Your Brain on Art

The DMN is a filter for what you think is beautiful or not beautiful, memorable or not, meaningful or not, and it’s what helps to make the arts and aesthetics a very personal experience for each of us.

“A good orange, if it’s just sweet, feels insipid,” Anjan says by way of an analogy. “You need a little bit of acidity in there to feel like it’s a really good taste, and the arts do that in a more complicated way.” Art that spurs multiple emotions becomes salient, which, in turn rewires your neural pathways.

One person’s cacophony is another person’s symphony. And your perception is your reality.

The creation of good art is necessarily mindful of interpersonal compromise and personal sacrifice because it is a quest for social truth. It speaks to the human condition, not the artist’s condition.

theorizes that the brain evolved to process important objects in our environment, especially plants and animals, whose shapes are usually characterized by smooth curves. This emphasis on curves is increasingly being expressed in art and design.

Art and science, leisure and work, invention and execution are all parts of the same system.