Art, energy and the brain
Author
Pepperell, Robert
Date
2018-05-18Acceptance date
2018-01-31
Type
Book chapter
Publisher
Elsevier
Embargoed until
2100-01-01
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Recent years have seen a growing interest among neuroscientists and vision
scientists in art and aesthetics, exemplifying a more general trend towards
interdisciplinary integration in the arts, humanities and sciences. However, true artscience
integration remains a distant prospect due to fundamental differences in
outlook and approach between disciplines. I consider two great challenges for any
project designed to explain the role of the brain in art appreciation. First, scientists
and artists need to identify common ground, common questions, and a shared
motivation for inquiry. Second, the neuroscience of art must transcend its current
goal of correlating brain functions to behaviour and begin to explain the connection
between activity in the brain and the phenomenology of art appreciation. I propose
that both challenges can be tackled using an energy-based approach. The concept
of ‘energy’ is clearly of central importance to the physical sciences, and to
neuroscience in particular. Meanwhile, energy is a concept that artists and art
historians have consistently referred to when trying to articulate how artworks are
made and appreciated. I survey the role of energy in art, philosophical and
psychological aesthetics, and neuroscience, and suggest how this approach could
help to further integrate art and neuroscience, and explain how brain activity
contributes to aesthetic experience.
Journal/conference proceeding
Progress in Brain Research;
Citation
Pepperell, R. (2018) 'Art, energy and the brain' In Christensen, J. & Gomila, A. (ed.s) The Arts and the Brain: Psychology and Physiology beyond Pleasure, Volume 237. London: Academic Press., pp. 417-432
URI
https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-arts-and-the-brain/christensen/978-0-12-813981-3http://hdl.handle.net/10369/9574
Collections
- Fovolab [41]
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