers on psychological disorders , role of Dopamine - role of drugs on curing mental illness - electrochemistry of neurotransmitters - please google-

certainly Art and creative people are also exceptional -

Kimberly, I think that often shaking things up is good as long as the quality of the work is high. Shaking for its own sake is not necessarily good.

Stephen, where did you get the FTD from? I can't remember this in the postings? Could you tell me what research you have been doing on well-being? Are you connecting this with observing and/or creating art?

Prof Muralidharan, there has been a recent piece of research, based in the UK if I remember correctly, that looked at the personality differences between stage performers (actors and comedians) and a control sample. The performers were different from the control but there were significant differences between comedians and actors with the comedians showing mildly psychotic traits. They were both introvert and extrovert and had poor social skills as I recall. The research said that this leads to comedians thinking outside of the box. Their psychotic personality (similar to bipolar and schizophrenic personalities) enables them to stand outside of convention and to entertain us. I am thinking of the British comedian Spike Milligan as a prime example of this. This strays a little from your first comment but essentially supports this as showing that creativity is not the norm in society, but as creativity probably in some way involves originality this is not surprising.

dear Hackett i agree ;Really creative people are exceptional - only a few can think differently

Thanks I will see

thanks Mareen Weber

Thank you for this reference Maureen.

Sorry, I meant to say in the last post that I have read this book and I agree that this is an excellent text.

What is your area of interest/research Maureen?

Again I am sorry - Mareen!

Hi Mareen,

Yep, I was at Brum U for a few years. My profile is nowhere up to date. I was also at Aston U in B'ham doing BSc and PhD.

What is your personal interest in art?

Paul

It is good to be linked with you. I see you are at McClean. I am at Emerson and used to be at Tufts. Small world.

Thank you Mareen.

Can looking at modern art stimulate cognitive flexibility? Thats a question that rises when I saw yours Paul.

Next year I'll graduate art school. So I'm here to get inspired for a subject.

Kyrr

I hate to push my own book but I do look into this in this book: Fine Art and Perceptual Neuroscience. There are a lot of illustrations of my work and my thoughts about the psychological and neuroscience that underpins the creation and reception of these.

Kyrr, I am very excited that you are looking for inspiration. Where are you looking for inspiration? There seems to be reasonable evidence that art (I am not sure if there is a distinction by genre) can stimulate cognitive flexibility. I am not sure that art can necessarily stimulate flexibility more than other forms of visual input. Perhaps someone on this list can answer this?

Maureen, does your academic work involve art at all?

Hi Paul, yes, I also find that a extremely interesting topic. We are gathering imaging data on the field of artistic performance since several years starting with studies on musicians, singers, creative writers and drawers. We try to establish real life performance of artists for functional imaging environment. Some of our work has been published and can be seen at our webpage (www.baltic-imaging-center.de). In addition we are starting a new project funded by the German Research Foundation on brain lesions and impaired emotional processing of pictures and music.

Lets keep in contact on that field!

Best, Martin

That is a good question, if art can stimulate flexibility more than other forms of visual input. What can matter is something unexpected and that is what happens often in modern art. It confronts its viewer often with an unexpected subject. I've found an article about it that says that diversifying experiences enhance cognitive flexibility. So that made me think about my role as an artist.

What does art do? It can give a reflection on time-related things like politics and socio-cultural relations for example. Or it can give you an aesthetic experience. But I was looking for something more directly usable. Something that one could almost immediately could benefit from.

It's just an idea I have, what if I could motivate my brother in law to go see modern art because it would make him more innovative and make him more creative himself.

But as you'll probably see I'm a creative thinker and not a researcher at all. I read what I can.

Best,

Kyrr

In neuropsychological assessment I find an interesting correlation between the right anterior parietal area (C4) which is highly active among those with strong artistic interests and compassion in interpersonal interactions.

Dear Paul, Please see www.quwave.com. Please view this as research in an extension of your research.

I posted this link in an answer to another question on ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_does_the_human_brain_ask_itself_a_question). I think it will be of interest to people following this thread as well. It involves digitally decoding neural activity and using the data to generate images:

Miyawaki, Yoichi; Uchida, Hajime; Yamashita, Okito; Sato, Masa-aki; Morito, Yusuke; Tanabe, Hiroki C.; Sadato, Norihiro; Kamitani, Yukiyasu, “Visual image reconstruction from human brain activity using a combination of multiscale local image decoders,” in Neuron (Elsevier), vol. 60, no. 5, December 11, 2008, pp. 915-929 (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627308009586; access: January 18, 2014).

Here's another study along similar lines, this time with video images decoded from neural activity:

Video:

Yam, Philip, “Breakthrough could enable others to watch your dreams and memories [video],” in Scientific American (Nature Publishing Group), September 22, 2011 (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/09/22/breakthrough-could-enable-others-to-watch-your-dreams-and-memories-video/, access: January 25, 2014).

Article:

Nishimoto, Shinji; Vu, An T.; Naselaris, Thomas; Benjamini, Yuval; Yu, Bin; Gallant, Jack L., “Reconstructing visual experiences from brain activity evoked by natural movies,” in Current Biology (Cell Press), vol. 21, no. 19, October 11, 2011, pp. 1641-1646 (http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0960982211009377/1-s2.0-S0960982211009377-main.pdf?_tid=256abdc0-862c-11e3-94a4-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1390701171_061a50b6ddbd5f2173c1aab77f4cbab4, access: January 25, 2014).

Rather than another cross-posting, I would like to mention here that I recently posted a question concerning Eye Tracking Devices and art. If anybody has information or experience in this area, I would like to hear from you: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Eye_Tracking_Devices_and_Art

Hi - I am a PhD student in Fine Art and lecture at RMIT University in Melbourne. My PhD is about the embodied experience of sculpture and my research is practice based so I am making actual works to explore my ideas. I hope to use some mobile eye tracking in 2014. While I am in the early stages of my research, I hope to contribute in a meaningful way. I am also interested in perception and reception and particularly interested in any research into objects, installation and interactive art.

David, this does not involve eye-tracking directly but it might be relevant to your interest. It is partly a cross-post from another thread:

Many years ago, as an avocation, I developed a new kind of art medium that I called *helio-kinetic collage*. It utilized polarized light and birefringent materials to create patterns and colors that changed dramatically depending on the viewers position relative to the collage. None of the critical materials were colored. The perceived color and shape were created from a white light source by the complex interaction of component light wavelengths within the space occupied by the observer.

Under a pseudonym, I created and exhibited many collages of this kind. An example can be seen here:

http://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?museum=all&t=objects&type=ext&f=&s=&record=2&id_number=1973.5

No color patterns are seen at the surface of the collage. It is only in the space beyond the surface that the interaction of the light waves create the colors and forms that can be perceived and photographed. The colors and forms change systematically according to the location of the viewer. What might be of interest to you, David, is that the collage image that is most pleasing to the viewer depends on the particular location from which it is seen. So it would be possible to correlate the viewpoint locations with preferred images for different viewers.

That's fascinating, Arnold, and the light box is aesthetically pleasing, even in this indirect, photographic manifestation. Have you considered creating more of these objects?

David, years ago, I created many heliokinetic collages which are now in a couple of museums and in private collections. It was an avocation that I could not keep up as my primary work became more time consuming.

I can relate to that, Arnold. I studied visual arts (studio production) as an undergrad and an MFA student, then got sidetracked by art history, whose interdisiciplinary nature draws one down all sorts of strange paths. For some reason society in general was more willing to pay me to talk and write about art than to buy my work!

Hi Fleur, your research sounds really interesting. You say you are using your practice as your research methodology. How are you operationalising your embodied experience of sculpture as your method? I understand that your work explores your ideas I would be interested to hear how you are relating this to your embodied experiences and how this reales to eye tracking?

Dear Kimberly,

I have looked at quwave.com and I would be interested to know how you feel this links to my research? Quwave claims to provide answers to hypothetical maladies using hypothetical interventions. What is the research literature behind this?

Hi Martin, I am sorry I have not replied to your posting before. Thank you for the link to your work and I will look out for your future work.

Have you looked at the PFC and category formation ands how this relates to creativity, convergent and divergent thin king? Do you know of other research in this area?

Kyrr,

When you ask what art does I think you need to specify upon what you are thinking art may have an impact. You say politics, culture and talk about aesthetics but then want something more directly usable and which provides immediate benefit. Who or what are you hoping to have a benefit upon? When you talk about your brother in law I get the impression that he does not like or go and look at modern art. If this is the case motivating him to go to look at this art may simply confirm his beliefs about modern art and may hinder any creativity. I feel that it may be important to start with talking with your brother in law about what hew likes in art and what hew doesn't like in modern art before just exposing him to modern art. After all, why should he look at or like something he doesn't like? Why do you feel that he is lacking in creativity and innovation? I also think that art is full of surprises but that these surprises must not be so surprising that they leave us feeling that we do not understand the experience. Surprise is good in art if it is a slight surprise and one that we are able to assimilate to our knowledge and beliefs. I think this applies to your brother in law.

Well I think the benefit could be that one might make for example different choices at work ore finally have a break through ore an insight at a problem that needed to be solved. And stimulating your own creativity by doing things differently (diversifying experiences) and maybe go see some modern art can help.

I'm just asking myself the question if there is a link between cognitive flexibility and looking at art. And if there is could it stimulate more people to go to see it and could it change the way of presenting art. Is an installation or experience more effective than just looking at a painting?

My brother in law is just young. And I don't know how it is in the states but here in the Netherlands a lot of people think that art is for the elite. In my opinion art can be for everybody. But that might be another topic.

Hi

interessing topic. I am preparing a keynote lecture about this. Where can I take a look to that book?

Regards Jörg

Hi Paul

The book sounds very interesting. It cost € 65 at Kindle ... is there a way to get a short version or article on the topic?

Thanks Jörg

Jorg, I am sorry that the book costs so much. There are no articles that cover the books content. Perhaps LBS could buy a copy for you? Again, I'm sorry about this.

Kyrr,

Thanks for your response. I think that art is very much appreciated by an educated elite on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm not sure what we can do about this. I am intrigued by your questions and again I do not know the answers besides that the common sense answers would probably form the basis for designing a research project to look at these!

From an idiosyncratic position, I feel art leads science ego Goethe was the first to see clusters of stars a galaxies. The inspiration for my own research in neuropsychology came from W.B Yates - "The good lack all conviction (left hemisphere) the bad are full of passion and intensity (right hemisphere)."

You raise interesting points Edward. Perhaps Marx's notions relate to what what you say where he said we only take up the problems we have answers for or are on the verge of gaining. Perhaps the arts tend to be more on the edge of current knowledge at any given time and inspire the sciences? Just a thought.

Dear Gabi,

I wanted to reply to you to say thank you for your very thorough suggestions. I will think about what you have written and get back to you with more specific questions: I too like to discuss these matters, thank you for your offer.

Perhaps you could start a dialogue by telling me more about your work? Thanks.

P.S. have you read my latest book?

The best two books that read between the link between visual perception and visual arts are the books of Rudolf Arhneim:

1969: Visual Thinking.

1954/1974: Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye

Louis, I agree that the Arnheim books are seminal bout I feel that much water has passed under the academic bridge since there publication and neuroscience research has surpassed much of the books content.

Paul,

Maybe. I feel that it has ''surpassed'' as in ''sur-passed'' , or as in ''passing -over without seeing''. I feel that modern neuroscience is neglecting and not as well grounded into the phenomelogical side as Arhneim and the gestaltists psychologists were. But the early gestaltist physiological proposals are obsolete but their phenomenology was on the right track. Lets take the analogy of the TV set; in order to understand this phenomena we have to concentrate in understanding the art of theatre, this is phenomenology, and we also need to understand physics and how physics is used to create electronic circuits, TV, and communication netweorks, this is most of what is studied in neuro-science. The phenomenal side has to guide the search of the electronic side.

Louis, I agree with your analogy and I feel that this has been the difficulty that neuroscience has experienced in its early years. Things have changed and are changing more in neuroscience to consider phenomenological aspects of human behaviour and this trend will continue. I also agree with your comments about the Gestalts and Arnheim but I feel that cognitive psychology has surpassed this whilst neuroscience may have passed-over this.

Paul,

What work or book would you think is that really does a good job at linking the phenomenal experience, fine art , and neurosciences?

I agree with you that there is somewhat of a dearth in this area. Onions work and that of Ramachandran both come close to this, This was the central thrust of my book where I linked a phenomenological account of visual and visual impairment with the process of creating and viewing fine art. I hope I succeeded.

Paul,

Thanks for the reference. I read the abstract of your book and it sound interesting.

Here is my favoring quote of Leonardo da Vinci , a source of inspiration :

"thou shouldst regard various walls which are covered with all manner of

spots, or stone of different composition. If thou hast any capacity for discovery,

thou mayest behold there things which resemble various landscapes decked with

mountains, rivers, cliffs, trees, large plains, hills and valley of many sort. Thou

canst t also behold all manner of battles, life-like positions of strange, unfamiliar

figures, expressions of face, costumes, and numberless things which thou mayest

put into good and perfect form. The experience witch regard to walls and stone

of this sort is similar to that of the ringing of bells, in the strokes of which thou

willst find anew every name and every word that thou mayest imagine to thyself.

Do not despise this opinion of mime when I counsel thee sometimes not to

let it appear burdensome to thee to pause and look at the spots on walls, or the

ashes in the fire, or the clouds, or mud, or other such places; thou wilt make very

wonderful discoveries in them, if thou observest them rightly. For the mind of the

painter is stimulated by them to many new discoveries, be it in the composition

of battles, of animals and human beings, or in various compositions of landscapes,

and of monstrous things, as devils and the like, which are calculated to bring thee

honor. For through confused and undefined things the mind is awakened to new

discoveries. But take heed, first, that thou understandest how to shape well all

the members of the things that thou wish to represent, for instance, the limbs

of living beings, as also the parts of o landscape, namely the stones, trees, and

the like."

Leonardo da Vinci (1402-15l9), Book on Painting

Gabi Lipede,

Merci beaucoup!

I'll need some time to process your words and go to the library of course.

Best,

Kyrr

Thanks Louis, I will re-read these words and let them sink in! Pretty interesting stuff though.