ARS 390 – pechakucha – neuroasthetics

Artwork is known to draw out our emotions, engage our personalities, and influence our own artwork.  We usually assume artwork to be a subjective experience because of these aspects, but what if (to some degree) we share one objective experience?  The study of artwork, color, and beauty, in terms of human biology and neurology, and ultimately questions like this, is called Neuroaesthetics.  One definition expresses Neuroaesthetics as the following: “Neuroaesthetics is a scientific approach to art in the way it is both produced and consumed” (petapixel.com).  

Much of our artistic experiences can be attributed to our evolutionary background, and specifically the prefrontal cortex.  The prefrontal cortex is “related to regulating our thoughts, feelings and actions […] emotional and motivational systems and part of the wiring for our brain’s reward circuit” (sciencedailycom).  Why is this important? Those who study Neuroaesthetics suggest that “It may be that our memories combined with the visual impact influence our artistic decisions” (petapixel.com).  In terms of evolutionary biology, we additionally attribute our standards of beauty and artistry to symmetrical characteristics of the works:

Symmetry is used in our brains to recognize the suitability of a mate while asymmetry is linked to infection and disease. This evolutionary evidence shows how we can link the pleasure parts of the brain to something beautiful artistically that is symmetrical (petapixel.com).

Not only do symmetry and patterns affect our response to art; humans may have natural inclinations toward certain colors and color schemes. A study done in 2004 measured subjects’ emotional responses to squares of color on a screen, asking questions such as “‘What emotional response do you associate with this color?’ ‘How does this color make you feel?’ and ‘Why do you feel this way?’” (irtel.uni-mannheim.de).  The study found that people had largely positive responses to colors on the ROYGBIV spectrum, and much more negative feelings toward colors on the black-white spectrum (irtel.uni-mannheim.de).  Additionally, green attracted the most positive attention of all of the colors, with blue as a close second (irtel.uni-mannheim.de).  This tells us that colors likely influence us similarly, and thus influence the way we perceive artwork based on its coloration.  

Using human-biology as a lens helps us understand both an artist’s intent and an observer’s perspective.  We can gather answers, or at least theories, for long-standing questions such as the one we posed in the beginning; subjectivity in art is one of the largest questions debated in Neuroaesthetics today. Even though some of our perceptions are engineered by our biology, the rest remain a mystery, and the combination of the two is incredibly interesting in terms of human creativity.

Kaya, Naz. “Relationship between Color and Emotion: a Study of College Students.” Irtel.uni-Mannheim.de, 2004, irtel.uni-mannheim.de/lehre/expra/artikel/Kaya_Epps_2004b.pdf. 

“Making Art Activates Brain’s Reward Pathway.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 13 June 2017, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170613120531.htm. 

“Neuroaesthetics: Where Science Meets the Art of Photography.” PetaPixel, 11 Oct. 2018, petapixel.com/2018/10/11/neuroaesthetics-where-science-meets-the-art-of-photography/.