Description

What Art Can Tell Us About the Brain

Artists have been doing experiments on vision longer than neurobiologists. Some major works of art have provided insights as to how we see; some of these insights are so fundamental that they can be understood in terms of the underlying neurobiology. For example, artists have long realized that color and luminance can play independent roles in visual perception. Picasso said, "Colors are only symbols. Reality is to be found in luminance alone." This observation has a parallel in the functional subdivision of our visual systems, where color and luminance are processed by the evolutionarily newer, primate-specific What system, and the older, colorblind, Where (or How) system.

Many techniques developed over the centuries by artists can be understood in terms of the parallel organization of our visual systems. Margaret will explore how the segregation of color and luminance processing are the basis for why some Impressionist paintings seem to shimmer, why some op art paintings seem to move, some principles of Matisse's use of color, and how the Impressionists painted "air". Central and peripheral vision are distinct, and she will show how the differences in resolution across our visual field make the Mona Lisa's smile elusive, and produce a dynamic illusion in Pointillist paintings, Chuck Close paintings, and photomosaics. She will explore how artists have intuited important features about how our brains extract relevant information about faces and objects, and she will discuss why learning disabilities may be associated with artistic talent.

3D glasses will be available at auditorium entrance.

This keynote lecture will be followed by the screening of the movie HER. 

Nanny services are available for children from 3 to 8 years old. Fill up this form to register.  

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