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Embodied Aesthetics: Insight from Cognitive Neuroscience of Performing Arts

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Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind: Beyond Art Theory and the Cartesian Mind-Body Dichotomy

Part of the book series: Contributions To Phenomenology ((CTPH,volume 73))

Abstract

Echoing the phenomenological tradition in philosophy, recent hypotheses have proposed that aesthetic experiences are grounded in the embodied simulation of the actions, emotions, and corporeal sensations represented in artworks. We refer to these simulative processes as “embodied aesthetics”. Recent investigations in cognitive neuroscience have helped us to explore the mechanisms of complex human experiences and some of them have been specifically dedicated to the study of the neural underpinning of aesthetic experience. Their results have repeatedly suggested that the creation and the perception of artworks activate a set of shared brain mechanisms, especially as far as performing arts (such as music and dance) are concerned. For instance, pleasurable dance may resonate in the spectators’ brain by enhancing the activity in motor-related areas. This evidence points to the universal involvement of a motor resonance mechanism in aesthetic experience. The present chapter will initially explore the general idea of embodiment. We will then describe some studies in the field of performing arts, where the human body is the object of aesthetic stimulation and the subject of the aesthetic experience. We will also describe how embodiment is modulated by different properties of the stimuli, by the performers’ body or by the preference of the observer. Overall, we expect to provide a framework to better understand aesthetic experience from an embodiment perspective, taking into consideration the different factors that interact with these processes, especially as far as the performing arts are concerned.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the support of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-CREA-005) to LFT, the Italian Ministry of Health (Grant GR-2008-1137139) and IRCCS E. Medea (Ricerca Corrente 2011, Italian Ministry of Health) to CU. B.C.M. was supported by a Ramon y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2008-03090) from the Spanish Ministry of Education, and the City University Pump Priming Scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Luca F. Ticini

  2. School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris, France

    Luca F. Ticini

  3. Department of Human Sciences, University of Udine and Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea, Udine, Italy

    Cosimo Urgesi

  4. Psychology Department, City University London, London, UK

    Beatriz Calvo-Merino

  5. Psychology Department, University Complutense Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Beatriz Calvo-Merino

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  1. Luca F. Ticini
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Correspondence to Luca F. Ticini .

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  1. EuCog III, European Network of Excellence, London, United Kingdom

    Alfonsina Scarinzi

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Ticini, L.F., Urgesi, C., Calvo-Merino, B. (2015). Embodied Aesthetics: Insight from Cognitive Neuroscience of Performing Arts. In: Scarinzi, A. (eds) Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind: Beyond Art Theory and the Cartesian Mind-Body Dichotomy. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 73. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9379-7_7

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