Launching of the Human Brain Project (HBP)

Launching of The Brain Initiative

Markus Gabriel coined the term "Neucentrism" at his book "I am not a Brain"

Why People Choose Coke Over Pepsi: How Our Brains Create Our Consumer Experience, by Mlodinow

Self-Knowledge and Self-Identity, by Sidney Shoemaker

Quote by James D. Watson

Completion of the Human Genome Project

Thomas Insel appointed head of the new life sciences unit of Alphabet

Harvard Medical School landmark report

The Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke

Passions of the Soul, by René Descartes

De Anima, by Aristotle

Essay Concerning Human Understanding, by John Locke

NeuroX

Invention of fMRI

Discovery of Mirror Neurons

Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, by Alva Nöe

The Encultured Brain, by Greg Downey and Daniel H. Lende

First appearance of the term cultural neuroscience

Social Neuroscience, by John T. Cacioppo and Gary Berntson

Foundation of the Society for Social Neuroscience

Appearance of the term neuroanthropology in the Dictionary of Anthropology

Neuroanthropology vs. Cultural Neuroscience

The Pharma-Psych Nexus

Synthetization of Chlorpromazine

The Epigenetics Revolution, by Nessa Carey

The search for treatment-specific biomarkers

Neurodiversity

Mental Patients' Union

The Rise of the Neuronovel, by Marco Roth

Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert L. Stevenson

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

Thinks... by David Lodge

Galatea 2.2, by Richard Powers

Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein

Matters of the Heart: History, Medicine, and Emotion, by Fay Bound Alberti

Total Recall

Blade Runner

Johnny Mnemonic

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Being Brains: Making The Cerebral Subject, by Fernando Vidal and Francisco Ortega

Being Brains: Making The Cerebral Subject
To Begin With
Chap. 1: Genealogy of the Cerebral Subject
Chap. 2: Disciplines of the Neuro
Chap. 2: Neuroaesthetics
Chap. 2: The Neurodisciplines of Culture
Chap. 3: Cerebralizing Distress
Chap. 4: Brains on Paper
Chap. 4: Brains on Screen
Other works, books and talks by Vidal and Ortega
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Coining of the term Neuroarthistory

01/01/2008 (Circa)View on timeline


On the other hand, there is “neuroarthistory” (Onians 2008a). The book that launched this barbarous term was advertised as “a fascinating account” of “one of the newest and most exciting fields in the human sciences,” and its author was praised by his university for “cracking the real Da Vinci code.”


He did that thanks to the concept of neuroplasticity, which allegedly opens the way to explaining why art looks the way it does. This, it is claimed, will for the first time in art history allow access to artists’ minds. For example: the animals painted in the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave look so “strikingly naturalistic” (a questionable assertion) because paleolithic humans watched them so intently; the neural networks of a contemporary Australian bark painter were particularly attuned to parallel lines because as a child he admired his father’s expertise in using fibers to make fish traps and was later exposed to parallel lines through op art; a similar reasoning explains why Florentine Renaissance artists made more use of lines, while Venetians, more use of color. In such a perspective, the answer to the question “What might neuroarthistory add to the discussion of Duchamp?” is that the objects Duchamp used in his readymades 

had become so familiar as valuable devices that viewers would necessarily have enjoyed seeing them. They might not have placed them in the category of art, but the response they evoked was one at the centre of artistic experience, an unconscious pleasure, a pleasure enhanced by the additional references associated with title and text and context. It was such a neurally-based response that Duchamp unconsciously exploited. (Onians 2008b)

Vidal, Fernando and Ortega, Francisco. Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject (Forms of Living)....

Cover of the book by John Onians

Summary of the book

This provocative book offers a fascinating account of neuroarthistory, one of the newest and most exciting fields in the human sciences. In recent decades there has been a dramatic increase in our knowledge of the visual brain. Knowledge of phenomena such as neural plasticity and neural mirroring is making it possible to answer with a new level of precision some of the most challenging questions about both the creative process and the response to art.

Exploring the writings of major thinkers (among them Montesquieu, Burke, Kant, Marx and Freud), and leading art historians (including Pliny, Winckelmann, Ruskin, Pater, Gombrich and Baxandall), as well as artists such as Alberti and Leonardo and scientists from Aristotle to Zeki, John Onians shows how an understanding of the neural basis of the mind contributes to an understanding of all human behaviors—including art.

Neuroarthistory at Amazon

Below, you can find an interview with the author, as well as a video of him explaining neuroarthistory.

Neuro ways of seeing

Neuroarthistory: an introduction with John Onians
John Onians lectured in Art History at the University of East Anglia for over 30 years. Specialising...
Find out more at his website:

johnonians.com/

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Published in 15/01/2019

Updated in 19/02/2021

All events in the topic Chap. 2: Neuroaesthetics:


01/01/1997 (Circa)01/01/1999 (Circa)Coining of the word NeuroaestheticsCoining of the word Neuroaesthetics
01/01/2010 (Circa)Neuroaesthetics as a field of studyNeuroaesthetics as a field of study
01/01/2013 (Circa)Foundation of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical AestheticsFoundation of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics
01/01/2008 (Circa)Coining of the term NeuroarthistoryCoining of the term Neuroarthistory
01/01/2004 (Circa)Neural Correlates of Beauty, by Hideaki Kawabata and Semir ZekiNeural Correlates of Beauty, by Hideaki Kawabata and Semir Zeki
01/01/2000 (Circa)fMRI Experiment on Art Creation, by Robert SolsofMRI Experiment on Art Creation, by Robert Solso
01/01/1964 (Circa)Andy Warhol's Brillo BoxAndy Warhol's Brillo Box
01/01/1989 (Circa)The Power of Images, by David FreedbergThe Power of Images, by David Freedberg
01/01/2007 (Circa)01/01/2009 (Circa)David Freedberg's articles on neuroaesthetics
01/01/1992 (Circa)Discovery of Mirror NeuronsDiscovery of Mirror Neurons
01/01/2015 (Circa)Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, by Alva NöeOut of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, by Alva Nöe
01/01/1993 (Circa)Andy Warhol: Brillo Box, by Arthur DantoAndy Warhol: Brillo Box, by Arthur Danto