Evolutionary and Neurocognitive Approaches to Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts  

Reviewed by Robin Hawes.
University College Falmouth, Woodlane, Falmouth, TR11 4RH, United Kingdom.

robin.hawes@falmouth.ac.uk

Despite continuing attempts to bridge the gap between the 'two cultures' it seems the study of the arts by scientists still provokes much contention and controversy. This fact, allied to the increasing influence of science on a generation of young artists, may well provide a broad readership of this less than snappily titled volume , in which professor of psychology Colin Martindale promises to bring together the latest 'exciting advances' in the study of aesthetics, art, and creativity.

Unfortunately for anyone hoping to discover some developing consensus on the nature and function of art - all be it from within an evolutionary model - it will become evident from the first few pages of this book that such a definition is still a very long way from being established. The fifteen chapters, culled from a daunting array of evolutionary and neurocognitive perspectives, focus both directly and indirectly on biological approaches to a diverse selection of elements within the arts. Consequently, a number of the essays are in fact detailed reports of studies into one very specific area of research. These include: Does Reading Literature Make People Happy? ; Creativity, Gender, History, and the Authors of Fantasy for Children ; Cognitive Poetics and Poetry Recital ; and Trends in the Creative Content of Scientific Journals . For readers without a particular interest or knowledge in the subject at hand, these chapters may prove to be a little too specialized to provide much insight. However, the majority of somewhat broader essays including: An Evolutionary Model of Artistic and Musical Creativity ; The Adaptive Function of Literature ; A Neural-Network Theory of Beauty ; Neural Correlates of Creative Cognition ; and Artistic Creativity and Affective Disorders , offer the lay reader a far more accessible introduction to the current thinking of scientists and biologists working in this field. However, the diversity of research covered here, as well as the omission of any author biographies, (apart from the three editors) makes any clear relational context between approaches somewhat difficult to establish.

What I had initially expected from the book as a whole is provided, in part, by the opening, and perhaps most successful chapter What Art Is and What Art Does by Ellen Dissanayake. Significantly, at the very start of the essay, we are warned of the confusion caused in this emerging discipline by the often contradictory use of conceptual terms. What might be presumed to constitute 'art' by one evolutionary psychologist may well be totally different from another, and quite distinct from terms set-out by an art theorist; it is noted for the record that 'art' is "not a even a word or concept in the majority of human societies". Dissanayake provides a helpful overview of nine established theories propounded by evolutionary psychologists, adding the author's own as a tenth. The theories proposed here, which can be identified within most of the following chapters, include those derived from both 'natural selection' and 'sexual selection'. The latter is given short shrift by some authors in later chapters, while being expanded and referenced by others, as is Steven Pinker's description of art as a 'by-product' with no evolutionary adaptational purpose in itself. Other theories summarized here draw on religious or ceremonial aspects; art as play; media for manipulation and control; or a means for social cohesion.

While most evolutionary psychologists working in this field share the axiom that the function (the adaptive consequences) of art, or 'what art does', lies somewhere within the survival and reproductive success model provided by evolution; it is the presumptive notion of 'what art is' that provides the debate and controversy. Dissanayake proposes that many of these diverse theories are not wrong, but partial, arguing that art should be seen as a 'behavioural category' with individual arts having different functions. Art should therefore be considered as "a way of doing or treating something" which she calls 'artification'. Some of these convincing insights provide the basis for a number of fascinating links between chapters throughout this book, where elements of one theory appear readily to feed into aspects of quite separate disciplines and approaches.

Whilst the overview that is needed to cement these varied and significant connections between studies was never promised by the editors, the book would undoubtedly benefit from offering a clearer and more extensive context for each of the different approaches included. The fluidity and breadth of dialogue contained in this book - which might be loosely corralled under a heading of 'neuroaesthetics' - serves only to demonstrate that this fascinating field of research is still only in its infancy.