Future Projects
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The Droodle-Project
Since 2006, I try to find (and to convince) neuroscientists for making an fMRI experiment entitled "The Droodle Project". But a lot of scientists (Olaf Blanke, Andreas Bartels, Moshe Bar, Joydeep Bhattacharya et al. et al. et al. ...) didn't show any interest.
But this small project would be likely to solve the main problems of Art History in a single run (including Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, etc.)...
If you are interested in this project as well, you may download a small PDF here for further details
The Lustre-Project
Throughout the ages, people have always been fascinated by shining and glittering objects (lustre-effects): shining coins and medals, bright eyes, pearls and lips, oiled and “pure” skins, water- and light-reflections, golden god-idols, shimmering jewellery, glazed paints, glittering stars, highlights in photos, “glow effects”, etc.
And the famous art historian Gombrich always pointed out that ”if anything can be called a universal human trait, it is this delight in splendour and glitter” (Gombrich 1999: 89).
However, despite these illustrous art historians, no neuroscientist (Olaf Blanke, Melvyn A. Goodale, Andreas Bartels, Ute Leonards, ...) showed any interest for making an fMRI-experiment entitled "The Lustre-Project".
If you are interested in this project as well, you may download a small PDF here for further details
The Ganzfeld-Project
A simple combined fMRI/EEG Ganzfeld experiment (in the wake of METZGER 1930, HOCHBERG et al. 1951, LEHTONEN & LEHTINEN 1972, MAHER & SWIFT 2002, GOLDMAN et al. 2002, and James Turrell's "Gasworks" installation of 1993) has already been proposed by me in my dissertation (ELBS 2005 : 114, Footnote 91; cf. also my Seminar-Script, S1 Figure 24, and S4 Figure 40 f. ) – but no neuroscientist showed any interest in this simple but extremely interesting experiment (for studying fMRI-correlates of Alpha-oscillations in the EEG by converting an fMRI-scanner into a small Turrellian installation...).
The Wagner-Project
A neuromusicological project investigating discrete/abrupt vs. smooth auditory shifts as well as Ewald Hering's & William James' & Rudolf Arnheim's "roomyness" has already been proposed by me in my dissertation (see ELBS 2005: 173 ff.).
Contrary to MARR's reduced 2.5-D visual space, only the auditory sense (via reverberations) is capable of generating the impression and power of a 360-degree and 3-D "whole surrounding space" – see the neolithic caves (and MITHEN 2005 on the singing neanderthals) and today's concert halls, sound effect managers (AC97), and extremely expensive B & O loudspeakers for "our" "home environments":
“Reverberations ... are relatively rare in nature, and our brains have not evolved a special mechanism for overlooking them. Like musical sound itself, reverberation is a minor aspect of our natural experience that we have magnified into art. Much music becomes lifeless without reverberation. Early recordings lacked reverberation and they sound off kilter, as if the music were played in the wrong style. Indeed, some Late Romantic music simply doesn‘t work outside halls with long reverberation times, where hundreds of reflections add up to the ‘big sound‘ such music requires“ (JOURDAIN 1997: 49), and: “In the late 1980s, French archaeologists explored prehistoric caves in southwestern France in a unique way – by singing. They discovered that the chambers with the most paintings were those that were the most resonant. This startling insight suggests that caves were the sites of religious ceremonies involving music“ (JOURDAIN 1997: 305). -
Cf. also Rothko: “in the evenings he [Rothko] would lie on the couch for hours saying nothing, just contemplating or looking at one of his pictures that was hanging up and listening to music. ... Nietzsche‘s orphic, dithyrambic prose makes reading him like stretching out on the couch and listening to a Wagnerian opera. ... ‘He [Rothko] wanted that music‘, said Stanley Kunitz, ‘to saturate the room, to diffuse it in the same way that his paintings were diffused through a room‘“ (BRESLIN 1993: 173, 176, 279). For Rothko‘s (platonic? prehistoric?) feel of the cave see also ANFAM 1998: 99.
But today's neuromusicologists (including Stefan Koelsch and others) have shown no interest in this project...