Week 7: Neuroscience and Art

Week 7: Neuroscience and Art

Perception is hugely important in the creation and understanding art, and perception is tied closely to neuroscience. The relationship between art and neuroscience is a growing field of study that explores the intersection between the brain, perception, and artistic expression. 

Perception is a process that our brains interpret and make sense of the world around us involving the brain's ability to receive, process, and interpret sensory information from our environment. By studying the neural pathways, brain regions, and cognitive processes involved in perception, neuroscience helps us understand how the brain transforms sensory input into meaningful perceptions of the world. In order to create art, we use our senses for inspiration for art. Then perception is important in bringing our ideas to live in sculptires, on the canvas or any other artform, for others to then percieve and appreciate. 

Much of the connection between neuroscience and art revolves around the culture of drugs and expiramentation of drugs among artists. A common drug used by artists is LSD which is reported to cause hellucinations and intensified senses of creativity which are the inspiration to many works of art. The hallucinatory and mind-altering effects of LSD have inspired vibrant and surreal artistic expressions, and shaping new genres of art as well.

Citations

Zeki, Semir. "Art and the Brain." Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 8, no. 5-7, 2001, pp. 183-201.

Ishizu, Tomohiro, and Semir Zeki. "The Brain's Specialized Systems for Aesthetic and Perceptual Judgment." European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 37, no. 9, 2013, pp. 1413-1420.

Chatterjee, Anjan. "Neuroaesthetics: A Coming of Age Story." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 23, no. 1, 2011, pp. 53-62.

Cela-Conde, Camilo J., and Francisco J. Ayala. The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Malach, Rafael. The Shape of Inner Space: String Theory and the Geometry of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions. Basic Books, 2012.

Image Citations

“How Neuroscience Will Shape the Metaverse.” Joshua Sariñana, www.joshuasarinana.com/how-neuroscience-will-shape-the-metaverse. Accessed 19 May 2023. 

Park, William. “The Life-Changing Effects of Hallucinations.” BBC Future, 7 Oct. 2022, www.bbc.com/future/article/20221005-how-to-hallucinate-without-drugs-and-learn-about-your-brain. 

“Perception vs Perspective - Perception of the Mind and Help for Changing.” Meditation DNA, meditationdna.com/guides/perception-and-changing-perspectives/. Accessed 19 May 2023.