Feeling Beauty

The Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Aesthetics, Health & Well Being, Psychology, Neuropsychology
Cover of the book Feeling Beauty by G. Gabrielle Starr, The MIT Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: G. Gabrielle Starr ISBN: 9780262315456
Publisher: The MIT Press Publication: July 19, 2013
Imprint: The MIT Press Language: English
Author: G. Gabrielle Starr
ISBN: 9780262315456
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication: July 19, 2013
Imprint: The MIT Press
Language: English

A theory of the neural bases of aesthetic experience across the arts, which draws on the tools of both cognitive neuroscience and traditional humanist inquiry.

In Feeling Beauty, G. Gabrielle Starr argues that understanding the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience can reshape our conceptions of aesthetics and the arts. Drawing on the tools of both cognitive neuroscience and traditional humanist inquiry, Starr shows that neuroaesthetics offers a new model for understanding the dynamic and changing features of aesthetic life, the relationships among the arts, and how individual differences in aesthetic judgment shape the varieties of aesthetic experience.

Starr, a scholar of the humanities and a researcher in the neuroscience of aesthetics, proposes that aesthetic experience relies on a distributed neural architecture—a set of brain areas involved in emotion, perception, imagery, memory, and language. More important, it emerges from networked interactions, intricately connected and coordinated brain systems that together form a flexible architecture enabling us to develop new arts and to see the world around us differently. Focusing on the "sister arts" of poetry, painting, and music, Starr builds and tests a neural model of aesthetic experience valid across all the arts. Asking why works that address different senses using different means seem to produce the same set of feelings, she examines particular works of art in a range of media, including a poem by Keats, a painting by van Gogh, a sculpture by Bernini, and Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. Starr's innovative, interdisciplinary analysis is true to the complexities of both the physical instantiation of aesthetics and the realities of artistic representation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A theory of the neural bases of aesthetic experience across the arts, which draws on the tools of both cognitive neuroscience and traditional humanist inquiry.

In Feeling Beauty, G. Gabrielle Starr argues that understanding the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience can reshape our conceptions of aesthetics and the arts. Drawing on the tools of both cognitive neuroscience and traditional humanist inquiry, Starr shows that neuroaesthetics offers a new model for understanding the dynamic and changing features of aesthetic life, the relationships among the arts, and how individual differences in aesthetic judgment shape the varieties of aesthetic experience.

Starr, a scholar of the humanities and a researcher in the neuroscience of aesthetics, proposes that aesthetic experience relies on a distributed neural architecture—a set of brain areas involved in emotion, perception, imagery, memory, and language. More important, it emerges from networked interactions, intricately connected and coordinated brain systems that together form a flexible architecture enabling us to develop new arts and to see the world around us differently. Focusing on the "sister arts" of poetry, painting, and music, Starr builds and tests a neural model of aesthetic experience valid across all the arts. Asking why works that address different senses using different means seem to produce the same set of feelings, she examines particular works of art in a range of media, including a poem by Keats, a painting by van Gogh, a sculpture by Bernini, and Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. Starr's innovative, interdisciplinary analysis is true to the complexities of both the physical instantiation of aesthetics and the realities of artistic representation.

More books from The MIT Press

Cover of the book Digital Signatures by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Rational Choice by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book DIY Citizenship by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Vulnerability in Technological Cultures by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book A Case for Climate Engineering by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Mindmade Politics by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Machine Art in the Twentieth Century by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Faster, Smarter, Greener by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book The Technological Singularity by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Reassembling Rubbish by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Aluminum Dreams by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book What Is Architecture? by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Cannabinoids and the Brain by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Control by G. Gabrielle Starr
Cover of the book Collaborative Media by G. Gabrielle Starr
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy