On March 4th, an unusual finisage of Dima Gorbunov's 5-HT exhibition took place at the Jart Moscow Gallery. On this day, contemporary art on the walls of the gallery was complemented by the results of a study by Neurotrend. In the artistic part of the exhibition, the author explored the connections between human biology and his cultural activities. 5-HT is the chemical formula of the substance serotonin, which affects the overall positive background of a person and self–confidence.

 

"As an artist, I was looking for my pictorial language, but I started from the molecular world," says Dima Gorbunov. The inspiration for the work was the film "Molecular Motor Proteins" by Ron Vale. And the idea of a scientific study of the connection between art and people appeared jointly with the artist and the Jart gallery. "For me, this task was very interesting. It is also a very unusual experience for me to see the reaction of the viewer, look at statistics and see scientific justifications," the artist explains. To do this, neurophysiologists from Neurotrend were involved, who specialize in studying brain reactions. As part of the study, forty-five people watched the exhibition in the gallery wearing Eye-tracking glasses and with an EEG (electroencephalograph). Eye-tracking recorded the movement of the eyes and the duration of looking at the pictures, and the EEG read positive or negative emotions. It is important to note who was directly involved in the experiment: twenty-two participants were art lovers, that is, they did not deny modern painting, but they were not part of the circle of experts; twenty–three are professionals (artists and art critics). Before the start of the inspection of the exposition, both groups were briefly told about the idea of the experiment, about serotonin and the idea of the exposition. But there was another group (ten people), to which the artist personally told about each painting.

 As a result of comparing the average data for each of the three groups, it is possible to draw conclusions about how contemporary art is perceived: Amateurs look more superficially, hold their gaze on the elements of the paintings for a short time and experience the same emotions towards the works. 

Professionals, on the other hand, more critically consider and clearly distinguish what they like and what they don't; at the same time, they pay attention to individual strokes, figures on the works.

 

The red color of the canvas caused rather a negative perception in both groups – both amateurs and professionals did not show a positive surge of emotions, but rather an anxious state. The participants spent the least time at this particular picture.

 

On the contrary, the picture on a golden background attracted attention – both groups examined it for a long time and carefully, reinforcing it with good emotions.

 

And one more very important insight of the study – you need to talk about contemporary art! The group of 10 people to whom the artist conducted the tour was more emotionally involved and liked the paintings in the gallery more. And even the disturbing red work was received positively.

 

This experiment is not about what kind of paintings you need to paint – using red or beige paints – this is not marketing, but art. But it shows that each viewer has their own perception and degree of involvement. And they need to reveal the nuances of creating works and their ideas – this increases interest, and hence the desire to understand the author more and follow contemporary art in general.

 

Jose Ortega y Gasset, a Spanish philosopher, back in the 20s of the twentieth century, wondered what most people call aesthetic pleasure?

 

Original article: https://artandyou.ru/articles/kak-nash-mozg-vosprinimaet-sovremennoe-iskusstvo/