Neuronico Website Explores Neuroscience and Art

Monterey, CA, August 31, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Paul Franklin Smith believes that visual art and music were essential in shaping modern human life; they helped us survive by developing our capacity to share information within and across generations: “Our ancestors who participated in the sharing of information through color, shape, symbols, allusion, rhythm, and pitch were better able to survive. Written and spoken language depends on these skills, and so does art. Science is finding intriguing clues which may indicate that music and spoken language developed together, as did visual art and written language. Each developed capacity for the other.”

Analysis of human culture and behavior from the perspective of our development as a species was predicted by none other than Charles Darwin. Near the end of Origin of Species, he wrote "Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." That specific mental capacities in humans were the product of biological characteristics passed on through the mechanism of natural selection - this was a brave statement in 1859, when Origin of Species was published.

Paul Franklin Smith isn't the first to talk about art in these terms, but it's refreshing to find art and science unabashedly displayed and discussed together on Neuronico Art & Neuroscience (http://SEE.neuronico.net). Those who haven't seen Smith's work might imagine it as analytical, lacking the spark that would infuse the work of more humble supplicants to the creative muse. In contrast to this perception, Smith's images are exuberant, and his sense of wonder is apparent.

“Art is an alternate form of communication, which at its best says something which can’t be put into words” says Paul. “When I’m working on an image and feel something profound that I can’t quite articulate, I know I’m onto something. If I can live with that image for days or weeks and still feel some of that original wonder, I think perhaps somebody else might enjoy it too. If that delusion lasts through the process required to make it available in a variety of formats on the web (http://SEE.neuronico.net), that’s the momentum that gets it in the public eye. The feedback and personal stories I receive in response are what keep me going.”

Neuronico Neuroscience & Art (http://SEE.neuronico.net) is the first website to launch in a series exploring junctions between brain science and culture. It features the art and writing of Paul Franklin Smith, and offers art prints for purchase. Contact psmith (@) neuronico (dot) net.