Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

The brain has and will continue to boggle scientists and fascinated artists for generations to come. In neuroscience, the brain is responsible for all bodily functions, voluntary and involuntary, and for all of our individual thoughts, conscious and unconscious.

An interesting mind exercise is to think about how you define death. Pop culture perpetuates this idea that death occurs when the heart stops, and that people can be brought back to life. But death has been found to be a continuous process that occurs not in the heart, but in the brain, which is why legally, death is defined as the “irreversible cessation of all functions of the brain,” or brain death (Braincraft; Singh).

George Dunn and Brian Edwards presenting their piece
"Self Reflected" at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia

This is why I think both scientists and artists alike are so fascinated by the brain. The idea that a 3-pound mass of neurons and ganglia encapsulated in every individual’s skull defines every single interaction that individual has with the world, effectively defining who that person is, seems surreal (University of Washington; Vesna, Lecture 1). From an engineering standpoint, modeling the brain to be able to do what nature has perfected seems impossible. From an artistic standpoint, capturing the sublime beauty embodied by such a powerful organ also seems impossible (and ironic).

Such captivation in the mechanics of the brain have led artists to pursue a deeper understanding of the brain’s response to art. There are many studies that have researched, at a base level, the link between color and psychological function in humans. Colors are present everywhere in the world, in our dreams, and are an important factor in many of our everyday decisions. Our minds build color-meaning connections that are either innate or acquired throughout life, and these connections can have involuntary effects on our minds and bodies (i.e. red’s association with dominance) (Elliot and Maier). A deeper understanding of our mind’s color-meaning connections is an important tool for artists in both the artistic realm and commercial realm (i.e. advertising). For scientists, these connections can be exploited for potential therapeutic treatments.

How some colors trigger innate responses by the brain and how
these responses can be exploited for better marketing.

Lastly, when I think about neuroscience and art, my mind jumps to psychology and the Rorschach Test. This inkblot test is a projective test designed by Hermann Rorschach to presumably reveal hidden emotions and internal conflicts of the tested. In essence, it attempts to link unconscious response to the inkblots with the conscious mechanism of thought formation and speech (Gargasz).

The ten official inkblot cards of the Rorschach Test.

References

DashBurst. “How to Use the Psychology of Colors When Marketing.” Small Business Trends, Small Business Trends, 6 May 2018, smallbiztrends.com/2014/06/psychology-of-colors.html.

Drinker, Will. “Giant Artwork Reflects The Gorgeous Complexity of The Human Brain.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 June 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brain-art-franklin-institute_us_576d65b3e4b017b379f5cb68.

Elliot, Andrew J., and Markus A. Maier. “Color Psychology: Effects of Perceiving Color on Psychological Functioning in Humans.” Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 65, no. 1, 26 June 2013, pp. 95–120., doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115035.

Gargasz, Zbigniew. “Zbigniew Gargasz | BLOG.” Zbigniew Gargasz BLOG, 28 Nov. 2011, www.gargasz.info/psychology-inkblot-test-secret-behind-10-inkblot-cards-images/.

Singh, Maanvi. “Why Hospitals And Families Still Struggle To Define Death.” NPR, NPR, 10 Jan. 2014, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/01/10/261391130/why-hospitals-and-families-still-struggle-to-define-death.

University of Washington. “Brain Facts.” Parmenides, Stage 2, faculty.washington.edu/chudler/ffacts.html.

Vesna, Victoria. YouTube, Uconlineprogram, 17 May 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXjNbKDkYI.