Cognition, Art and Creativity

FA 800
Dr. Sherry Racette
Dami Egbeyemi
 Cognition
• Understanding the
Relationship
between cues is the
basic unit of
cognition
• Leads to knowledge

Cognition
“the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.”
 Positive and negative
aesthetic properties
do not determine the
goodness of Art.

Cognitive Art
Good Art does not simply mirror reality or provide amazing aesthetics.
 Positive and negative
aesthetic properties
do not determine the
goodness of Art.

Cognitive Art
 Cognitive Art is:
• Evaluative
• Insightful
• Persuasive

Cognitive Art
“…art is valuable because it does not simply mirror the world. Art is so valuable because
it has the capacity to present new, unfamiliar, and other-wise unobtainable
perspectives of the world.”
(Young,1995)
 ART provides
knowledge about:
• Relationships
• Society and Culture
• Environment and
Nature

Art is Cognitive
“We value artworks which can further our knowledge and
understand about things which we are curious about.”
(Young,1995)
 Good Art:
• Challenges
understanding
• Promotes
Perspective taking
• Engages the senses

Cognitive Art • Facilitates Learning

“Everything depends on the use which the artist makes of the property to perform the
cognitive function of art”
(Young, 1995)
 Creativity
• Combination of
complex often
disparate
concepts(cues)
• Creation of new
structures, concepts
or properties
Creative Cognition • Unity arises from the
structures which
emerge from
creative actions
 Marcel Duchamp
• Rejected “Retinal”
Art, which was
meant to please the
eye
Duchamp and Creative • Favoured
conceptual(cue)
blending
Cognition • Introduced the idea
of “indifference” as
‘‘I wanted to put painting once again at the service of the mind . . . I was endeavouring to
establish myself as far as possible from ‘pleasing’ and ‘attractive’ physical paintings’’ a means to facilitate
(Duchamp, n.a.)
creative cognition
 Marcel Duschamp
• Creativity is not
simply an internal
dialog in the artists
mind
Duchamp and Creative • Artists influence the
audience by
reinforcing or
Cognition diminishing
behaviour
‘‘the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact
with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds
his contribution to the creative act.”
(Duchamp, 1957, p. 140)
 Feedback Allows for:
• Self Reflection
• Self Referencing
• Facilitates Learning
• Enables
Homeostasis
Cognitive Feedback
In essence good art provides effective Cognitive Feedback
 Individual /
Collective

Art work Behaviour

& Subject
Evaluation
Cognitive
Feedback

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_Feedback_Loop.svg
 Individual /
Collective

Art work
& Subject Evaluation Behaviour
Cognitive
Feedback Re-evaluation
• Self Reference
• Self Reflection

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_Feedback_Loop.svg
 Individual /
Collective

Art work Evaluation Behaviour

& Subject

Cognitive
Feedback Re-evaluation
• Self Reference
• Self Reflection

Positive: Input + Output Increases desired effect

Negative: Input - Output decreases desired effect

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_Feedback_Loop.svg
 Intelligibility

• Subject is
comprehensible
• Easily understood
• Audience can
apprehend the
perspective of the

Optimizing Art Artist and Artwork

• Promotes interest,
Cognitive Art conveys meaning and insight to the audience. discovery and insight
 Originality

• Draws attention
• Exposes hidden
areas of experience
• Is puzzling
• Makes one question
reality and
Optimizing Art understanding
• Creates connections
“Artworks that persist in stating the obvious are of little value” between entities and
subject matter
 Cultivate Indifference
• Begin with a “Tabula
Rasa”
• Widen the space for
conceptual (cue
based) recollection
and formation
• Leads to openness
Optimizing Art of experience
• Allows the mind to
“Cultivating indifference may help to bypass stereotypical be receptive to new
modes of thought” information (cues)
 Harness Chance
• Connects and
harnesses mental
pathways
• Requires open-
mindedness to
flourish
• Increases possibility
Optimizing Art of serendipity and
conceptual leaps
‘‘Chance favours the prepared mind,’’
Louis Pasteur

Duchamp, The Large Glass

Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)
Optimized Art
• Have you conceptualized your artwork by using some of these cognitions?
• How have your experiences shaped your understanding of creativity, and how you
make art?
• How has art facilitated changes in the cognitions of society?
Doherty, Michael E., and William K. Balzer. “Chapter 5 Cognitive Feedback.” In
Advances in Psychology, edited by Berndt Brehmer and C. R. B. Joyce, 54:163–97.
Human Judgment the SJT View. North-Holland, 1988. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-
4115(08)62173-1.

Prager, Phillip Andrew. “Making an Art of Creativity: The Cognitive Science of

Duchamp and Dada.” Creativity Research Journal 24, no. 4 (October 1, 2012): 266–77.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2012.726576.

Young, James O. “Evaluation and the Cognitive Function of Art.” Journal of Aesthetic
Education 29, no. 4 (1995): 65–78. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333292.