visper Rachel Statz

As artists, it is important that we are aware of how our art affects people- how it makes them feel, what it makes them think about- in short, how it makes them react. People react to art on many levels- we notice content, display, and the artist’s background, among other things.
One of the reasons people react to images in the ways that they do is due to mirror neurons. Mirror Neurons are the neurons in our brain that make us sympathetic to the emotions and actions of other people. This is most commonly represented in movie theatres, where we cry, wince, smile, and scream in unison with the actors on the screen. This is because the mirror neurons cause the same neurons in our brains to fire when we watch someone do something as would have fired if we had done this thing ourselves.
We can use this information to control the way our viewers feel when they look at our art. Humans are hardwired to read facial expressions and body gestures (to help us avoid potentially dangerous situations), so having a person or figure in a painting, drawing or sculpture is a very powerful means of communicating emotion.
Another way people take meaning out of art pieces is through its display. This includes craftsmanship! This means that we, as artists, need to be very careful and intentional with our craft, since meaning and value (or disvalue) can be found in every brushstroke, smudged pencil mark, or revealed solder. Having these elements in a piece unintentionally can deduct from the power of the piece, since the viewer might try in vain to find value in it.
We also need to be aware of how our pieces will be displayed after we have completed them. You don’t receive the same reactions from all audiences, so being aware of the group you are presenting to is very important in determining how you might get your message across. Presenting a very scandalous and liberal image to a more conservative group of people, for instance, may be ineffective in communicating your idea, since it may be too shocking for them to get past the literal image and really think about its purposes.
Another thing viewers are sometimes aware of upon viewing our art is our artistic, political, and cultural background. We therefore need to remain aware of this, and consider that many viewers might be predisposed to find a specific meaning in our pieces based off what they know about us as people.

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Studio Writing: Perception, Culture, and the Studio last edited on 1 April 2007 at 10:32 pm by 148.61.228.95