People have been kind enough to mention my bioaesthetics primer on various other blogs. On AlphaPsy, a new blog dedicated to cognitive and evolutionary anthropology, a short discussion even broke out, provoked by this comment to my post. (I will post my “defence” of neuroaesthetic here in a couple of days!) Through this discussion I learned that a group of French philosophers is starting a new journal to be called Art and NeurosciencesReview. According to its website, the Art and Neurosciences Review aims to
serve as an interdisciplinary platform where all interested in art can discuss key themes at the junction of aesthetics and empirical sciences - every aspect of what we might call “the cognitive revolution” of aesthetics and art.
I wrote the editor-in-chief, Emmanuelle Glon, asking her for additional information, and she tells me that they plan to publish the journal bi-annually, both electronically and in print form. The focus will be on the philosophical implications of empirical data and various theories. This is probably a wise choice, as neuroscientists are surely prone to first attempt to get their experimental data published in a more conventional neuroscience journal. Since the neuroaesthetics field, as I wrote, is still very much in its infancy, there is a clear need of a common and unifying platform for debating and keeping up with the growing literature. Art and Neurosciences Review could very well be such a place. Today, there is really only two journals serving this need, the Empirical Studies of the Arts and the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (a new journal published by Division 10 of the APA), and both these journals cater primarily to psychologists.
One small thing, though. The Art and Neurosciences Review plans to run papers in both English and French. I think the editors should reconsider this policy if they want to attract a truly international audience. Even at the humanities departments here in Denmark nobody reads anything in French anymore. I agree that this is nothing to brag about, but it is a fact about the modern academic world.
- Martin
UPDATE (November 1). As it turns out, the good people behind the Arts and Neurosciences Review also runs a blog. Check it out here. So far, though, only entries in French!
I wrote the editor-in-chief, Emmanuelle Glon, asking her for additional information, and she tells me that they plan to publish the journal bi-annually, both electronically and in print form. The focus will be on the philosophical implications of empirical data and various theories. This is probably a wise choice, as neuroscientists are surely prone to first attempt to get their experimental data published in a more conventional neuroscience journal. Since the neuroaesthetics field, as I wrote, is still very much in its infancy, there is a clear need of a common and unifying platform for debating and keeping up with the growing literature. Art and Neurosciences Review could very well be such a place. Today, there is really only two journals serving this need, the Empirical Studies of the Arts and the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (a new journal published by Division 10 of the APA), and both these journals cater primarily to psychologists.
One small thing, though. The Art and Neurosciences Review plans to run papers in both English and French. I think the editors should reconsider this policy if they want to attract a truly international audience. Even at the humanities departments here in Denmark nobody reads anything in French anymore. I agree that this is nothing to brag about, but it is a fact about the modern academic world.
- Martin
UPDATE (November 1). As it turns out, the good people behind the Arts and Neurosciences Review also runs a blog. Check it out here. So far, though, only entries in French!