“Neuroaesthetics may be a very new field, and neurology may be relatively contemporary, but aesthetics has been studied for millennia. What use can these results be put to? If the blood doesn’t flow as predicted to someone’s brain when they look at a Turner, do we conclude that the scientific paradigm is wrong, or that something is wrong with that individual’s capacity for aesthetic appreciation?”
Tag: 01.03.12
Indiana Legislator Proposes Fines For Those Who Change National Anthem
“A bill by Indiana Sen. Vaneta Becker would impose a $25 fine on anyone who fails to follow the standards while performing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at events sponsored by public schools and universities.”
Modern Dance – Not Really So Modern Anymore. So…
“What is modern dance today? Is ‘anything goes’ really an aesthetic? One of the last of the Greats, Merce Cunningham, has just passed from the scene, taking his dances with him. The last of the Great Modern Generation, Paul Taylor, still creates work that, at its best, is equal to his best, but he won’t be able to do this forever. Modern dance must wake up from its recycling sleep, digest, rethink, and move.”
The Anti-Cirque Du Soleil
After 25 years, No Fit State Circus (yes, that’s what it’s called) “can justly claim to be one of the world’s leading exponents of contemporary circus. … You can hear the miked-up breath of the performers, smell their sweat, look into their eyes, touch the hem of their raggedy garments. It’s very consciously the opposite of the antiseptic enormo-shows put on by the globe-stomping Cirque du Soleil.”
An Opera Where A Conservative Mayor Is Antihero And Margaret Atwood Is God
The librettist of Rob Ford: The Opera “refused to divulge many plot details. He allowed that there is a fantasy sequence in which the mayor goes to heaven and meets God, ‘who may or may not be Margaret Atwood,’ and that there is a trial sequence in which ‘he is judged by a jury of Toronto librarians’.”
Creativity And The Unconscious Mind
“A study from the Netherlands finds allowing ideas to incubate in the back of the mind is, in a narrow sense, overrated. People who let their unconscious minds take a crack at a problem were no more adept at coming up with innovative solutions than those who consciously deliberated over the dilemma.”
Why Do Tickets For Different Movies All Cost The Same?
Demand pricing exists for all sorts of tickets, from theater to airline. Why doesn’t it cost more to see a popular blockbuster than a little-known foreign film? There are reasons, it turns out …
Czech Literary Hero Josef Skvorecky Dead At 87
A novelist, scholar, and dissident, Skvorecky fled Prague during the 1968 Soviet invasion. He and his wife settled in Toronto, where they founded a press and published writers such as Vaclav Havel and Milan Kundera whose books were banned in Czechoslovakia. Best known among Skvorecky’s own books are The Engineer of Human Souls and The Republic of Whores.
Making Art From The Wreckage Of Ireland’s Economy
The republic’s slump has “evolved into a muse for Irish artists, who are both recording the crisis and finding opportunity in the wreckage left by a spree of reckless real-estate lending and toxic debts.”
What Crossword Puzzles Reveal About Cognition
“The processes leading to that flash of insight [when you figure out a clue] can illuminate many of the human mind’s curious characteristics. Crosswords can reflect the nature of intuition, hint at the way we retrieve words from our memory, and reveal a surprising connection between puzzle solving and our ability to recognise a human face.”