Neuroscience of Aesthetic Perception

En este artículo, retomo textos escritos por Diego Rivera; escritos mismos que, coherentes e interesantes, se erigen como expresiones de sus pensamientos y teorías estéticas para, a través de ellos, acercarnos a sus propias teorías, a sus ideas y las elecciones del Diego artista en cuanto a la técnica aplicada en los diferentes formatos que utilizó. Tomando como punto de partida La carta sobre las texturas, se explora la relación entre color, forma y textura—tanto en la pintura de caballete como en la pintura mural—; el uso de herramientas diversas para representar espacio y tiempo; y las opiniones del mismo Rivera acerca del aprendizaje artístico, la cuarta dimensión, la percepción y el funcionamiento del cuerpo humano. Finalmente, el pintor hace un análisis de la relación

Derealization, the phenomenon in which things appear strange and unfamiliar, is usually understood as pathological or, at best defensive. I present evidence for an "aesthetic" form of derealization as observed and described by the artist Alberto Giacometti and propose that it served a critically productive role in his creative process. Not only did Giacometti experience derealization's core estrangement, altered body images, obsessional skepticism, and prolonged observation, but these typically pathological features combined synergistically into a method of visual inquiry for him. A process that entailed the "deconstruction" of habitual and routine perceptions associated with day-to-day reality. This suggests that seeing things as unfamiliar, unknown, or even as meaningless may confer an advantage on the artist, both loosening the constraints of pre-conceptions and supporting alternative, fresh perceptions. Aesthetic derealization might also share with its clinical counterpart a common dissociative mechanism that separates perception from cognition or seeing from knowing. Whereas clinical derealization is crude and disorienting, the aesthetic variant is flexible and enlightening. Giacometti and perhaps other artists might employ an intriguing mix of sophistication and naïveté in seeing things strangely.

The double-blind peer-reviewed Yearbook of Moving Image Studies (YoMIS) is now accepting articles from scientists, scholars, artists and film makers for the first issue entitled »Cyborgian Images: The moving image between apparatus and body«. YoMIS will be enriched by disciplines like media and film studies, image science, (film) philosophy, art history, game studies and other research areas related to the moving image in general. Modern perspectives on the structure of moving images exemplify a complex multimodal mechanism that interacts in specific ways with the recipient and various levels of the perception of images. In this case neither moving images nor the subjective reception are passive processes. Movement, time, space and different modalities interact with senses, memories and anticipation and create a complex hybrid structure of medium, recipient and sensory stimulus processing. This refers to the fact, that on the one hand the technological structure of displays and interfaces are relevant, and that on the other hand the role of the lived-body and mind is crucial for an understanding of the effects of the moving images. It is the interaction between the image, the dispositive and the recipient which brings the pictures to life and unfolds its meaning in diverse dimensions. This remarks become obvious when looking at the recent evolution in media technologies. New displays and interfaces like the Cinemizer (Zeiss), Oculus Rift (OculusVR) or Kinect (Microsoft) promote the progressive embodiment of the recipient or user by the medium, and, in doing so, they force the amalgamation of the subject of perception with the moving image. Therefore »Cyborgian Images« addresses the broad field of the relationship between the technological dimension of the medium, its aesthetic and structural impact on the representational status of the moving image and the effect on the bodily level of the recipient, including affective and somatic reactions.

What does it mean to be an aesthetic beholder? Is it different than simply being a perceiver? Most theories of aesthetic perception focus on 1) features of the perceived object and its presentation or 2) on psychological evaluative or emotional responses and intentions of perceiver and artist. I propose that we need to look at the process of engaged perception itself, and further that this temporal process of becoming a beholder must be understood in its embodied, contextual and dynamic specificity. Through both phenomenological and neuroscientific explorations I analyze what is characteristic about a more “aesthetic stance” and argue that there is a certain asymmetry between beholder and beheld, which has to do with a disengagement of goal-directed action, and which allows for other kinds of perceptual involvement than in a more “practical stance”. It is a multi-disciplinary project integrating a sensorimotor notion of aesthetic affordances, 18th century philosophy, and large-scale brain network findings. What ensues is a new dynamic framework that hopefully can support fruitful interdisciplinary research of aesthetic perception.

The society where we live is principally visual, where the images are decisive. The image is the main entity in the visual studies and the most important legacy which has been arranged in sequence from histography. The mental image configuration is an issue of interdisciplinary interest. The burden and the power of image association, in our visual society, make possible multiple researching paths. We will treat both instigator and induced images, which have the ability to create an associative relation between ideas, concepts or other images. In this work we will analyse the image configuration from an internal view. We will treat the reception, memory and temporality concepts which travel integral to this constitutive process of the image. We will display the image concepts with implied legacy, associated images that are common to the culture as long as the images that create other images. In the humanity formative studies, the configurative structures of what is visual are prefere...

This paper presents some results of a research on aesthetic perception conducted in innovative way through the use of one of the most popular social network (Facebook), in order to explore a new investigation field based on the intersection among Psychology of Perception, Neuroesthetics and Information Technology. Exploiting the well-known system of 'like' and 'share', on which that platform is based, thousands of images of artworks have been submitted to a sample of over 10,000 users worldwide. Through the metrics analysis of users' choices, we observed that some specific compositional elements inside the artworks are able to activate the aesthetic preferences by the viewers towards specific artworks rather than others. The steady repetition of the preferences related to the same compositional elements has made possible to predict the subsequent aesthetic choices by the viewers towards not yet posted artworks. According to results of our investigation it was possible to identify some 'responsive' compositional elements inside the artworks, that would be able to activate the Beauty Perception and the Aesthetic Pleasure in all perceivers. The precognition of these specific elements would allow to influence and drive the aesthetic preferences of the public towards an artwork rather than another: the inclusion of those 'responsive' elements within an artwork would allow to activate the Aesthetic Pleasure of the viewers, in order to predetermine and influence their aesthetic preferences. In this way it would be possible to develop a specific 'Aesthetic Algorithm' able to predict an artwork's Beauty, according to which we could know beforehand if a given artwork is capable of activating the Aesthetic Pleasure in the perceivers: the foreknowledge of the compositional elements able to activate the Aesthetic Pleasure would allow to foresee, predetermine and influence the aesthetic preferences of the viewers towards an artworks, with many implications for the Art Market. We have defined this predictive analysis of the artworks' Beauty, and the foreknowledge of aesthetic preferences of the public, as 'Precognitive Aesthetics'.

In this contribution I argue against the tendency to explain aesthetic values on the basis of neurophysiological processes (and especially the activation of mirror neurons)  in the brains of recipients of artworks. I primarily focus on a recent proposal by Vittorio Gallese and David Freedberg and argue that their account can at best explain the nature of experience of some pictures (and their effectiveness as pictures) but not why these experiences should be classified as *aesthetic* experience (nor can they explain the effectiveness of art). The contribution is written in German.

This article deals with the creative and cognitive process of the creative work from the aspect of fashion design. It is examined through the Cognitive-Apperceptive-Limn process (The CAL), analysing the stages of design work referring to prominent literature, and discussing exciting theories, such the FLOW and the AHA effects are, and the neuro aesthetic theory. Setting them into a new context, the article offers a fresh approach of a designer, rather than a scientific statement based on pragmatic findings. Since theories on artistic performance and creativity can never be enough 'empirical', and the process can be never understood enough well… 1. Introduction Creativity and fantasy are unique human activities, based upon subjective ideals. They rise few questions: How the cognitive process is determined by visual aspects? What is the physiological pathway that ensures the connection between the vision and the hand drove drawing tool? What is that appears in on the paper, as a manifestation of the pure idea? Yet, whose competence is to identify, what from is the effect, flowing as an invisible substance between the artwork and the host made up? A few years ago I tried to discuss such dilemmas, with few of my psychologist friends. For example: How the inspiration is transmitted into artwork? I got from them puzzled answers as first aid, such as: "In most cases, artists are not interrogated on the nation of their ideas. " [1] Psychological research claims designers are hypersensitive, impulsive, socially aloof, introverted, and nonconforming person. [2] This kind of 'deviancy' is characteristic for every artist or designer. If so, then food for thought is, if maintaining the productivity of the designer by squeezing him/her within the theoretical process of creative product development is not an absurd requirement applied in order to set control on the artistic genius? In this paper research objectives of the cognitive-creative and the mental-manual procedure will be examined according to the process of Cognition-Apperception and Limn (limn = draw, design, paint, sketch, used instead of these words): The CAL.

An experiment of aesthetic perception conducted on Facebook, during which thousands of artwork images were posted on the most popular social network, has showed that the aesthetic preferences expressed by the users increased regularly when certain compositional elements were present inside the artworks. Exploiting the like/share system, on which Facebook is based, it was observed that – in a virtual context of aesthetic appreciation, such as the bidimensional and non-immersive environment of the Net, in which we can browse through desktop or mobile devices – users are induced to react in the same way towards specific visual stimuli: the presence of particular aesthetic markers within the artwork images would be able to induce the onset of aesthetic pleasure in the perceivers, driving the aesthetic preferences towards some artworks rather than others. In fact, the viewers seemed to be influenced by specific aesthetic features, responding in the same way when identical visual stimuli were replicated. The recurrence of the aesthetic preferences by the users towards artwork images endowed with specific visual characteristics, has allowed to identify the sensitive hedonic items, that is the specific compositional elements (or visual features) present inside the artworks, able to activate the aesthetic pleasure in the viewers and to influence their aesthetic preferences. According to the findings of this research, as well as the latest studies in the field of Neuroaesthetics, it is possible to assume that the viewer’s aesthetic judgment about an artwork could not be completely subjective, but objectively determined by a specific neural matrix of aesthetic pleasure, that would be “sensitive” and responsive to specific aesthetic markers present inside the artworks. If the hypothesis of a neurobiological basis of aesthetic pleasure were confirmed, it would be possible to “predict” the aesthetic preferences of the viewers faced with an artwork not only displayed on pc, tablet and smartphone screen, or in a Virtual Reality setting, but also in real environment (e.g. museum or art gallery): this assumption has been called Aesthetic Precognition.

The society where we live is principally visual, where the images are decisive. The image is the main entity in the visual studies and the most important legacy which has been arranged in sequence from histography. The mental image configuration is an issue of interdisciplinary interest. The burden and the power of image association, in our visual society, make possible multiple researching paths. We will treat both instigator and induced images, which have the ability to create an associative relation between ideas, concepts or other images. In this work we will analyse the image configuration from an internal view. We will treat the reception, memory and temporality concepts which travel integral to this constitutive process of the image. We will display the image concepts with implied legacy, associated images that are common to the culture as long as the images that create other images. In the humanity formative studies, the configurative structures of what is visual are prefere...