Neural Art

My work, which I call neural art, is based on a scientific understanding of the nervous system. Neural art combines my interests and professional training in art and physiological psychology. I began developing these ideas about twelve years ago while I was both painting and practicing psychology. I felt that there were new problems to be solved, and I wanted to achieve a personal integration of my activities. In line with most physiological psychologists, I started by assuming that our artistically related experiences, like all experiences, are the result of neural activity but, unlike other experiences, are generated by art objects in the environment [1]. Furthermore, it seemed that this activity of the nervous system is essential to art, or at least is significant. In moving from these assumptions to actual works of art, I considered a number of approaches. The approach I chose to develop actively involves selecting certain features or characteristics of the nervous system as the basis for my art work, in the way many artists select features of their experience or environment as material for their art. For example, a painter of still life first selects the objects to be portrayed-apples, tin cans, dead fish, or silk purses. Most artists then try to convey the objects' underlying essence, using color, form, and space. Instead of selecting objects, I select aspects of the nervous system as the elements of my art. These aspects are tangible elements as well as conceptualizations of the way the nervous system functions. This approach is based in part on ideas developed by C. H. Waddington [2], who pointed out striking similarities in structure and form between twentieth-century painting and the natural sciences. For example, he suggested that the major concern of modern physicists probing the underlying structure of matter is similar to modern abstract artists' 'retreat from likeness', probing the underlying structure of reality. At another level, he showed the parallel between the extradimensionality of relativity theory in physics and of cubism in art. These and other examples of formal features common to art and the natural sciences suggested that I could self-consciously take certain properties in science and use them to develop a specific art form. This is what I have attempted in my work, using the nervous system as the scientific starting point. To identify and develop these features, I began by defining a nervous system conceptually and by stripping away, as much as possible, the specifics of ion flow and detailed molecular structure. Using this approach, a nervous system can be defined in either structural terms (anatomy) or functional terms

Biology · Cognitive science · Nervous system · Action Observation and Synchronization · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Computer Science · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience · Neuroscience · Psychology

• Interactive Sound Installations Using Microcomputers

  George K Shorte, George K Shortess•Leonardo•1987

  Add to list

• Videoplace

  Myron W Krueger•Leonardo•1985

  Add to list

• The Development of Neural Art

  George K Shortess•Leonardo•2024

  Add to list