ART & ORGANISM
.
ART and the BRAIN
.
One need not go to their extremes of expression to appreciate how the creation and appreciation of art is in itself relevant to one’s health. This connection is the perpetual reminder that ART and AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE is grounded in a biological organism, albeit one that is relentless in its seeking to transcend its boundaries
.
In their functioning, each of the many (including as-yet-to-be-discovered) interdigiating, intercommunicating can be manifest as a continuum of activity. Once envisioned as a whole, the spirit of polygenic and pleiotropic interactions that can traverse multiple levels of organization will remind us of how the interplay of countless (uncountable?) cause-and-effect relationships can be relevant to our well-being. One need not go to their extremes of expression to appreciate how the creation and appreciation of art is in itself relevant to one’s health.
-
-
- [see for example the Arts and Mind Lab‘s recent symposium on “the arts for brain health” (artsandmindlab – a-report-from-a-symposium-on-arts-for-brain-health/]
-
“Ei blot til lyst” [Not just for pleasure]
(Inscription over the stage of the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen, Denmark; quoted by Christensen & Gomila (2018))
ART may be pleasurable, but beyond pleasure, “… the arts have other cognitive and emotional effects which are closely related to human psychobiological health and well-being. These are: (1) attentional focus and flow, (2) affective experience, (3) emotion through imagery, (4) interpersonal communication, (5) self-intimation, and (6) social bonding.
These effects are beneficial and contribute to the individual’s biopsychological health and well-being. The fact that artistic practice has these effects helps explain why the arts are so important to human life, and why they developed in the first place, i.e., as ways to foster these effects. Therefore, a biopsychological science of the arts is emerging, according to which the arts can be conceptualized as an important system of external self-regulation, as a set of activities that contribute to our homeostasis and well-being.”
As ETHOLOGISTS, relentlessly exploring connections might provide insight into the causes and consequences of behavior at multiple layers of organization, to the effects identified, A&O must seek clarity about a deeper shared system that underlies all processes that are activated or energized by a real or perceived challenges to our ability to meet key biological needs—stress!]
from Julia F. Christensen & Antoni Gomila (2018)[i] introduction to The Arts and The Brain: Psychology and Physiology Beyond Pleasure (p. xxvii)
BUT THE BRAIN and nervous system is one level of organization that exists within layers of much larger constructs. [look at A&O notes on Levels of Organization]
NEXUS
- ART and the BRAIN: including notes on medical dimensions of art in The ETHOLOGY of ART and AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE
- ART and the SOCIAL BRAIN
-
A&O READING – Neuroaesthetics – DMN & Individuality + resources
[i] Julia F. Christensen & Antoni Gomila (2018) eds. The Arts and The Brain: Psychology and Physiology Beyond Pleasure (Progress in Brain Research, Vol. 237:2-484 (2018))