This morning I received this spectacular image!...

Well at least, I find it spectacular, although I may not be so fond of yellow gold.

I hope you agree with me?! I mean regarding the 'spectacular' part, not necessarily the yellow gold part :)

I dug around a little and found out this photo is from a room in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts USA (http://pem.org/exhibitions/193-intersections_anila_quayyum_agha).

What is interesting of the approach PEM is taking for its exhibitions is the fact they have a full time neuroscientist working with them to support creating the exhibitions to help to elevate art and creative expressions. PEM is the first museum in the world who created such position.

You would think: Why such science in an art museum?

It is build upon a extremely simple thought and experiences we already know with for instance fine dining: the experience of food is not only the taste of the food, but also the texture, the ambiance we sit in, the company we are with etc etc. Why not bring such cross senses experience into the experience of art, right into the museums? 

“One day, this very, very simple thought struck me that all art  museums create art experiences—that’s what an exhibition is, that’s what  programs are—and all of our experiences are created in our brains,” he  explains. “Obviously, there’s a world out there, but we’re taking in  information from that world, and then it’s interpreted and processed.

Of course, a lot of art forms exists and are experimented with. Recently I was at a electronic music event in Paradiso Amsterdam where not only a DJ and VJ were doing their thing (video here), but also someone who created different smells on the spot and blew them (with the support of a big fan) over the dance floor to touch other senses we have than our ears and eyes only.

How cool is it when we can get these type of experiences in a museums? Instead of watching and sometimes hearing things, we may get smells added to the mix? I certainly hope with the decision PEM took to hire a neuroscientist, we will start seeing more museums following their example.

“If  you’re actually committed to trying to create experiences of art that  are as compelling and meaningful and as rich as possible, it would be a  good idea to better understand how brains work,” Monroe continues. “It’s  such a basic obvious idea, I’m astounded that it never struck me  before.”

With neuroscientists working in places where art is displayed, we may get a whole different experience, since when we know how are brains are reacting on a certain display of art, we can adjust the display of art to create maximum impact.

And it is that impact we like so much; It is that impact that will keep us to want more.

Neuroscience ideas can inform the arts in different ways, Asher says.  She’s mulling over what she calls “bottom-up” approaches, based on the  structures and functions of biological systems, as well as “top-down”  avenues focusing more on cognitive and emotional processes that  influence experiences and decision-making. For example, she says, “if  you’re looking at a painting, you might be struck by contrasting color  or shading,” and at the same time by “your own personal past experiences  and what associations that causes you to have with what’s depicted in  the painting.”

Another study had participants listen to music while an fMRI scanner  showed that brain activity dramatically increased during rests in the  composition, firing with the expectation of what would come next. The  same concept applies to the visual system, Asher says, so a museum might  want to offer visitors a “visual palate cleanser” and “space to  decompress” to help them savor an upcoming piece of art.

NJOY!

--- sources [1][2][3]

--- follow me @edje