Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us
Ratings4
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.9
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023 BARNES & NOBLE'S BEST SCIENCE & NATURE BOOKS OF 2023 We’re on the verge of a cultural shift in which the arts can deliver potent, accessible and proven solutions for the well-being of everyone. Magsamen and Ross offer compelling research that shows how engaging in an art project — from painting and dancing to expressive writing, architecture and more — for as little as forty-five minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years. Your Brain on Art is an authoritative guide to how neuroaesthetics can help us transform traditional medicine, build healthier communities and mend an aching planet. The book weaves a tapestry of breakthrough research, insights from multidisciplinary pioneers and compelling stories from people who are using the arts to enhance their lives.
Reviews with the most likes.
If you blend out the authors' slightly new-age-y tone, this is a good resource for various studies and initiatives that deal with the positive impact of arts practices and arts experiences.
The range of what is considered ‘art' or ‘aesthetics' is wide in this book. A walk in nature, gardening and coloring helps calm our minds. Humming helps release endorphins. Storytelling, singing and dancing helps us form connections. Encounters with art pieces challenge and widen our state of mind. Carefully designed Virtual-Reality experiences can help soothe pain.
I especially enjoyed the chapter on ‘flourishing', which focuses on ‘awe' research done by Beau Lotto and his Lab of misfits, the architecture of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the multisensory adventures of the Nomadic School of Wonder.
What's missing from the book is a more critical perspective. That art practices help ease physical and mental stress hasn't been a secret. Yet it's clearly now gaining more acceptability, in light of more tech-equipped and ‘professional' studies.
It also doesn't help the book that they're mixing hippie-practices with science studies and unironically call algorithms ‘sophisticated'. Every time they cited a study about the positive effects of art, I wanted to ask if the control group also had the resources and care that equals the resources and care provided by arts programs?
I clearly would have enjoyed a more scientific version of this book, but it's still a great overview, and offers lots of departure points if one wants to go dig into the mentioned research or projects.
It's interesting to learn how art can heal trauma and honestly, I can see it. Honestly, this book is a good introduction in learning about neuroscience, trauma psychology, and art, but it's extremely technical and not the most accessible introduction for those who don't want to read books that sound academic and pendantic.
