scholarly journals rethinking_neuroaesthetics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ionela Bara ◽  
Richard J Binney ◽  
Robert Ward ◽  
Richard Ramsey
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Controlled Processes ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Semantic Cognition ◽  
Special Case

To date, neuroaesthetics research has primarily framed aesthetic experiences as a special case of cognition. In the current paper, we argue that the dominance of this specialised approach needs rethinking. Instead, we propose a generalised framework that is inspired by the semantic cognition literature and that treats aesthetic experience as just one way to gain meaning from the environment, rather than as a special case. According to our framework, aesthetic experiences are underpinned by the same cognitive and brain systems that are involved in deriving meaning from the environment in general, such as modality-specific conceptual representations and controlled processes for retrieving the appropriate type of information. By embracing broader and more mature fields of research within cognitive neuroscience, our generalised semantic cognition view of aesthetic experience has substantial implications for theory development; it leads to novel, falsifiable predictions and it reconfigures a central debate by forcing researchers to assess foundational assumptions regarding the specificity of systems that may be involved in aesthetic experiences.

Questions about Aesthetic Experience

Projections ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-75
Author(s):  
Paisley Livingston
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Third Culture ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
The Third

These brief comments raise some questions about Murray Smith’s remarks, in his new volume Film, Art, and the Third Culture: A Naturalized Aesthetics of Film, on the nature of aesthetic experience. My questions concern how we might best draw a viable distinction between aesthetic and non-aesthetic experiences and focus in particular on possible links between self-awareness and aesthetic experiences. In sum, I agree with Smith in holding that we should not give up on the notion of aesthetic experience, even though aestheticians continue to disagree regarding even the most basic questions pertaining to its nature.

scholarly journals Plastic (in) Paradise: Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
Michaela Keck
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Historiographic Metafiction ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

This contribution examines the magic-realist metaphor of the Matacão in Karen Tei Yamashita’s (1990) debut novel Through the Arc of the Rain Forest as a trope that invites us to imagine, reflect on, and explore plastic’s cross-cultural meanings, aesthetic experiences, and materialist implications. I contend that through the Matacão, Yamashita engenders a narrative about, as well as an aesthetic experience of, plastic that is inherently ambivalent and paradoxical. While it provides societies with material wealth and sensual pleasures, it poses at the same time a profound threat to life – human and nonhuman. The main part of the article is divided into two major sections: in the first part, I read Yamashita’s story about the Matacão as historiographic metafiction that parodies the socio-cultural history of plastic and its utopian promises and failures. In the second part, I draw on Catherine Malabou’s philosophical concept of plasticity to explore the Matacão’s material agency, as well as the social mobility and economic connectivity of Yamashita’s human protagonists in their plastic environments. The theoretical perspective of Malabou’s concept of plasticity shifts the focus to the agentic forces of the waste material and allows us to read Yamashita’s Matacão as both a site and material that, notwithstanding its devastating impacts, also holds potentialities for resilience and repair, and even the possibility for an, at least temporary, utopia.

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.

Empirical Aesthetics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Leder ◽  
Matthew Pelowski
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Framing Effects ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Extra Information ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Psychological Studies

In most people’s lives, aesthetic experiences are probably frequent and occur in multiple, often very different and idiosyncratic situations. Usually, aesthetic experience involves an episode with the experiencing person in a specific situation, stretched out over time, in which certain objects, their environment, and various constituting elements are brought together. In this chapter, the authors provide a general introduction on the importance of such contextual factors in aesthetic experiences. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the nature of aesthetic experiences as a topic beyond typical aesthetic objects, with regard to how aesthetic experiences emerge as interactions between person, objects, and environment, and thus how they are embedded in informational contexts. In particular, the importance of information context is discussed: how we frame, anticipate, explain, and understand the factors of our experience as we live them. Also examined is how, in psychological studies, extra information or titles presented with pictures and artworks, or instructions regarding the context—so-called framing effects—have been shown to affect aesthetic experiences. The chapter ends with an outlook on major challenges, goals, and future directions.

Semantic Cognition: Semantic Memory and Semantic Control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Jefferies ◽  
Xiuyi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Factual Knowledge ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Semantic Cognition ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Functional Features

Semantic processing is a defining feature of human cognition, central not only to language, but also to object recognition, the generation of appropriate actions, and the capacity to use knowledge in reasoning, planning, and problem-solving. Semantic memory refers to our repository of conceptual or factual knowledge about the world. This semantic knowledge base is typically viewed as including “general knowledge” as well as schematic representations of objects and events distilled from multiple experiences and retrieved independently from their original spatial or temporal context. Semantic cognition refers to our ability to flexibly use this knowledge to produce appropriate thoughts and behaviors. Semantic cognition includes at least two interactive components: a long-term store of semantic knowledge and semantic control processes, each supported by a different network. Conceptual representations are organized according to the semantic relationships between items, with different theories proposing different key organizational principles, including sensory versus functional features, domain-specific theory, embodied distributed concepts, and hub-and-spoke theory, in which distributed features are integrated within a heteromodal hub in the anterior temporal lobes. The activity within the network for semantic representation must often be controlled to ensure that the system generates representations and inferences that are suited to the immediate task or context. Semantic control is thought to include both controlled retrieval processes, in which knowledge relevant to the goal or context is accessed in a top-down manner when automatic retrieval is insufficient for the task, and post-retrieval selection to resolve competition between simultaneously active representations. Control of semantic retrieval is supported by a strongly left-lateralized brain network, which partially overlaps with the bilateral network that supports domain-general control, but extends beyond these sites to include regions not typically associated with executive control, including anterior inferior frontal gyrus and posterior middle temporal gyrus. The interaction of semantic control processes with conceptual representations allows meaningful thoughts and behavior to emerge, even when the context requires non-dominant features of the concept to be brought to the fore.

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-40
Author(s):  
Marcos Nadal ◽  
Marcus Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Biological Mechanisms ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Aims And Scope

In the paper discussed in this chapter, the authors aimed to develop a consensus conceptual framework for neuroaesthetics. They wanted to present a joint vision of what they believed neuroaesthetics was about. The authors aspired to outline the fields’ aims and scope in a way that would accommodate most researchers, to answer some of the criticisms that had been leveled at the field, and to show how much the field could contribute to scientific disciplines, like psychology and neuroscience, and to humanist disciplines, like philosophy, the arts, and anthropology. One of the main points made was the importance of distinguishing between a cognitive neuroscience of aesthetics concerned with the biological mechanisms involved in aesthetic experience of all sorts of domains (not just art) and a cognitive neuroscience of art, which investigates the biological mechanisms involved in creating and appreciating art (not just aesthetically).

6. Aesthetics and life

2019 ◽  
pp. 72-85
Author(s):  
Bence Nanay
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences

‘Aesthetics and life’ considers several questions to show how aesthetics and life are intertwined on all kinds of levels. Should we treat our life as a work of art? Should we become the spectators of our own life? It discusses how not to be jaded by aesthetic experiences, how expectations can influence our experiences, how some aesthetic experiences have a lot to do with seeing something afresh, and how some aesthetic experiences can have a lingering effect. It concludes that aesthetic experience does not have to be detached, it does not need to be contemplative, and it does not need to involve open-ended attention.

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.

scholarly journals Environmental Aesthetics in the Age of Climate Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 5001
Author(s):  
R. Auer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Environmental Aesthetics ◽  
Environment Change ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Human Wellbeing ◽  
Aesthetic Enjoyment

As climate change alters the environment, people’s associations with and appreciations of the environment change too. Environmental aesthetics, an area of knowledge informed by philosophy and ethics, offers an important vantage point on human wellbeing in the age of climate change. Contributors to the literature have attempted to imagine how changing environmental conditions might change aesthetic encounters with nature. Some have contemplated the prospect of aesthetic enjoyment becoming tainted by knowledge of the societal forces and human folly that have damaged nature. One strain of argument rests on the view that aesthetic value in nature is an inherent property of the natural entity itself, and thus independent of moral considerations and other interests, which are viewed as external. The irrelevance of moral consideration to estimations of aesthetic value is the crux of the “autonomist” understanding of environmental aesthetics. From this perspective, condemnation of peoples’ enjoyment of climate-altered nature is beside the point, since moral concerns have no bearing on the intrinsic, aesthetic qualities of the observed entity. This paper argues that the autonomist perspective is challenged in a world of increasingly pervasive and negative encounters with climate-altered nature. Expectations for more frequent, widespread, and severe impacts from climate change suggest a rethinking of salient questions bearing on aesthetic experience. This article raises the prospect of pleasurable aesthetic experiences becoming increasingly rare in a climate-changed world and the prospect of moral pressures becoming more immediate and personal. Also challenged is the thesis that people will ably adjust to climate change and thereby secure aesthetic comfort.

scholarly journals The appropriation cycle: novice and expert consumers

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1886-1908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia Stavraki ◽  
Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki ◽  
Jackie Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences

Purpose Recognizing the value and limitations of current knowledge of the appropriation process in the consumption of aesthetic experiences, this research aims to generate a localized account for novice and expert consumers of the varying role of cultural capital in the appropriation cycles and interpretative responses of an aesthetic experience. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a single case study design of Miró’s blockbuster exhibition, and draws on multiple sources of evidence, notably 50 in-depth visitor interviews, observations and archival records. Findings An evidence-based framework of the appropriation process for novice and expert consumers of aesthetic experiences is offered. This framework highlights the significance of appropriation pace and personal versus communal interpretations – amongst other features – in distinguishing distinct versions of the appropriation process in accordance with the varied accumulation of consumer cultural capital. Research limitations/implications The transferability of the findings to other aesthetic or experience-based consumption contexts such as performing arts or sports is discussed, alongside the relevance of the proposed framework for researchers of aesthetic experiences. Practical implications The empirical investigation of the understudied connection between visitors’ cultural capital and their museum experiences provides insights into curatorial and marketing practices in terms of broadening, diversifying and engaging museum audiences. Originality/value This research provides new theoretical insights into the literature of appropriation process and consumption of art experiences by bringing together consumers’ cultural capital with the appropriation process and interpretive responses to an aesthetic experience.

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