The Modern Hand

When it first became commonplace to see people with cell phones I remember watching a students thumb moving fast over his little keypad and thinking how the space for thumb in his motor cortex must be growing. Like certain fingers on violin players, modern use of the thumb has moved into new territory. And the territory of the whole hand is developing a group of new behavior patterns reflecting how we now use technology. Since getting an iPad Mini there have been all kinds of new ways to caress the screen, most of which I’ve learned by experiment, just trying things, not descriptions in a manual. I’ve learned all the touch screen gestures of google earth by analogy to
actual movement. I’ve been charmed by the actions that are brand new to me, the gestures of magicians, making a screen disappear by pulling it in with spread fingers. The less intuitive gestures I’ve learned by accident, making a movement that causes something unexpected that can then be done on purpose later. As technology engages the whole body in a new repertoire of movements our brain will develop accordingly. We will strengthen the reasoning based on those movements. Those that worry that our machines will eventually out smart us are assuming we stay the same. The machines have changed us as they’ve developed and our foundation for ideas is much more sophisticated when the gestures of controlling technology keep us way ahead. Looking at a news story about the newest robots shows how far they have to go to achieve the sophisticated reasoning we experience based on the highly nuanced physical expression of striving and being. Our reasoning is based on our movements. That is where robots are most primitive.

It would be fascinating to compare brain scans of the motor cortex from the nineties to now. My hunch is that the hand area will have grown. An anthropological article called it the pinnacle of evolution and that in art the hand often represented the whole person. Jungian psychologists call them our wings and it’s agreed that they’re our tools for all creative expression. The development of the hand then is the instrument for transforming our highest powers. The hand can learn
to work as small as the eye can see. Surgeons work with microscopes and the hands can do their bidding even in such a small space. The use of touch screens develops small scale touch and opens a new realm of learning. Figuring out how to move the hands and fingers to accomplish
some goal could bring the challenge of games to the training of reasoning. The hands dance and our mind grows.

Waiting

smArt

The idea that art makes you smarter is not new. Winston Churchill wrote an essay about painting that inspired George W. Bush to take it up. In his essay Churchill notes that besides being enjoyable, art develops the “highest properties of mind”. Our sense of proportion and balance underlies reasoning in many areas. His primary subject matter, landscape, is probably best allied with structures of reasoning since it begins with finding a correspondence between the scene and the inner feelings seeking expression. This reinforces the relationship between emotion and visual structure, image and psyche. A panorama of choices surrounds every point in a location and that first choice is the initial creative act of the painting. Choosing what view to paint clarifies what’s important to the individual perceiver. It reinforces visual wisdom and the brain areas that inform it.

We understand meaning in the space around us from our earliest experience of moving in our surroundings. The distance between here and there is a primary visual concept that starts with crawling across the floor, feeling gravity when we fall and all of the early experiences of moving in space that later provide the foundation for mature reasoning. As adults we might describe differences in points-of-view in terms of the distance between them. Seeing something as inside or outside is the structure for our sense of categories. A painting of a landscape is the experience of a point-of-view that contains a feeling about what’s being seen. It includes the sense of here and there, the press of congestion or expanse of space. The feeling represents the meaning of the whole and guides conscious nonverbal observations. Developing receptive attention to scenes and situations as wholes strengthens understanding of the big picture and how the structure of one situation relates to the structure of another. The larger the frame, the more comprehensive the understanding.

The findings of modern neuroscience show that the parts of the brain we use the most grow the biggest. It’s the essence of building skills and knowledge. Looking at art educates the part of the mind attuned to the gestalt, building sensitivity to expressive structure. The relationship of feeling to thinking is now better understood; the feeling of the whole directing the analytical rational thought. Insight is led by structure.

Today taking pictures is not just keeping a record, it’s a means of communication. Being more mindful of the act would weave an artistic attitude through day-to-day life. It could start with zooming in. A recent study reported on NPR showed that most picture taking interfered with how much about a subject was taken in and remembered. But it had one qualifying circumstance. When the subjects were asked to zoom in as they took the picture they remembered more. Zooming in requires looking longer and making a choice about what is most important. This is the first step in artful attention. Once something is singled out as significant then expression moves beyond the general. Something of particular interest has been uncovered which often stimulates more interest. Curiosity leads to purposeful attention, to investigating a particular aspect of the world of information. Discovering an area of fascination opens the realm of peak experience whenever it’s wanted, an individual portal to the larger world.  Cultivating visual attunement is one way to think like an artist.

Unfolding Landscape

Fred Lazarus- An Appreciation

Now that he's retiring it’s hard to envision MICA without Fred Lazarus. I started teaching at Maryland Institute in 1978 and there’s always been Fred. From the beginning I felt I could trust his understanding of what the school needed and where it should go. I could see that he had a broader awareness of the school as a whole and within Baltimore and was glad to know he was so actively cultivating the potential of the college. He’s a connector and it’s been a pleasure to benefit from the many transformations of our campus and the city around it that have been the canvas of Fred’s work. Being confident that the business of the school is in good hands makes it easy to concentrate on what I do in the classroom and the studio. He’s trusted us to do the teaching. Perhaps we take for granted the level of academic freedom we have. Inventing and revising new courses has enabled us all to develop the interests and expertise that grow from our own work and build a fluid relationship between our work and our teaching. The variety of our course offerings reflects the people who teach here and is one of many ways that he promoted diversity on campus. The Center for Race and Culture and the expanded student diversity office assured a continued attunement to a wider range of voices and values. Diversity is about the big picture and Fred’s vision would shake up the standard model of art school and reinvent it for the 21^st century.

When I started working for broader cultural awareness on campus Fred expressed particular interest in how to address the issue of critique. This was the seed of what has now developed into the book that MICA has published, “Beyond Critique- Different Ways to Talk About Art”. His support has been key to our taking the lead in developing a more expanded way of looking at the issue, hopefully stimulating critique to grow into the art form it deserves to be. Fred’s foresight regarding critique goes back to the eighties. He took the lead in opening up what could happen in a critique by bringing Richard Kalter to us who in one single remarkable individual embodied so many different ways of talking about art. We were all enriched by that decision. Since Richard Kalter’s years on campus critique at MICA has never been the same.

 In the transition from the school Maryland Institute was in 1978 to what we’ve become as MICA, the most important thing affecting me personally has been the quality of the students. As they have gotten better it has demanded more of me as a teacher. And I’ve become a better teacher as a result. The diversity of students is now international. This outreach to different parts of the world has expanded my own perspective as I learn about different ways of seeing through the work they have produced. The more diverse the classes the bigger the challenge and the greater the challenge the better the flow. Fred saw the potential for MICA as global creative leader, expanding influence in multiple directions. Because he’s been so good at what he does, he’s created an environment where we can all get better at what we do.

Thank you Fred.

Alchemy

Novel Perception

Every new experience creates new brain circuitry to retrieve it.

It’s been a wonderful semester with students from a range of backgrounds. Rich variety in a group offers so many opportunities to build the brain. Never envisioned connections open up and brand new experience is integrated with the old. What’s significant is revisited, tied to more ideas as the pathways are reinforced. The brain only fuels what gets used. What hasn’t stood out soon disappears for lack of attention. The enjoyment that comes from talking with different kinds of people grows from the repeated surprise response. It’s pleasure we get from anything that improves our knowledge and perspective.

I’m a big proponent of laughter as a general response and not just in relation to humor. The pleasure circuit is definitely involved because the aftersmile lasts longer than for a smile response. Novelty often triggers the laugh response like an unexpected punch line does in humor. The ability to shift contexts is reinforced. The pleasure of spending time with unique people is because the brain loves building new circuits and another’s novel perception requires it.

To look at the title from its other interpretation, what is so enjoyable in a good novel is the extension of perception that occurs when a characters way of seeing is fully imagined. Every student is a new main character and broadens my own way of seeing. I’ve learned so much from my students this year and have the satisfaction of seeing them now more powerful than they were when they arrived. The new circuitry is different for each of us. The parts that illuminated personal themes are always the ones most deeply woven into the fabric of every  point-of-view. Something revelatory for one may not even catch another’s attention. The personal brain is a creation of each person, astounding in its individuality. Thinking in categories can make things seem much more uniform than they actually are. The richness of imagery better displays the unique mind. Nothing dramatizes this better than the last discussion of the year. Looking at the final work in so many disciplines from so many novel points-of-view, the range of response is as different as the work itself. It’s been enlarging and as always, I am grateful.