The Psychology of Contemporary Art

372 Pages·2013·3.58 MB·english

by  Gregory Minissale

The Psychology of Contemporary Art
Whilerecentstudiesinneuroscienceandpsychologyhaveshedlighton
oursensoryandperceptualexperiencesofart,theyhaveyettoexplain
how contemporary art downplays perceptual responses and, instead,
encourages conceptual thought. The Psychology of Contemporary Art
brings together the most important developments in recent scientific
research on visual perception and cognition and applies the results of
empirical experiments to analyses of contemporary artworks not nor-
mallyaddressedbypsychologicalstudies.Theauthorexplains,insimple
terms, how neuroaesthetics, embodiment, metaphor, conceptual
blending,situatedcognitionandextendedmindofferfreshperspectives
on specific contemporary artworks – including those of Marina
Abramovic´,Francis Alÿs, MartinCreed,Tracy Emin,Felix Gonzales-
Torres, Marcus Harvey, Mona Hatoum, Thomas Hirschorn, Gabriel
Orozco, Marc Quinn and Cindy Sherman. This book will appeal to
psychologists, cognitive scientists, artists and art historians, as well as
thoseinterestedinadeeperunderstandingofcontemporaryart.
GregoryMinissaleisaSeniorLecturerintheDepartmentofArtHistory
at the University of Auckland where he teaches contemporary art and
theory.HeistheauthorofFramingConsciousnessinArt(2009)andImages
ofThought(2006).

The Psychology of
Contemporary Art
Gregory Minissale
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107019324
©GregoryMinissale2013
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2013
PrintingintheUnitedKingdombyTJInternationalLtd.PadstowCornwall
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN978-1-107-01932-4Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
For my mother, Pat Bird, kind above all others

Contents
Listoffigures pagex
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xxiii
Eightmajortrendsincontemporaryart xxv
PartI Introduction 1
1.1 Processesofperception 1
1.2 Concepts 5
1.3 Thecooperationofperceptionswithconcepts 13
1.4 Sceneandobjectrecognition 22
1.5 Objectrecognition 25
1.6 Granularityinscenerecognition 32
1.7 Objectcategorisation 36
1.8 Schemata 44
1.9 Perceptualsymbolsystemsandart 51
1.10 ‘Illogical’hybridobjects 58
1.11 Facialrecognition 64
1.12 Expertobjects 70
PartII Brain 75
2.1 Neuroaesthetics 75
2.2 Emotionsinart:seeingisbelieving? 84
vii
viii Contents
2.3 Dynamicinterconnectivity 109
2.4 Convergencezones 116
2.5 Wordandimageincontemporaryart 119
2.6 Modelsofaestheticcognition 130
2.7 Relationalknowledge 139
2.8 Analogicalprocessesinrelationalknowledge 145
2.9 CarlAndre’sLever,1966 150
2.10 Metaphorandart 160
2.11 Thestructuresofmetaphorinart 164
PartIII Body 175
3.1 Embodiedapproachestoart 175
3.2 Phenomenologicalapproachesinarthistory 182
3.3 Actionasperception 194
3.4 Contra-normativeembodiment 199
3.5 Disguisedbodies 208
3.6 Queerobjectsandinvisiblebodies 212
3.7 Contemporaryartandtheself 225
3.8 Theselfandneuropsychology 233
3.9 Losingoneself:mindwandering 240
PartIV World 251
4.1 Doescontemporaryartsituatecognition? 251
4.2 Evaluatingsituatedcognition 263
4.3 Clark’sextendedmind 270
4.4 Conceptualblending 277
4.5 Blendingtime 280
4.6 ‘Invisible’blends 286