Kandinsky helps out Neuroscience!
Morabito, F. C., et al., (2011) ‘Creative Brain and Abstract Art: a quantitive study on Kandinskij paintings’ Proceedings of International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, San Jose, California, USA, Jul 31- August 5, 2011. [Online] Available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ergo.southwales.ac.uk/document/6033528/?reload=true (Accessed 20/01/2017)
Neuroscience is taking a very keen interest in how the brain processes abstract art. It is doing so in order to be able to create computational machinery that is able to think for itself. When the brain is presented with a lack or recognisable objects or one could say more complex objects, it relies on using the inner model, a higher form of processing that we all use to avoid having to process all data at all times. The internal model in the absence of recognisable objects responds and offers a different source of meaning. This form of processing is also referred to the top down method. The bottom up (feed forward) is our usual state where we task the brain in our everyday affairs. Here the brain is presented with the world in all its recognisable state. The brain is able to relax and only send to the higher levels things out of the ordinary to cross check or to store as new information. This relaxed state is most noticeable to us when we park at work and we have absolutely no recollection of the 20 minute drive we have just made from home. It was ordinary, so brain processing used the inner model. If we had been involved in an accident then new bottom up data upload would have been great and detail and recollection would have been completely different.
Kandinsky’s Compositions VI and VII (1913) are recognised by most art critics to be the most complex Abstract images, making them first choice in studies by neuroscience. This study concludes that “if it is possible to define a relationship between the creative process and an objective measure as well as interpretation of the artistic oeuvres, then, we could possibly better understand the brain.” In other words abstract art and neuroscience is an area worthy of further study but dividing the aesthetic from the objective in a way that this study suggest and to do so in a way that is measurable, seems truly daunting.
