Neuroscience + Art

Much of the previous weeks have been spent studying the overlap of art and the body, but this week, the focus is on how art overlaps with the mind. Professor Vesna, in her video, explains how a lot of the focus is on the study of the consciousness as the mechanism to create art, as well as, how machines and technology have begun to influence the consciousness (uconlineprogram). This topic is rather interesting because, in theory, the brain is responsible for everything humans have achieved and/or created.

Elizabeth Jameson's art inspired by neuroscience
Courtesy of: https://shenovafashion.com/blogs/blog/neuroscience-art-gallery

One of the things that stood out to me immediately as capturing the link between neuroscience and art was the information regarding the “Brainbow” method. “Brainbow” is the name given to the process that that distinguishes individual neurons in the brain via fluorescent proteins (Weissman). The different colors of each protein combine to create a rainbow-like palette to label individual neurons, which has been a major contribution to the study of neural connections because this method allows exponentially more neurons to be mapped than before (Than). Furthermore, the resulting images have won awards in scientific photography competitions showing the artistic merit in this process. It is amazing to see how such a major scientific development can also be so dominant in an artistic sense demonstrating the overlap this class is built around.

A "Brainbow" image
Courtesy of: http://cbs.fas.harvard.edu/science/connectome-project/brainbow

Another rather important overlap I found between neuroscience and art is the study of how the brain interprets art, particularly in regard to how neuroscience is employed in visual marketing. There are entire companies dedicated to studying how consumers react to visual signals and how they can be manipulated into spending their money in one way or another. For example, red and yellow have been proven to spark hunger exemplified by the famous “Golden Arches” (Couchman). Companies spend opulent amounts of money to see what types of advertisements engage consumers and draw attention. A lot of research has found that neuroscientific input into the creative and business aspects of an ad campaign can help its success significantly (O’Malley). This again is a unique way of using neuroscience to produce visual content (I’m hesitant to call advertising art though many may argue otherwise) that prompts a significant human response.

An example of consumer neuroscience
Courtesy of: www.mcdonalds.com

Neuroscience and art, thus, go together quite well. Unlike previous weeks, this was not much of a surprise to me because the brain is what is responsible for creating art and the connection seems very natural. Regardless, it was very interesting to see how deep this connection is.

Sources:

Couchman, Humphrey. “This Is Your Brain On Branding: Neuroscience Marketing Mind Control.” This Is Your Brain On Branding: Neuroscience Marketing Mind Control, 30 Jan. 2019, fabrikbrands.com/neuroscience-marketing-mind-control/.

O'Malley, Conor. “A Few Things Neuroscience Tells Us about the Art of Advertising.” Extreme Reach, Extreme Reach, 29 Mar. 2019, extremereach.com/blog/a-few-things-neuroscience-tells-us-about-the-art-of-advertising/.

Than, Ker. “Brain Cells Colored To Create 'Brainbow'.” LiveScience, Purch, 31 Oct. 2007, www.livescience.com/1977-brain-cells-colored-create-brainbow.html.

uconlineprogram. “Mind intro.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 Mar. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=RF0Qt7L2-kM.

Weissman, Tamily. “Brainbow.” Cell Press, www.cell.com/pictureshow/brainbow.