Lecture by Steven Brown: Toward a Unification of the Arts

Abstract

Most cognitive and neuroscientific work on the arts looks at each branch individually, for example music or literature. In this talk, I will discuss ideas about how to achieve a unification of the arts that provides an understanding of the arts in their totality. I will present a classification of the arts, and use it as a basis for exploring both what the arts share and how the arts combine to form syntheses, like songs with words and multimedia works in visual art. 

Biographical sketch

Steven Brown is the director of the NeuroArts Lab and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He got his Ph.D. in the department of Genetics at Columbia University in New York, and did postdoctoral research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His research deals with the neural basis of the arts, including music, dance, acting, drawing, aesthetics, and creativity. He is co-editor of two books: “The Origins of Music” (MIT Press) and “Music and Manipulation” (Berghahn Books).