Don't Judge a Bird By Its Beak

Alan Morris

Alan Morris explores the world of neurology and universal laws of aesthetics

"Don't Judge a Bird by Its Beak. I have had a good look at all the paintings and I reckon that would be the most popular." It is a cold wet November evening and the occasion is the opening of Alice Evans' exhibition A Magical Menagerie in the Assembly Arts Gallery. I am chatting with Assembly Arts member Dr Heather Shaw, our voices competing with those of the noisy and good humoured crowd. Amidst the lively and warm throng the attendees jostle for space, wine glasses perched as the musicians prepare to play at the rear of the bright gallery. A lecturer in psychology at Lancaster University Heather is a regular user of the Assembly Arts darkroom. She was also one of the first members to join the Assembly Photographic Collective (APC), the group for independent photographers that I established at the beginning of 2024. The previous week Heather had given a presentation to the Collective called Photography and the Aesthetic Experience. During the presentation Heather sought to shed light on a number of psychological and neurological theories, including providing answers to questions relating to why we visit art galleries and what makes our experience of such spaces special. Heather's assertion about Alice's painting Don't Judge a Bird by Its Beak therefore made a lot of sense.

Partly inspired by cultural critic Lewis Hyde’s book Trickster Makes This World: How Disruptive Imagination Creates Culture, Alice's exhibition explored the trickster figure to think of art as a disruptor and truth-teller. Writing about the show anthropologist and former Assembly Arts studio tenant Saskia Vermeylen has stated "Like the trickster, in many ways Evans' work challenges rigid societal norms, exposing the flaws, contradictions and hierarchies that shape our world. Through mythological and liminal imagery, Evans amplifies the voices of the outsider - the mystic, the queer, the unconventional - creating space for those who live on the peripheries of societal expectations". Bold, colourful and vibrant, Alices paintings depict mythical creatures that blur the line between human, animal and the otherworldly. As Saskia Vermeylen suggests "These liminal figures invite viewers to reconsider binary categories such as human vs. animal, normal vs. strange, and male vs. female. Like the trickster, Evans’ creatures challenge assumptions and embrace complexity, pushing viewers to rethink conventional understandings of identity and reality... Her work ... exposes how society’s rigid structures exclude those who don’t conform. By critiquing this tendency, Evans celebrates the creativity and strength found in the margins, especially for mystics, the queer, and other outsiders"

A few days earlier during her APC presentation, Heather asked "Why do we visit art galleries?", which considering the rain and bitter cold on the evening of Alice's opening, was very apposite. Heather answered her question by stating that as humans we obviously seek enjoyable experiences but went on to consider what makes our experience of art galleries particularly special? Recalling the research undertaken by Markovic (2012), Heather noted that when we are in awe of a piece of art this is called an aesthetic experience. This emotion is different from our normal everyday feelings, as an aesthetic experience can be characterised by total focus as Heather went on to explain. "When we have an aesthetic experience, we're completely focused and fascinated by something, so much that we lose track of time and our surroundings". Heather also related how an aesthetic experience is seeing beyond the ordinary - we interpret what we are looking at in a special way, whilst this experience is often associated with strong feelings. "We sometimes feel very connected to the object or artwork in the gallery that’s caught our attention, almost as if it’s speaking to us on a different level and as such we may experience a deep emotional connection".

What struck me most about Heathers presentation was the realisation that as humans we are all essentially wired to experience art in the same way. As she recalled, Ramachandran and Hirstein (1999) have undertaken research into the existence of universal laws of aesthetics in order to establish if there are "... visual features that we all find appealing due to shared brain processing patterns". It was her understanding of these laws of aesthetics that prompted Heather to make her prediction about Alice's painting Don't Judge a Bird by Its Beak. Acknowledging that whilst "Art is considered a celebration of human uniqueness and individuality and we celebrate the fact we all have different tastes when it comes to what art we like" nevertheless Ramachandran and Hirstein have sought to investigate those visual elements that can strongly stimulate specific brain areas or optimally activate our neurons. Through their research Ramachandran and Hirstein have identified specific elements known as peak shift, groupings, directing attention, contrast and lines.

Hopefully long before discovering the joys of gallery openings with convivial chat and free wine, Ramachandran and Hirstein assert that as infants we learn how to differentiate between different shapes by learning the “essence” of different objects. Known as peak shift, the idea is that people like things which exaggerate that essence. A great example is caricatures. We have neurons in the bottom surface of the temporal lobe of our brains known as the fusiform face area which activate when they see the “essence” of a face. This is why we may identify random faces in surfaces such as bricks, pavements and bark and suchlike.

A second phenomena has been defined as grouping. In order to make sense of the world our brains have to look at all the blobs, lines and features of a scene to see how they would group together to represent objects. We subconsciously and instinctively group things. There is a well known image of a Dalmatian dog in the snow which illustrates these theories. At first glance the image appears as a random assortment of spots. While the possible groupings of these spots are endless, once we identify the dog, our visual systems selectively groups only the relevant spots together. This new, cohesive perception, becomes fixed in our minds, making it almost impossible to “unsee” the dog. In the 1920's German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler explored such groupings in order to better understand how we make sense of the often confusing things we see and hear. They identified a set of laws that address our natural compulsion to find order in disorder known as the Gestalt Principles, from German for "unified whole". According to these principles the mind "informs" what the eye sees by perceiving a series of individual elements as a whole. Artists and designers quickly embraced Gestalt Principles, using them to create eye-catching designs with well-placed elements. Similarly in fashion, in terms of colour perception, wearing a red skirt paired with a blue scarf featuring red flowers creates a pleasing effect, as the red elements naturally group together to form a harmonious visual experience.

The third universal law of aesthetics identified by Ramachandran and Hirstein relates to directing attention. In practice a key principle that an artist can adopt is to isolate one visual feature. As Heather explained "An outline drawing or sketch often feels more impactful as art than a full-colour photograph. This might seem surprising because we might expect that the more visual details an image has, the stronger our reaction. However, our brains have limited attention to allocate to different visual features. By focusing on a single aspect, like shape or depth, we are better able to appreciate the unique details the artist has highlighted, which makes the art stand out even more". Moreover, when our brain processes visual information, it simplifies things by filtering out unnecessary details and focuses on contrasts. As Heather explained, "There are certain cells in the retina and the brain called the lateral geniculate body which along with the visual cortex respond most strongly to edges - sharp changes in light and dark - rather than to solid colours. This is why a line drawing or cartoon can stimulate these cells just as effectively as a shaded photograph".

When entering the Assembly Arts Gallery visitors are able to find out more about Alice Evans' exhibition if they choose and are able to read the large text panel on their immediate left. Since opening the gallery a year go it has been interesting to observe how many visitors read such additional information, which has become an inherent feature of the shows we have produced. Whilst this activity has had no scientific basis Vissers & Wagemans (2023) have infact explored how visitors engage with artistic photography in an exhibition setting. As part of their research visitors scanned a QR code where they could fill in a survey. The study revealed that beauty and interest ratings were not solely based on the visual features of the photographs displayed, but were influenced by other aesthetic qualities. Both beauty and interest related to participants feeling moved by the series. For beauty the quality of the photographs seemed to matter, whereas for interest - originality, meaningfulness, and coherence with the exhibition - played a larger role. Interestingly visitors seemed to let the photographs speak for themselves, as the majority of answers in the study were given without reading the additional information in the freely available exhibition catalogue.

Concluding her presentation Heather explored what motivates individuals such as Alice Evans and all those before and after her to become an artist in the first place. Psychologists have identified both the intrinsic and extrinsic forces that motivate such creative individuals. Intrinsic motivation can be defined as the desire to make art in order to engage with an internal human experience, such as joy, pleasure, fear, satisfaction, excitement or pride. "This motivation often stems from a deep-seated passion for art, a desire for self-expression, or the enjoyment of the creative process itself". Expressing a note of caution Heather pointed out that relying only on intrinsic motivation may make it challenging for artists to sustain their careers financially. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation encompasses the desire to make art because of external rewards or pressures, including money, recognition or to meet other peoples expectations. Ironically, whilst extrinsic motivation can encourage artists to hone certain skills, work within deadlines or explore subjects they might not otherwise consider, solely relying on extrinsic motivation can sometimes stifle creativity. Clearly a balance has to be struck.

With the PA loaded into the bands car and the glasses put away, as we entered the gallery on our way to his photography class two days after the opening night of A Magical Menagerie, I invited twelve year old Tom to have a look at Alice's paintings. After a short time his response was decisive. "I like that one the best!" he exclaimed, pointing enthusiastically towards Don't Judge a Bird by Its Beak.