The neuroesthetics of Love

The Institute of Neuroesthetics and The Minerva Foundation have opened registration for The Sixth International Conference on Neuroesthetics. It will take place at the Berkeley Art Museum on Saturday, January 20. Admission is free.

I know what you’re thinking. NeuroWTF? Neuroesthetics asks “What is art, why has it been such a conspicuous feature of all societies, and why do we value it so much?”

The subject has been discussed at length without any satisfactory conclusion. This is not surprising. Such discussions are usually conducted without any reference to the brain, through which all art is created, executed and appreciated. Art is a human activity and, like all human activities, including morality, law and religion, depends upon, and obeys, the laws of the brain. We are still far from knowing the neural basis of these laws, but spectacular advances in our knowledge of the visual brain allows us to make a beginning in studying the neural basis of visual art.

A theme like this attracts a wide spectrum of humanity. It’s an annual reunion for the world’s way-out brain scientists, but it also appeals to artists, psychologists, and hyper-curious amateurs like me. Everyone is very approachable.

The 2004 conference focused on empathy and the brain. We got a first-hand report on the discovery of mirror neurons at the University of Bologna. Leonard Pitt did sublime mime. A prof described Congo, an ape who paints. Paul Ekman taught us about reading faces.

The 2005 conference dealt with taste and the brain. Vintner Randall Grahm gave a grand presentation performance piece on The Phenomenology of Terroir.

This year, the topic is The Neuroesthetics of Love. If you want to attend, it would be a good idea to register now.