Geoff and Group, Some things Ibve learned about valuing art from studying neuroaesthetics. Valuing art depends of the different aspects of our sensory world and how we generate conscious experience of auditory or visual percept (subjective awareness of a stimulus). Corollary questions: how patients with scotoma in their visual fields value art? how patients with spinal cord injury value art? Valuing depends also on the binding process that underlies auditory/visual perception.We need an understanding of the parallel pathways (streams) and the binding question. Analyzing the V1 area in the visual cortex helps us understand that valuing is context-sensitive. It seems some artists have decided unconsciously to activate or b work withb specific visual areas: V4, color area for fauvism; V5, movement area, see Calder, etcb& See my post about brain and cubism, aesthetic fatigue and the element of surprise in Magritte (will attend that last point in a different post.) Now, about watching paintings, Gallese and Freedberg propose that even the artistbs gestures in producing the artwork induce the empathetic engagement of the observer, by activating simulation of the motor program that corresponds to the gesture implied by the trace. So our first reactions in valuing a painting would be: - the feeling of bodily engagement with the gestures, movements and intentions of others - the identification of the emotions of observed others - a feeling of empathy for bodily sensations Changeux teached me that seeing visual art is like reasoning b first we deconstruct then we reconstruct a painting. That involves different prefrontal and frontal regions of our brain (the same we use while reasoning). The same is happening when we listen to music. What strikes me as fundamental is the asynchrony in the visual process. Our visual cortex does not see everything simultaneously but step by step. There is a delay of 400-500 milliseconds, itbs like a safety margin the brain gives for reviewing the situation we are in. Valuing art depends also on different kinds of working memory. (MRI shows activation of areas of frontal cortex for face memory) So valuing could depend on the levels of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. In the case of valuing interactive art, auditory input can influence a visual search. See Tannenhaus. I understand that the above might represent a short cut to other fundamental ideas.
Luc PS. Michael Gazzaniga wrote an interesting report on art and cognition.
