Anna, at the launch of Creative Places Ballaghaderreen

I’m delighted to share with you a series of blogs that explore how art and design can be used within social settings / environments to enhance health and well-being.

Today’s feature introduces some of the research in Your Brain On Art, by Magsamen and Ross.

People often find art, such as painting, singing and dancing - incredibly therapeutic. It seems that there is now scientific evidence to explain why…

Researchers from a relatively new field (referred to as the neuroarts, or neuro-aesthetics) argue that arts-based experiences actually change our body, brain and behaviour (ref: Your Brain On Art).

Art Can Enhance Health

In their groundbreaking book - ‘Your Brain On Art’, authors Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross have compiled a staggering amount of research (that draws upon a combination of quantitative and qualitative evidence) detailing how having just twenty minutes of an aesthetic experience has the potential to literally change our biology. They provide evidence on how art can prevent disease, improve mental and physical health, and offer a ‘Blue Print’ for the future use of art in community and health-care settings.

Whether we are dealing with pain, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, grief or chronic illness, it appears that there is mounting evidence that “acts of art” can “help us heal and thrive”, so much so that healthcare practitioners all over the world are beginning to prescribe museum visits to their patients (p.x); hospitals are using art-based therapies alongside conventional treatments, and architects and designers are increasingly interested in how the built environment affects individual and community health.

There is a lot of content in Magsamen and Ross’s research on the transformative potential within an artful experience, but for brevity I would like to highlight five key points (all of which will be covered in more depth over the coming months).

1/ Optimising the potential for art to improve health and well-being involves a practice very similar to mindfulness:

Being aware;
consciously experiencing the present moment;
as well as being attuned to the environment within which the experience takes place, and the senses that are being triggered (ref: pxiii).

According to Magsamen and Ross, being aware of how your senses work is key to understanding the transformative potential inherent within an artful experience.

“All stimuli that we encounter - visual, auditory, somatosensory, gustatory, olfactory, and others - change the structure and function of cells within our brains and bodies” - (ref: Magsamen and Ross: p99).

The brain is constantly, and with unimaginable speed - processing sensory stimuli and signals from the outside world. Due to modern day technology scientists are now able to see how our brain reacts to such stimuli. Magsamen and Ross describe in detail how sensations such as light, sound and taste result in a cascade of neurobiological triggers, which also change how we think and feel. We are consciously and unconsciously continually reacting to these sensations.

Art - whether it is painting, literature, dance or theatre -affects our mood through our senses.

An Example:

Our reaction to a certain type of music is of course influenced by our memory, associations and likes, as well as personal cultural contexts. However, we process music through our senses. Once we have made sense out of the experience we respond in a certain way (depending on our associations), which in turn results in a physical, emotional and mental response.

But, here’s the interesting point - it’s not all about the associations and memories that cause us to respond in a certain way to music - there are certain frequencies that tend to affect people in similar ways, irrespective of their lived-experience. Slower beats, for instance, tend to help people relax and fall asleep.

This insight in ‘Your Brain On Art’ correlates to the long tradition in contemplative practices of using certain types of music (for instance, Tibetan singing bowls) to meditate with. This is because certain frequencies and tones stimulate the nervous system to shift from fight and flight, to rest and relax.

2/ Making art can physically affect neuroplasticity.

When we learn, or are really interested in something - our brain cells communicate with other cells (synaptic transmission), which creates circuits in the brain. When we are learning something new, or reinforcing information, our brain makes these connections stronger (‘when cells ‘fire together they wire together’). Our brain, therefore, changes over time, depending on what we are doing, thinking or feeling. This is referred to as neuroplasticity.

Magsamen and Ross point out that strong connections are reinforced, or not - depending on ‘the intensity of the sensory stimuli’ and the QUALITY of the experience (p12). They argue that art, in particular - has a profound effect on neuroplasticity; an assertion that is based on observations backed by scientific imaging research that has monitored how the brain responds to certain stimuli.

This insight has profound implications in many different contexts, including education, and even health-care settings. The authors provide examples of how people living with severe memory loss, for example, can actually recall lost memories in response to music.

3/ Self Expression Through Art

Another important issue raised by Magsamen and Ross is that the arts can facilitate self and community expression. Self-expression through art can help people move through difficult emotions such as grief, trauma and loneliness. This is because it enables us to use abstract mediums (painting, dance, sculpture etc.,) to convey, share and release deep feelings, or painful memories. Art can also activate our relaxation response, thus reducing stress and anxiety, which over-time, can improve mood and well-being.

Contemplative Walks, with Artist Researcher, Anna King

4/ Art Spaces Within Community

It is well documented that meaningful social engagement improves mental and emotional health. There are many reasons for this, but for now I would like to reflect upon the idea that self-expression is a fundamental human need.

Having art-spaces within a community, where we can be seen and heard (self expression) is a powerful way to help marginalised (or lonely people) overcome social isolation. This aspect of Magsamen and Ross’s research is important, because it offers us a way forward to help alleviate some of the devastating problems that can occur when individuals, or whole communities, experience social disconnection.

The arts empower us to reimagine, re-envision, and reconnect in order to create a better future together (ref: p227)

5/ Our Built Environment -

For centuries practitioners of Feng Shui and Vastu Shastra - as well as architects, such as Christopher Alexander - have advocated that our lived environment has a profound influence on our health and well-being. Alexander was dedicated to creating architecture that was alive with potential:

The specific patterns out of which a building or a town is made may be alive or dead. To the extent they are alive, they let our inner forces loose, and set us free; but when they are dead, they keep us locked in inner conflict (ref: Alexander, 1979:x).

Magsamen and Ross provide us with a ‘Blue Print’ on how to use art and design in our lived environment to enable individual’s and whole communities to free themselves from constraint, and embrace their potential (more on this in another blog).

I’m excited to bring you more news and content on how art can support health and well-being for both the individual and the environment - so keep an eye on my instagram feed for all the latest… Thank you for reading - Anna xxx

References:

Magsamen, S and Ross, I. (2023) Your Brain On Art. Canongate.

Alexander, C. (1979) The Timeless Way of Building. New York: Oxford University Press.

Art 4 Health