WHAT GOOD IS ART?

An Artist's Inquiry into the Cognitive, Emotional, and Evolutionary Basis for Art

Summary:
A painting, a piece of music, a dance, are complex perceptual events. These events, stabilized as works of art, can be experienced repeatedly, enabling us to assimilate complexities we could not master in a single exposure. Intelligence may in part be defined as the ability to assimilate complex events, and assimilating complex perceptual events, though largely a nonconscious process, is beneficial. It is therefore reinforced by the pleasure we experience when we engage in such a process. The above is enough to explain our continued practice and enjoyment of art. Beyond this, we can speculate on an epiphenomenal function for nonconscious perceptual knowledge of the world.

-- Anthony Thompson 12/08