Beauty and the Brain

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2014

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr Tiffany Jenkins asks what our brains can tell us about art. Can there ever be a recipe for beauty? Or are the great works beyond the powers of neuroscience?

She talks to Professor Semir Zeki of University College London, the first person to coin the term, neuroaesthetics, about what happens in the brain when people in a scanner see paintings or hear music.

Professor Gabi Starr at New York University tells Tiffany Jenkins why she thinks there are parts of the brain that light up when we like an art work.

Tiffany visits Christie's auction house to explore whether the best art always commands the best prices.

She also talks to Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of Art History at Oxford University, about our different responses to authentic paintings and to fakes.

And Tiffany discusses with art critic JJ Charlesworth why neuroscience is having an influence in some areas of art appreciation.

Picture: The reflection of trees in water, Credit: Getty

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds. Choosing what to
0:32.1	watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:36.5	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:41.5	telly we share what we've been watching.
0:43.7	Cladie Aide!
0:45.7	Loads of games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:48.2	Lovely.
0:49.0	Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:51.2	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:54.7	searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds just before this
1:00.0	BBC podcast gets underway here's something you may not know. My name's
1:04.4	Linda Davies and I commissioned podcasts for BBC Sounds. As you'd expect at the
1:09.2	BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable
1:13.7	experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the
1:19.3	BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
	...

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