scholarly journals Associating With Art: A Network Model of Aesthetic Effects

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Specker ◽  
Eiko I. Fried ◽  
Raphael Rosenberg ◽  
Helmut Leder
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Psychological Constructs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Active Interaction

In recent years, understanding psychological constructs as network processes has gained considerable traction in the social sciences. In this paper, we propose the aesthetic effects network (AEN) as a novel way to conceptualize aesthetic experience. The AEN represents an associative process where having one association leads to the next association, generating an overall aesthetic experience. In art theory, associations of this kind are referred to as aesthetic effects. The AEN provides an explicit account of a specific cognitive process involved in aesthetic experience. We first outline the AEN and discuss empirical results (Study 1, N=255) to explore what can be gained from this approach. Second, in Study 2 (N=133, pre-registered) we follow calls in the literature to substantiate network theories by using an experimental manipulation, and found evidence in favor of the AEN over other alternatives. The AEN provides a basis for future studies that can apply a network perspective to different aesthetic experiences and processes. This perspective takes a process-based approach to aesthetic experience, where aesthetic experience is represented as an active interaction between viewer and artwork. If we want to understand how people experience art, it is central to know why people have different experiences with the same artworks, and, also, why people have similar experiences when looking at different artworks. Our proposed network perspective offers a new way to approach and potentially answer these questions.

The General Impact of Context on Aesthetic Experience

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Pelowski ◽  
Eva Specker
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
General Consideration ◽  
Present Knowledge ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Empirical Approaches

This chapter discusses the general impact of context on the aesthetic experience. It is designed to anticipate the other chapters’ discussions of context’s specific areas—the social, the physical or institutional, information and framing, museums, background or personality-related features. Here, the authors offer a more general consideration discussing key aspects such as: What even is context? How can it best be thought about? What are the key issues that might be considered? And, especially, how can it be generally integrated into present knowledge of models of aesthetic processing experience? Beginning with the interest in context throughout the history of aesthetics, the chapter builds a presentation of empirical approaches and especially theory, focusing on context’s main layers and points of influence. It then discusses how key context issues might be considered in models of aesthetic processing, with the goal of providing a framework for better approaching context aspects in this book and in one’s own future studies. This is also interspersed with what the authors consider to be some of the more intriguing studies in order to spur readers’ thinking about the potential for studying context. The chapter concludes with some major issues, some candidates for future consideration, and suggestions for further reading and education.

scholarly journals Towards a radical life. The social and aesthetic themes in Helen Keller’s activity in defence of humanity

2019 ◽  
pp. 229-254
Author(s):  
EDYTA NIEDUZIAK
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Adam Mickiewicz

Edyta Nieduziak, Towards a radical life. The social and aesthetic themes in Helen Keller’s activity in defence of humanity. Interdisciplinary Contexts of Special Pedagogy, no. 25, Poznań 2019. Pp. 229-254. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-391X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/ikps.2019.25.10 The article is an attempt to describe three biographical motifs of H. Keller, referring to aesthetic experiences (R. Ingarden) caused by various experiences: tactile in contact with sculpture, haptic in contact with music, and literary. The starting point to consider, however, is the category of humanity in the sense of M.S. Archer. The reflexivity characteristic of humanity, combined with the aesthetic experience, makes the themes describe the non-aesthetic experiences of H. Keller. In the analysis, the author used H. Keller’s correspondence, her works, biographical sources, photographs and video recordings.

scholarly journals The Biological Basis of Mathematical Beauty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Semir Zeki ◽  
Oliver Y. Chén ◽  
John Paul Romaya
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Mathematical Culture ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Biological Basis ◽  
Mathematical Beauty ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Biological Category

AbstractThrough our past studies of the neurobiology of beauty, we have come to divide aesthetic experiences into two broad categories: biological and artifactual. The aesthetic experience of biological beauty is dictated by inherited brain concepts, which are resistant to change even in spite of extensive experience. The experience of artifactual beauty on the other hand is determined by post-natally acquired concepts, which are modifiable throughout life by exposure to different experiences (Zeki, 2009). Hence, in terms of aesthetic rating, biological beauty (in which we include the experience of beautiful faces or human bodies) is characterized by less variability between individuals belonging to different ethnic origins and cultural backgrounds or the same individual at different times. Artifactual beauty (in which we include the aesthetic experience of human artifacts such as buildings and cars) is characterized by greater variability between individuals belonging to different ethnic and cultural groupings and by the same individual at different times. In this paper, we present results to show that the experience of mathematical beauty (Zeki et al 2014), even though it constitutes an extreme example of beauty that is dependent upon (mathematical) culture and learning, belongs to the biological category and obeys one of its characteristics, namely a lesser variability in terms of the aesthetic ratings given to mathematical formulae experienced as beautiful.

The Aesthetic Triad

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
Oshin Vartanian ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Emergent Property ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Large Scale Systems ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Meaning System ◽  
The Brain

Following the rapid growth of neuroaesthetics, there was a need to systematize and organize the findings into a coherent and testable framework. With the “aesthetic triad,” the authors presented a model according to which aesthetic experience was viewed as the emergent property of the interaction of three large-scale systems in the brain: sensory-motor, emotion-valuation, and knowledge-meaning. Features that distinguished this model from others was that it was meant to apply to all aesthetic episodes (e.g., art, faces, architecture, etc.) and it acknowledged explicitly that a large variety of aesthetic experiences can emerge as a function of the specific ways in which these systems interact in the course of their emergence. To probe the model, the contribution of the knowledge-meaning system is likely of greatest interest, at least in part because that system encapsulates a large breadth of factors ranging from the personal to the cultural.

An Aesthetic Theory of Vandalism

1978 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon L. Allen ◽  
David B. Greenberger
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Previous Theory ◽  
Discriminative Stimuli ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Destructive Behavior ◽  
Initial Appearance ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Practical Implications

An aesthetic theory of vandalism is proposed. The theory posits that the variables accounting for the enjoyment associated with socially acceptable aesthetic experiences are similarly responsible for the pleasure associated with acts of destruction. Previous theory and research in aesthetics have identified many important factors, such as complexity, expectation, novelty, intensity, and patterning, which are responsible for the pleasure that accompanies an aesthetic experience. These same psychological processes are involved in the destruction of an object. Furthermore, aesthetic variables implicated in an object's initial appearance and in its appearance after being vandalized may serve as eliciting or discriminative stimuli for destructive behavior. Several studies provide support for hypotheses derived from the aesthetic theory of vandalism. In conclusion, we examine the theory's practical implications for reducing vandalism in the schools.

scholarly journals Clinical and Psychological Characteristics and Existential Essence of the “Florence Syndrome”

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
M.V. Ermolaeva ◽  
D.V. Lubovsky
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Disorders ◽  
Adult Development ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Aesthetic

We consider a wide range of emotional disorders that occur as a result of meeting with works of art in places of significant cultural value, denominated as Florence syndrome. The analysis of the syndrome is conducted in two directions stemming from the psychotherapeutic approach developed by F.E. Vasiluk: the analysis of events’ sense (clinical and psychological nature of the syndrome), and the analysis of the existential content of experiences as a process of giving meaning to events. We analyze the descriptions of the Florence syndrome in the works of G. Magherini. Different versions of the syndrome are interpreted from the point of view of M. Klein’s theory of object relations. It is shown that the existential essence of this syndrome consists in the difficulty of accepting the social situation of adult development and challenges of uncertainty and complexity. We suggest that the existential nature of this syndrome is associated with the expectation of meeting with the beautiful, with an aesthetic situation that will change the person’s life for the better without an effort of will, without difficult preliminary work on learning the language of art and without further understanding of the aesthetic experience received. In conclusion, we analyze the most important theme of A. Tarkovsky’s film “Solaris”, that is, returning to childhood, to the origins, to the foundations of being, to a spiritual rebirth.

The Impact of the Social Context on Aesthetic Experience

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Mastandrea
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
The Social ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
The Family ◽  
Socio Demographic Factors ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Impact

Not only cognitive and affective processes determine an aesthetic experience; another important issue to consider has to do with the social context while experiencing the arts. Several studies have shown that the aesthetic impact of a work of art depends on, to an important extent, the different socio-demographic factors including age, class, social status, health, wealth, and so on. The concepts of cultural and social capital by Pierre Bourdieu and the production and consumption of artworks by Howard Becker are discussed. Another important aspect of the impact of the social context on aesthetic experience deals with early art experience in childhood within the family—considered as the first social group to which a person belongs.

Aesthetics of the Everyday

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crispin Sartwell
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Philosophy Of Art ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Popular Art ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
Art Activities ◽  
Art As Experience ◽  
The Aesthetic

‘Everyday aesthetics’ refers to the possibility of aesthetic experience of non-art objects and events, as well as to a current movement within the field of philosophy of art which rejects or puts into question distinctions such as those between fine and popular art, art and craft, and aesthetic and non-aesthetic experiences. The movement may be said to begin properly with Dewey's Art as Experience (1934), though it also has roots in continental philosophers such as Heidegger. The possibility of everyday aesthetics originates in two undoubted facts: firstly, that art emerges from a range of non-art activities and experiences, and, secondly, that the realm of the aesthetic extends well beyond the realm of what are commonly conceived to be the fine arts.

scholarly journals Releasing the Social Imagination: Art, the Aesthetic Experience, and Citizenship in Education

2013 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 223-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seungho Moon ◽  
Shawn Rose ◽  
Alison Black ◽  
James Black ◽  
Yeorim Hwang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Aesthetic

scholarly journals The nature of perception and emotion in aesthetic appreciation: A response to Makin’s challenge to Empirical Aesthetics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Skov ◽  
Marcos Nadal
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Emotional Processes ◽  
Distinct Kind ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Mainstream Psychology

Alexis Makin argued in a recent paper that Empirical Aesthetics is unable to properly advance our understanding of the mechanisms involved in aesthetic experience. The reason for this predicament, he claims, is an inability of current research methods to capture the psychological properties that truly characterize aesthetic experience, especially the unique perceptual and emotional processes involved in the aesthetic experience. We show that Makin’s argument rests on assumptions that are at odds with scientific knowledge of the neurobiological mechanisms involved in the appreciation of sensory objects. We thereafter show that such mechanisms are rooted in shared neurobiological systems, and operate according to computational principles that are common to many domains of experience. This casts doubt on the notion that aesthetic experiences constitute a distinct kind of experiences that can be defined according to a set of special and unique qualities. Finally, we discuss how attributing this specialness to “aesthetic” experiences leads Empirical Aesthetics astray from mainstream psychology and neuroscience.

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