This Week: Make art for people and they’ll come (who knew?)… How we communicate culture shapes its values… Researchers are looking inside our brains to see how we react to art… Why people are becoming evangelical about the TV shows they like…
- Make It And They Will Come: It’s a basic law of consumption. And museums have figured it out. Between 2007 and 2015, there was a 25 percent increase in “exhibition days” at US museums. They’re presenting more shows and keeping them running longer. So instead of presenting 8.8 shows per year, they’re now presenting 9.5. That means more admissions in the same space. A related story in Fast Company reports that “the Motion Picture Association of America found that the number of African-Americans who go to the movies frequently (at least once a month) hit its highest mark in 2016 with 5.6 million, up nearly two million from 2015.” Why? There were more movies featuring and about African Americans in 2016. Make it and they will come.
- We Used To Be An Oral Culture. Then We Weren’t: Why is this an interesting observation? Because writing information down changed the ways we communicated and therefore changed the importance of some information over others. And our whole culture changed. Fast forward to today and the breakneck speed at which how we communicate is changing. A similar-scale shift is taking place in our culture of information. And how we relate to one another. And what we think is important in the culture.
- Plug Your Brain Into Art: Scientists are monitoring neurological activity in brains while subjects watch movies and tell what emotions they’re feeling. What scene in a movie makes their hearts beat faster? What makes them sweat, or causes their cheeks to flush? What makes them fall asleep? Then movie-makers can crunch the data to see what works and what doesn’t. Researchers are coming at art the other way too. Can we wire brains to like (or dislike) art? he nascent scientific field of neuroaesthetics explores how artistic and aesthetic experiences register in the brain. And there have been other collaborations between museums and neuroscientists, like the 2014 exhibition at London’s National Gallery “Making Colour,” which included an experiment on color perception with guidance from Anya Hurlbert, a visual neuroscientist.
- No Really, You HAVE To Watch This: Have you noticed of late how vigorously your friends try to convince you to watch the TV show they’ve become a fan of? “The second someone says this, the TV banter takes on an irritatingly insistent tone, with everyone present who has watched the show piling on the person who admits that they have not, until this poor soul agrees that, yes, okay, they’ll finally start watching Westworld. This weekend. Promise.” As the TV audience has fragmented, we have fewer shows in common, and when you find one you really like you become evangelical…
- Our Growing Fear Of Making A Choice: It’s called FOBO, actually – fear of a better option. People who over-analyze, wanting to make the best possible decision keep putting off the decision. “They want to find the absolute best option. They become so focused on doing the ‘right’ thing that even after they make a decision, they still ruminate on their earlier options, which leads to frustration and regret with the decision process.” So how do you fight FOBO if you’re trying to get people to try art?
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