http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/04/20/aesthetic-appeal-is-it-in-our-dna/ Discussions and ideas about art and textile art Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:51:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/04/20/aesthetic-appeal-is-it-in-our-dna/#comment-1879 Kate Themel Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:23:29 +0000 http://junomain.wordpress.com/?p=871#comment-1879 Thank you both for your comments. Catherine, I have to agree with a lot of what you said. And certainly, our DNA cannot explain every person's preferences. But maybe there are some tendencies that are generally found across most cultures. There was SO much data that I had to cut it down to size. But your comment about the light/dark areas reminded me of something. I had cut out a reference to a study of infants & what kinds of colors & shapes they're attracted to. These were babies younger than 3 months old, so the assumption is they couldn't be that influenced by culture or experience. Scientists used to think babies couldn't see color, only black & white. But it turns out they can see all the colors adults do; but they just don't find pastels that interesting & prefer images with high contrast (maybe not all but the overwhelming majority of cases). Even from birth, it seems we DO judge visual art and images. :-) June, I checked out Ramachandran's paper. Great stuff! I have to say, it makes a lot of sense to me. It was interesting how they "trained" rats to prefer rectangles over squares. Maybe our societies influence us in a similar way. Very interesting reading out there. Thank you both for your comments. Catherine, I have to agree with a lot of what you said. And certainly, our DNA cannot explain every person’s preferences. But maybe there are some tendencies that are generally found across most cultures.
There was SO much data that I had to cut it down to size. But your comment about the light/dark areas reminded me of something. I had cut out a reference to a study of infants & what kinds of colors & shapes they’re attracted to. These were babies younger than 3 months old, so the assumption is they couldn’t be that influenced by culture or experience. Scientists used to think babies couldn’t see color, only black & white. But it turns out they can see all the colors adults do; but they just don’t find pastels that interesting & prefer images with high contrast (maybe not all but the overwhelming majority of cases).
Even from birth, it seems we DO judge visual art and images.
June, I checked out Ramachandran’s paper. Great stuff! I have to say, it makes a lot of sense to me. It was interesting how they “trained” rats to prefer rectangles over squares. Maybe our societies influence us in a similar way.
Very interesting reading out there.

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