Robert L. Solso [The Psychology of Art and the Evolution of the Conscious Brain]

The Psychology of Art and the Evolution of the Conscious Brain
Robert L. Solso
The MIT Press, 2003
google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=z_cQJgAACAAJ


APS(Association for Psychological Science): Robert L. Solso (1933-2005)  


- To develop connections between cognitive psychology and the related fields of anthropology, computer science, education, linguistics, neuroscience, and philosophy

Stephen E. Palmer http://psychology.berkeley.edu/faculty/profiles/spalmer.html
Visual Perception and Aesthetics Lab @UCB http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~plab/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_science

[Cognition and the Visual Arts] The MIT Press, 1994 - google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=zaQCKizo0_8C

Preface

“Art and cognition, and the brain, and consciousness, and evolution have all stood as complex mirrors, all reflecting and amplifying each other.”

In searching for a rational connection between consciousness and art, it was necessary to examine the evolution of the human brain and cognition. Out of these scientific explorations, I have developed a new model describing the evolution of consciousness and its relationship to the emergence of art.

conscious AWAREness

We have a pretty good idea, for example, as to when and how the human brain evolved and when early art emerged, and we have a sound understanding of the workings of the sensory-cognitive system. With this knowledge in hand, it is propitious to consider the evolution of the human brain and the emergence of AWAREness, as they might be related to art. As the brain increased in size and capacity during the upper Pleistocene, additional components of consciousness were added or developed. People became more AWARE in the sense that they were more cognizant, not only of a world that existed in contemporaneous actuality, but of a world that could be imaged. That change took humankind on a wondrous voyage. Men and women could imagine nonpresent things such as what might be behind a bush, where fresh water might be found, and what a nonpresent bull might look like. While other animals had some forms of consciousness, the visionary aptitude of humans to extend consciousness beyond responding to moment-to- moment sensory experiences was spinning into new possibilities previously unseen on this earth. Equipped with expanded conscious AWAREness, people first created art and then technology. The beginning of art is a clear manifestation of the brain’s capacity for imaginative behavior.

All factors—brain, anthropology, cog- nition, and art—were tied together by human consciousness.

Introduction: Art . . . a Tutorial