Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: Evidence from a common mnemonic advantage between aesthetics judgement and self-reference

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyojun Lee ◽  
Amélie Jacquot ◽  
Dominique Makowski ◽  
Margherita Arcangeli ◽  
Jérôme Dokic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Subjective Evaluation ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Referential Processing ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Judgment Condition ◽  
Physical Features ◽  
Self Reference

A long-lasting and unresolved debate in the field of aesthetics is whether beauty is inherent to the object of appreciation or to the subject contemplating it. Several studies suggest that physical features (e.g., symmetry, contrast) of an artwork influence aesthetic rating. Nevertheless, this objectivist approach fails to explain the idiosyncratic nature of aesthetic experiences (AE). Recent models propose a multi-process account of AE, integrating a subjective evaluation based on self-referential processing. This proposition seems coherent with neuroimaging studies showing activation of a common neural network during AE and self-reference. Nevertheless, behavioural data supporting this hypothesis is missing. We took advantage of the self-reference effect (SRE) in memory – the mnemonic advantage for material encoded in a self-related mode - to test the hypothesis that aesthetic judgement is based on self-related processes. We predicted that if aesthetic judgement recruits self-referential processing, incidentally encoding artworks in this condition should produce a similar mnemonic advantage as the SRE. To test this hypothesis, 30 participants incidentally encoded 60 painting in three conditions: self-reference, judgement of beauty and judgement of symmetry (control condition). We found that items encoded in the aesthetic judgment condition were as well recognized as those encoded in self-reference condition when participants gave extreme judgements on the beauty scale during encoding. These findings suggest that at least intense AEs activate an individual’s sense of self.

scholarly journals The Influence of User Interface Attributes on Aesthetics

i-com ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Schmidt ◽  
Christian Wolff
Keyword(s):  
User Interface ◽  
Interface Design ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
Subjective Impression ◽  
Presentation Time ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The One

Abstract In this paper we present an empirical study among 40 participants which investigates the relationship between various factors of user interface aesthetics on the one hand, and the influence of the user interface attributes, symmetry, colorfulness as well as visual complexity on user interface aesthetics on the other hand. The user interface aesthetics will be classified in intuitive aesthetics (1st impression with a presentation time of 500 ms) and reflective aesthetics (reflective long-term impression after a longer presentation). Reflective aesthetics is further classified in classical aesthetics (common attractiveness) as well as expressive aesthetics (creativity). For this study we have set up a corpus of 30 websites which are used as stimulus material. In a multi-step lab experiment, participants rate aesthetics and their subjective impression concerning user interface attributes using questionnaires. We are able to show that the intuitive aesthetic judgment correlates strongly with the reflective judgment. The symmetry of a website positively correlates with all definitions of aesthetics, especially with the classical or traditional interpretation in the sense of attractiveness. Visual complexity can be seen as the strongest predictor for the aesthetic judgement of users and it negatively correlates with all definitions. Concerning colorfulness, a preference for websites of a medium degree of colorfulness for the intuitive as well as the classical aesthetics can be stated. Concerning expressive aesthetics, websites of moderate to high colorfulness receive the best judgments. The relationships which we have found are finally discussed in the context of previous research and some implications for future user interface design are given.

scholarly journals Aesthetics in motion: The beauty of action paintings as revealed by Parkinson’s disease

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Humphries ◽  
Jacqueline Rick ◽  
Daniel Weintraub ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Motor System ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Visual Metaphor ◽  
Embodied Simulation ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Subjective Value ◽  
The Aesthetic

Visual art offers cognitive neuroscience an opportunity to study how subjective value is constructed from representations supported by multiple neural systems. A surprising finding in research on aesthetic judgment is that functional activation of motor areas of the brain often occurs in response to static, abstract stimuli, such as paintings. This motor activity has variously been hypothesised to reflect the embodied simulation of an artist’s painting movements or emotions, as well as possible preparatory approach-avoidance responses to liked and disliked artworks. However, whether this motor involvement functionally contributes to aesthetic appreciation has not been addressed. Here, we examined whether motor system dysfunction alters the aesthetic experiences of patients with Parkinson’s disease. 43 people with Parkinson’s disease and 40 controls made preference decisions and rated the motion content and their aesthetic appreciation of a set of high-motion action paintings (by Jackson Pollock) and a set of low-motion neoplastic paintings (by Piet Mondrian). People with Parkinson’s disease demonstrated stable and internally consistent preferences for abstract art, but their perception of movement in the paintings was significantly lower in both conditions than that of controls. In addition, people with Parkinson’s demonstrated enhanced preferences for high-motion art, and a fundamentally altered relationship between motion and aesthetic appreciation. Our results do not accord well with a straightforward embodied simulation account of aesthetic experiences, because artworks that did not include visual traces of the artist’s actions were still experienced as lower in motion by Parkinson’s patients. We suggest that the ability to form movement representations from static abstract images is more akin to a process of visual metaphor comprehension that is mediated through the motor system. Overall, we find support for hypotheses linking motion, motor responses and aesthetic appreciation, and provide clear evidence that altered neural functioning changes the way art is perceived and valued.

Movement in Aesthetic Experiences: What We Can Learn from Parkinson's Disease

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Stacey Humphries ◽  
Jacqueline Rick ◽  
Daniel Weintraub ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Motor Dysfunction ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Jackson Pollock ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Subjective Value ◽  
The Aesthetic

Abstract Visual art offers cognitive neuroscience an opportunity to study how subjective value is constructed from representations supported by multiple neural systems. A surprising finding in aesthetic judgment research is the functional activation of motor areas in response to static, abstract stimuli, like paintings, which has been hypothesized to reflect embodied simulations of artists' painting movements, or preparatory approach–avoidance responses to liked and disliked artworks. However, whether this motor involvement functionally contributes to aesthetic appreciation has not been addressed. Here, we examined the aesthetic experiences of patients with motor dysfunction. Forty-three people with Parkinson's disease and 40 controls made motion and aesthetics judgments of high-motion Jackson Pollock paintings and low-motion Piet Mondrian paintings. People with Parkinson's disease demonstrated stable and internally consistent preferences for abstract art, but their perception of movement in the paintings was significantly lower than controls in both conditions. The patients also demonstrated enhanced preferences for high-motion art and an altered relationship between motion and aesthetic appreciation. Our results do not accord well with a straightforward embodied simulation account of aesthetic experiences, because artworks that did not include visual traces of the artist's actions were still experienced as lower in motion by Parkinson's patients. We suggest that the motor system may be involved in integrating low-level visual features to form abstract representations of movement rather than simulations of specific bodily actions. Overall, we find support for hypotheses linking motor responses and aesthetic appreciation and show that altered neural functioning changes the way art is perceived and valued.

scholarly journals Can there be a negative aesthetic judgement on sublime?

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 175-187
Author(s):  
Igor Cvejic
Keyword(s):  
Positive Answer ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Content Object ◽  
The Way

When we talk about the aesthetic judgement in Kant, certainly the main example is the judgement of taste, that is, beautiful and ugly. However, in addition to the judgement of taste, Kant speaks of another kind of aesthetic reflexive judgments - sublime. The main question addressed in this paper is whether in the case of the sublime we can speak of a negative aesthetic judgment, a judgment of what would be contrary to the sublime in the way that the ugly is opposite to the beautiful. After considering the similarities and differences of the ugly and sublime and outlining the formal problems of thinking at all about the aesthetic judgment of what is contrary to sublime, we will try to give a positive answer. The content (object) argument will be considered first, then the argument based on the relation of faculties, which will prove to be insufficient. The closest solution will be to consider in the specific kind of ridiculous.

Kunst als reflexive Form und als reflektierende Bewegung

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-86
Author(s):  
Brigitte Hilmer
Keyword(s):  
Propositional Content ◽  
The Self ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Self Reference

Kunst kann dann als reflexiv interpretiert werden, wenn Reflexivität nicht auf propositionalen Gehalt oder sogar sprachliche Artikulation angewiesen ist. Reflexion tritt auf in den Modi der Selbstbeziehung des Lebendigen, des Überlegens und der Selbstreferenz im Symbolischen. Kunst ist ein Reflexionsmedium, das diese Modi beansprucht und miteinander verflicht. Eine spezifisch ästhetische Reflexivität ist von und nach Kant nach dem Vorbild der transzendentalen Reflexion und in Konkurrenz zu ihr etabliert worden. Sie läßt sich als Reflexivität des ästhetischen Urteils, als emphatisches Gemachtsein, als Rückwendung auf Wahrnehmungsvollzüge oder als Begriffsreflexion verstehen. Dabei wird die Unterscheidung von Anschauung und Verstand in deren Zusammenspiel oder Abspaltung vorausgesetzt. Von der Analogie zur transzendentalen Reflexion löst sich aber erst ein Verständnis von ästhetischer Reflexivität, das von den drei Modi und ihrer Verflechtung ausgeht.<br><br>Reflexivity does not presuppose linguistic articulation or even propositional content. If it did, art could not be called reflexive. Reflexivity can be found in the self-contact of the living, in mental reflection or in symbolic self-reference. Art is a medium which claims these different modes of reflexivity and intertwines them. Aesthetic reflexivity as such has been established by Kant and his epigones, following the model of transcendetal reflection. Thus it could be specified as the reflexive structure of aesthetic judgement, or as an emphasis on a work’s being created, or as a reference to perception itself in the process of perceiving, or as a way of reflecting concepts. Aesthetic reflexivity can only be detached from the model of transcendental reflection, if it is seen as oriented towards the interaction among the three modes of reflection mentioned above, leaving aside the difference, interplay or competition between perception and conceptual capacities.

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.

Hearing the Contradictions: Aesthetic Experience, Music and Digitization

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-302
Author(s):  
Nancy Weiss Hanrahan
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Primary Object ◽  
The World ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
The Aesthetic

If, as Susan Buck-Morss (2003) suggests, aesthetic experience is an occasion for “making critical judgments about not only cultural forms but social forms of our being-in-the-world,” or if it is linked, in David Hesmondhalgh’s (2013) account, to the possibilities of collective flourishing, potential changes in the nature of that experience merit critical attention. This article reflects on the ways in which these social or ethical dimensions of the aesthetic experience of music are affected by digitization. It moves from a discussion of aesthetic experience as a form of encounter that refers to a common world, to consideration of recent work in music sociology that engages themes that emerge from that discussion: aesthetic judgment, and the question of difference and commonality. With illustrations from focus group interviews, I suggest that the quantization associated with digital environments is altering the cultural form of aesthetic judgment, just as personalization is changing the meaning of “difference” in this context. The essay is intended as a disclosive critique that takes as its primary object not the world observable through thick description or hermeneutic interpretation of actual cultural practice, but a world evoked through critical reflection on its actual and potential constellations of meaning.

Feminist Aesthetics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Eaton
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Male Gaze ◽  
Canon Formation ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Female Nude ◽  
Inclusive Approach ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Feminist Aesthetics

This chapter summarizes central issues and themes in feminist philosophical aesthetics in the analytic tradition, although some continental figures are discussed. After introducing the interdisciplinary, intersectional and trans* inclusive approach that feminist aesthetics is starting to take, this essay discusses situatedness, artistic canon formation, humanism vs. gynocentrism, rewriting the philosophical canon, overcoming artworld biases, and the role of the aesthetic in systemic oppression. Specific topics to be discussed include the male gaze, the female nude, the concept of artistic genius, women’s artistic production, the purported universality of correct aesthetic judgment, the sex/gender distinction as it pertains to aesthetics and the arts, and body aesthetics.

Conclusion: Method-Free Orientation

2020 ◽  
pp. 153-158
Author(s):  
Dominic Lash
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
The Aesthetic

The book's conclusion argues that, with regard to the aesthetic judgement of films, the best orientational method is the absence of method. This does not mean that aesthetic criticism should aim to be entirely unmethodological, but rather that any general method for mastering disorientation will itself be vulnerable to disorientation, and that the critic must be alert to this possibility and hence flexible in method, responsive to the demands films make of us rather than forcing them to fit our predetermined categories. The arguments put forward in the book are briefly summarized, and – after returning once more to John Ford's The Searchers – it is concluded that in many cases disorientation and confusion are not defects to be remedied, but rather crucial to both how and what films mean.

The Contributions of Emotion and Reward to Aesthetic Judgment of Visual Art

2021 ◽  
pp. 83-87
Author(s):  
Oshin Vartanian
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Aesthetic Preference ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Preference Ratings ◽  
Images Of Paintings

It has long been assumed that emotions play an important role in our interactions with artworks. Similarly, how rewarding we find an artwork could also be an important driver of our aesthetic preference for it. Vartanian and Goel (2004) tested this idea by presenting participants with images of paintings in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner, recording brain activation as they viewed and rated them on aesthetic preference. Their results demonstrated that activation in brain regions that encode reward and emotions—including the caudate nucleus, cingulate sulcus, and the visual cortex—covaried with preference ratings assigned to the paintings. This study represented an early example of how brain imaging could be used to test theoretically derived predictions from empirical aesthetics. Indeed, data from that study and several others since have accumulated to demonstrate that emotions and rewards are a cornerstone of our aesthetic experiences in relation to artworks and other classes of stimuli.

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