Macquarie Seminar Friday 11 March Nicolas Bullot (Macquarie MACCS) The Artful Mind Meets Art History: Toward a Psycho-Historical Framework for the Cognitive Science of Art
W6A Rm 708 1.30-3.30 All welcome Abstract: Research seeking a scientific foundation for the theory of art has raised controversies at the crossroads of the social and cognitive sciences. Though equally relevant to a scientific inquiry in the nature of art, the psychological and historical approaches to art developed independently and continue to lack a common core of theoretical principles. Historicists have argued that psychological and neuroscientific theories are dispensable in art theory because they overlook the essential fact that artworks are artifacts produced by historical contexts and artistic intentions. After a presentation of the debate, I introduce a psycho-historical framework for the cognitive science of art. According to this framework, the main task of a cognitive science of art is to explain the interdependence between historical contexts and experiences elicited by artworks. The principles of this framework predict that audiences understand an artwork when they succeed in deploying an attitude (termed ‘artistic design stance’) that relevantly guides their historical inquiries into the making and context of the work. I demonstrate the feasibility of the psycho-historical approach with a discussion of existing studies on emotional expression in art. I conclude that scientists can tackle basic questions about the nature, origin, and evolution of art within the psycho-historical framework. _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 971 subscribers now served. To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
