If you look at a Jackson Pollock artwork, are you attracted to it, or repulsed by it – or perhaps you’re not bothered one way or the other? Whatever the answer, it can be said with reasonable confidence that something happens in your brain when you look at it. From a neuroaesthetical point of view […]
Tag: Pollock
Progress in academic maggot painting (part 3 of 3)
Following our recent items on academic maggot painting in the US and UK, (beginning with part 1, and proceeding thence to later parts) we now switch attention to Tasmania, Australia, and the artworks created by Dr. John Parish Ph.D. who entitled his 2012 thesis for the University of Tasmania : ‘Lost or Gone. Nature’s remnants: mysteries […]
Progress in academic maggot painting (part 2 of 3)
Alison Bockoven (profiled in part 1 of this series) (at the Entomology Department of Texas A&M University) is not the only person with a high level academic involvement in maggot painting. Over 7000 kilometres away in Manchester, UK, Professor Matthew Cobb, recently embarked on a project with artistic blowfly larvae – it was featured at […]
Progress in academic maggot painting (part 1 of 3)
Alison Bockoven is currently a Ph.D. Student at the Entomology Department of Texas A&M University. When she’s not investigating the extent, mechanisms and consequences of genetic variation in foraging traits in the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), she finds time to create artworks using maggots covered in (non-toxic) paint. The video above shows how […]
Aesthetic judgement of paintings hung wrong-way-up
It’s alleged that even the most prestigious art galleries sometimes hang artist’s work the wrong way up. But very little scientific research has addressed the issue of whether the public-at-large can correctly guess whether a modern art painting is the right way up or not. Prompting George Mather, who is Professor of Vision Science, School […]
A fish called Colin and the decline of sea lions
The numbers of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands have been mysteriously dropping since at least 1970. Various theories for the decline have been put forward, including increased predation by orcas, effects of disease and/or contaminants, shooting by fishermen etc etc. Another theory has recently surfaced though. […]