| “The Mind is Insatiable for Meaning” |
Art & the Senses: Body & Mind |
| Art, Science, Attention , Psychology and Neuroscience , August 3, 2026 |
The articles in this sequence address the relations between the art experience and the mind. There is not a clear marker between the making of an art-work and its participation or observation. To sing in a choir, we know, is just about the best thing humans can do for themselves. Choir singers are both makers and participants in a thing that is intensely social. The Culture Committee in the sixth Senate tried to investigate public culture's impact on economic deprivation. Among others the Bevan Foundation gave evidence: “It is less clear whether being in the audience for cultural events has the same benefits as being involved in its production.” The motivations are different. To make art is slow, often laborious. If there is not disappointment and dismay at some point the thing is probably not working fully through you. But the motive, and the reward, is self-expression, accomplishment. Abraham Maslow termed it self-actualisation. To be an observer, or in an audience, the motives are various; also social, sensual delight, mental satisfaction. It was described in “What's Wrong with Emotion?”, below 6th July, as: “The motivation for attending, or participating, in art is emotion. Emotion leads to pleasure. Pleasure is not sensation. In human beings pleasure is a complex high-order cognitive-affective function. The experience of the bifold mind- well outlined by Daniel Kahneman in his writings for a general audience- shows that what may not be of immediate pleasure in the moment proves to be of value in the period of absorption afterward. “The higher emotions of humans are bifold cocktails: skilful blends of physical reactions and language-coded ideas.” * * * * Arthur Koestler wrote an epic book in 1964 on the latest knowledge and research on creativity. In “The Act of Creation” he described the mind as a meaning-seeking mechanism. “The mind is insatiable for meaning drawn from, or projected into, the world of appearances, for unearthing hidden analogies with the familiar, and show the familiar in an unexpected light. “It weaves the raw material of experience into patterns, and connects them with other patterns; the fact that something reminds me of something else can itself become a potent source of emotion.” “The Act of Creation” is a heavyweight 704 pages. Much of it was thought out in Koestler's home Bwlch Ocyn near Blaenau Ffestiniog. At 60 years old it is still a rewarding book. Koestler proposes his concept of bisociation, the act of creation bringing the previously unrelated into relation. He finds this in humour, a subject he explores in depth. "The creative process connects two seemingly unrelated ideas or frameworks to generate new insights. This concept highlights that true creativity involves merging independent mental matrices rather than simply associating ideas within a single framework." The mind works in modes and in time in ways that have evolved over millennia. Koestler finds the same themes running in creators across disciplines. From the early psychologist Conwy Lloyd Morgan: “Saturate yourself through and through with your subject...and wait.” Leibniz: “Our clear concepts are like islands which arise above the ocean of obscure ones.” Lamartine: “I never think- my thoughts think for me.” Kant: “The field of our sense-perceptions and sensations, of which we are not conscious...is immeasurable. Platner, who devised the term “unbewusstsein”: “Ideas with consciousness are often the psychological results of ideas without consciousness.” Goethe: “A talented musician, composing an important score: consciousness and unconsciousness will be like warp and weft.” * * * * Psychology is a vast subject, and it is a complex subject. Those who write about the arts, and market the arts, wander into the subject occasionally. They do so at times blunderingly and in ignorance. A notice at the Coliseum in London caused amusement in 2025. Warnings were displayed about a production inside. Potential hazard was possible. The production was “the Pirates of Penzance”. Gilbert and Sullivan were subjects of a new interpretation. In fact the promulgators of these warnings have not gone to the research.* * * * * Can drama in theatre endure? There cannot be art, neither made nor observed, in the absence of attention. The newest cultural innovation of the era is the short-form video. It is difficult for psychological researchers in that it is not feasible to conduct experimentation. An experiment of rigour requires a control group who have not experienced a smartphone over a longitudinal period of time. Suffice to say that Aza Raskin, who devised the concept of the infinite scroll in 2006, was by 2013 saying “the thing I'd made to help people was damaging them.” The results are widely publicised. David Levy invented the term “popcorn brain.” He used it as a description of mental distraction and fragmented attention caused by excessive digital stimulation. It renders difficult a focus on slower, real-world activities. The brain has adapted to notifications and rapidity. The over-stimulus causes dopamine release which leads to habit, that of seeking constant stimulation. The Nerurkar study was published in 2026 in JAMA Pediatrics. Its topic was screens, adolescents and educational outcomes. Dr. Sanjiv Nichani researched the correlation between screen time and rates of anxiety and depression among adolescents. * * * * There is new art for a new era. A new museum has opened in Los Angeles. Dataland is a museum for artificial intelligence arts. Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkilic are its creators. A visitor described the experience: “Step onto an escalator and descend into a tempest. Rain blows sideways across mirrored walls. Next, psychedelic pink amoebas and green squiggly lines gyrate across the walls and floor. It is hard to walk straight. Is this what it is like to be trapped inside a lava lamp? “Soon guests are enveloped in the sounds of the rainforest, and fireflies flit across the screens. “Dataland’s more radical premise is the idea that its AI creations might help visitors get in touch with their humanity. This is done, in large part, by assaulting the senses. “When guests arrive, they are given medical-grade devices—a watch and a heavy collar—that record heart rate, body temperature and emotional responses. "As visitors move around, their measurements and location are fed into a system that changes the art to react to each person. Your correspondent’s collar occasionally emits a fresh scent evoking summer rain and laundry detergent. “At Dataland, the experience is transfixing and overwhelming. It fails in its more grandiose ambitions—though it does inadvertently make you appreciate nature. "By the end of the visit many guests will find themselves desperate for sunshine. After being immersed in a kaleidoscopic digital forest, they will crave the silence and stillness of a real one.” * * * * The new is to be applauded. The description reads as if the experience is not congruent with the architectures of human cognition and emotion-processing. Patterns of complexity; variation within unity; tension and release; point and counter-point; linearity and tonality. The verities of aesthetic satisfaction do not change. * * * * References *Research papers on triggering include Berntsen & Rubin, 2006; Brown, Antonius, Kramer, Root, & Hirst, 2010; Robinaugh & McNally, 2011; Bellet, Jones, and McNally 2018, covered in Payton J. Jones. Benjamin W. Bellet, Richard J. McNally- Psychological Science June 2020. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2167702620921341 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005791618301137 The Nichani study at: leicesterhigh.co.uk healthprofessionalsforsaferscreens.org Dataland visited, the Economist 23rd June 2026 Illustration: Self at Soho Place Theatre February 2026 |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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