Nicole Ottiger
About the Research
What do visual artworks (drawing, painting, photography and video) and the art making experience communicate of body consciousness? Is art a lie that makes us realize the truth as Picasso once said, or is art a science that inquires into the laws of nature as Constable wrote? These Two central questions direct the present project: (1) The role of the body of the artist in art making and perception of art works and (2) art perception and how this is linked to the right and left hemisphere.If all visual art is expressed by the brain and ‘must’ obey the laws of the brain in the conception, execution and appreciation (Zeki 1999), then I strive to present a new perspective in grappling with what ‘body awareness’ means within the art making experience and as a representation in artworks themselves as well as what art can bring to understanding bodily consciousness of the brain.
About the Researcher
Nicole Ottiger is an artist, teacher and art psychotherapist. She lives and works in Zürich, Luzern and Wil. 2004 Master of Arts in Art Psychotherapy, London University Goldsmiths, 1998 BA Fine Arts, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Art Grants 2010 Artists-in-Labs, 2009 Studio Art Grant Cité des Arts Paris, 2008 Studio Art Grant Fundaziun Nairs. Artist Book 2002 Squint/Silberblick, ars pro toto Verlag Luzern.
More Explicit Information
i) What can experience/knowledge obtained from the art making process of specific self-portrait experiments bring cognitive neuroscience of body representation? - and - What information do artworks themselves convey of corporal awareness and representation of the body (-ies) in the brain? I here refer to the role that the body has in shaping the mind and perception, as well as the body’s role in shaping subjective experience: self-consciousness (Blanke & Metzinger 2009).
ii) What are the perceptual mechanisms in art? If we see in order to acquire knowledge about this world (Zeki 1999), how can this be influenced and studied by presenting specific art to subjects using insights from the field of hemispheric specialization? Here the presentation of art works to the right and left hemifield only will be used, and artworks made by either the right or the left hand. How will this influence the subjects’ perceptions and knowledge on ‘what we see’? – I plan to contribute to the recently developed but growing field of neuroaesthetics, which seeks the neural correlates of artistic judgment and artistic creation and have already carried out several pilot experiments.
Contact
nicot@gmx.ch
Website
www.nicoleottiger.com
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