“For centuries we’ve been strangely fascinated with the brain of the artist – ever since, perhaps, Beethoven’s autopsy revealed that his neural ‘convolutions’ were ‘very much deeper, wider, and more numerous than ordinary.’ (from Thayer’s Life of...

“For centuries we’ve been strangely fascinated with the brain of the artist – ever since, perhaps, Beethoven’s autopsy revealed that his neural ‘convolutions’ were ‘very much deeper, wider, and more numerous than ordinary.’ (from Thayer’s Life of Beethoven). The French phrenologist of the July Monarchy period, Broussais, believed that the Maori people lacked the proper organ for producing great painters or poets. Upon the death of poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, Soviet scientists, eager to discover the roots of his genius, weighed his excised brain: it measured some 300 grams heavier than average. As I discovered during the three days of the Neuroaesthetics symposium, modern neuroscience may wield considerably more sophisticated tools, but some of their assumptions may be just as blunt as their 19th-century forebears: that artistry may be quantified statistically and organically located.”

Read more about the Imatronic Festival and the Neuroaesthetics Symposium at Frieze.

12/19/12 at 9:26am
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