Week 7- Neuroscience and Art




Art and the Limits of Neuroscience Image-NY Times
Neuroscience and art is a topic that is progressing because people are discovering more ideas about how the two can relate to each other. A quote by neuroscientist Semi Zeki that I found relates a lot to the subject, he said “It is brains, he says, that see art and it is brains that make art”(NY Times). In a CNN article, author Elizabeth Landau talks about the human brain and how we are all built to understand characteristics of art like lines, colors, and patterns. With that, she describes how these characteristics of art help the brain to make art seem more real and actually come to life. For example, when in an art exhibit your brain will try to look at the different aspects in the art to try to interpret it using our own ideas of art.

A Beautiful Mind Movie Poster 
Another interesting aspect of the brain that helped me to understand neuroscience and art is the idea of mental illness. As noted in lecture, Jung worked with schizophrenics to discover archetypes that can be explained through the collective unconscious, which is the idea that every human has a psychic archetypal layer (Vesna).  This idea of the collective unconscious can be seen in popular culture and media. The media portrays schizophrenia in different lights like for example in movies like A Beautiful Mind and Black Swan. In A Beautiful Mind, the main character John Nash has schizophrenia but uses it in his advantage as an artistic medium (Siebert). Also, this is seen in Black Swan that shows how hallucinations can relate to an art form like dance. (Screen rat). All of this proves that popular culture uses art as a way to understand neuroscience, specially seen in mental illnesses.


Black Swan -The movie 







References:

 Black Swan Hallucinations. Digital image. Move in the Opposite Direction. N.p., Mar. 2011. Digital Image.            21 May 2017. <https://perez6.wordpress.com/2011/03/>.
Casalena, Emily. "21 Amazing Movies That Actually Understand Mental Illness." Screen Rant. N.p., 21 Aug. 2016. Web. 22 May 2017. <http://screenrant.com/best-films-depicting-mental-illness/>.
Elbert, Roger. Digital image. A Beautiful Mind. N.p., 21 Dec. 2011. Web. 21 May 2017. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-beautiful-mind-2001>.
Landau, Elizabeth. "What the Brain Draws From: Art and Neuroscience." CNN. Cable News Network, 15 Sept. 2012. Web. 22 May 2017. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/15/health/art-brain-mind/>.
Noë, Alva. "Art and the Limits of Neuroscience." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Dec. 2011. Web. 22 May 2017. <https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/art-and-the-limits-of-neuroscience/>.
Noë, Alva. "Art and the Limits of Neuroscience." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Dec. 2011. Digital Image. 22 May 2017. <https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/art-and-the-limits-of-neuroscience/>.
Siebert, Al. "Review of a Beautiful Mind." Successful Schizophrenia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2017. <http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/articles/beautymind.html>.
Vesna, Victoria. Lecture Neuroscience and Art. Web. 11 May 2016

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 24, 2017 at 11:56 PM

    I found the topic of mental illness very fascinating. I really like how you used the movies, "A Beautiful Mind" and "Black Swan", as an example of how the media is able to portray mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, as an asset or an art form. However, I feel that this recognition of mental illness as a form of art is very rare. I would like to hear you expand more on how the characters in these movies made their illness into their own "art".

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