Carin Laura D'Souza

• 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.