Art and Neuroscience : The Historical Emergence and Conceptual Context of Neuro-Art

  • This study has developed on the premise that neuroscience has a significant impact on contemporary art, and on the observation that, from the dialogue with neuroscience, a new artistic tendency has been emerging. The aim of this research was therefore to investigate the roots, the emergence, and development of what I generically call neuro art. The main objective of the research was to initiate the history of neuro art. This history of neuro art investigates, for the first time, the relationship between neuroscience and contemporary practice of the visual arts by identifying and examining those artworks that rely on knowledge of the brain and the nervous system. The study begins with a broad analysis of the role neuroscience plays in contemporary culture. The analysis situates neuro art within the larger context of cultural interactions with neuroscience, defines neuro art, and frames the history of neuro art in relation with two other disciplines: neuroaesthetics and neuroarthistory. The core of the research addresses in detail the history of art objects about the brain and the nervous system. Setting the scene, the thesis first describes the earlier manifestations of neuro art and identifies its conceptual and historical roots. It further addresses the exhibitions of neuro art and it evaluates their role in the overall history of this phenomenon. The last, and most consistent part of this research is a detailed thematic analysis of the actual works of neuro art. The thesis concludes by providing explicit answers to the questions that have guided this research, and by confronting its initial assumptions with actual findings about neuro art.

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Meta data
Publishing Institution:IRC-Library, Information Resource Center der Jacobs University Bremen
Granting Institution:Jacobs Univ.
Author:Carin Laura D'Souza
Referee:Paul Crowther, Claus Hilgetag, Timothy Senior, Robert Zwijnenberg
Advisor:Paul Crowther
Persistent Identifier (URN):urn:nbn:de:gbv:579-opus-1004733
Document Type:PhD Thesis
Language:English
Date of Successful Oral Defense:2012/11/13
Year of Completion:2012
Date of First Publication:2015/02/23
PhD Degree:History and Theory of Art
School:SHSS School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Other Countries Involved:The Netherlands
Library of Congress Classification:N Fine Arts / NX Arts in general / NX1-260 General / NX180 The arts in relation to other subjects, A-Z / NX180.N48 Neurosciences
Call No:Thesis 2012/68

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