Gerrit Rietveld Academy

Most scientific discussions of plasticity emphasize the preservation of a “core identity” across processes of transformation. In neuroscientific accounts of memory, for instance, plasticity is framed as the strengthening or weakening of synapses, while the brain's stability, and thus its enduring identity, is said to be maintained. Even in cases of memory loss, plasticity is described as that which preserves continuity despite rupture . We recognize the value of this view, and certainly, in many cases the continuity of a “core identity” is what makes plasticity possible. However, our intervention wishes to ask what other plastic states become available when the continuity of such a plastic “core identity” is disrupted, or becomes fragile, without being resolved, or recuperated into a new stable and continuous plastic form. It is on these fragile thresholds that we locate negative plasticity, not as a resilient, flexible or adaptable identity, that sustains across transformation, but as a form of negative liminality that possesses a generative indeterminate force of rupture which is irreducible to stable notions of identity.

Here we present the viewpoint that art essentially engages the social brain, by demonstrating how art processing maps onto the social brain connectome—the most comprehensive diagram of the neural dynamics that regulate human social cognition to date. We start with a brief history of the rise of neuroaesthetics as the scientific study of art perception and appreciation, in relation to developments in contemporary art practice and theory during the same period. Building further on a growing awareness of the importance of social context in art production and appreciation, we then set out how art engages the social brain and outline candidate components of the “artistic brain connectome.” We explain how our functional model for art as a social brain phenomenon may operate when engaging with artworks. We call for closer collaborations between the burgeoning field of neuroaesthetics and arts professionals, cultural institutions and diverse audiences in order to fully delineate and contextualize this model. Complementary to the unquestionable value of art for art’s sake, we argue that its neural grounding in the social brain raises important practical implications for mental health, and the care of people living with dementia and other neurological conditions.

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