Museums of fine art and their public

The fact that people go to the Louvre museum in Paris to s

to question some assumptions about the role of museums o
One of the most famous works of art in the world is Leon
Nearly everyone who goes to see the original will already
rewardingly viewed in its original form.

However, if Mona Lisa was a famous novel, few people w

printed reproduction.
This might be explained by the fact that the novel has evo
huge numbers of texts, whereas oil paintings have always b
In addition, it could be argued that the practice of interpret
With novels, the reader attends mainly to the meaning of w
painting must attend just as closely to the material form o

Yet it has always been possible to make very accurate facs

The seven surviving versions of Mona Lisa bear witness
reproduction of their creations to their workshop apprenti
And today the task of reproducing pictures is incomparab
high-quality prints made exactly to the original scale, with

But despite an implicit recognition that the spread of good

status of original work.

Unfortunately, this seems to place severe limitations on th

One limitation is related to the way the museum present

As repositories of unique historical objects, art museums a
We are reminded of this even before we view a collection
away from the exhibits.
In many cases, the architectural style of the building furth
In addition, a major collection like that of London’s Nation
which is likely to be worth more than all the average vi
In a society that judges the personal status of the individua
own relative ‘worthlessness’ in such an environment.
Furthermore, consideration of the ‘value’ of the original w
originally produced, they have been assigned a huge mone
Evidently, nothing the viewer thinks about the work is goin
spontaneous, immediate, self-reliant kind of reading whic

The visitor may then be struck by the strangeness of seeing

environment for which they were not originally created
This ‘displacement effect’ is further heightened by the she
In the case of a major collection, there are probably more

This is particularly distressing because time seems to be a

A fundamental difference between paintings and other art
By contrast, the audience encourage an opera or a play ov
Similarly novels and poems are read in a prescribed tempo
which to finish.

Thus art works themselves encourage us to view them sup

Consequently, the dominant critical approach becomes t
meaning’ of art within the cultural context of its time.
This is in perfect harmony with the museum s function, sin
readings of the exhibits.
Again, this seems to put paid to that spontaneous, participa
literature, but is absent from most art history.

The displays of art museums serve as a warning of what cr

The museum public, like any other audience, experience a
If appropriate works of fine art could be rendered permane
music already are, the public may feel somewhat less in aw
Unfortunately, that may be too much to ask from those wh
Seventy-thousand years ago, our ancestors were in
The most important thing to know about prehis
Their impact on the world was not much greate
Today, in contrast, we control this planet.
And the question is: How did we come from there
How did we turn ourselves from insignificant ap
planet Earth?
Usually, we look for the difference between us an
We want to believe -- I want to believe -- that ther
me so superior to a dog or a pig, or a chimpanzee.
But the truth is that, on the individual level, I'm em
And if you take me and a chimpanzee and put us to
who survives better, I would definitely place my b
And this is not something wrong with me personal
I guess if they took almost any one of you, and pla
much better.
The real difference between humans and all othe

Humans control the planet because they are the o

Now, there are other animals -- like the social ins
don't do so flexibly.
Their cooperation is very rigid.
There is basically just one way in which a beehive
And if there's a new opportunity or a new danger,
They cannot, for example, execute the queen and e
Other animals, like the social mammals -- the wol
much more flexibly, but they do so only in small
knowledge, one of the other.
I'm a chimpanzee and you're a chimpanzee, and I w
I need to know you personally.
What kind of chimpanzee are you?
Are you a nice chimpanzee?
Are you an evil chimpanzee?
Are you trustworthy?
If I don't know you, how can I cooperate with you
The only animal that can combine the two abilitie
numbers is us, Homo sapiens.
One versus one, or even 10 versus 10, chimpanzee
But, if you pit 1,000 humans against 1,000 chimpa
chimpanzees cannot cooperate at all.
And if you now try to cram 100,000 chimpanzees
Vatican, you will get chaos, complete chaos.
Just imagine Wembley Stadium with 100,000 chim
Complete madness.
In contrast, humans normally gather there in tens o
What we get is extremely sophisticated and effecti
All the huge achievements of humankind througho
been based not on individual abilities, but on this a
Think even about this very talk that I'm giving no
most of you are complete strangers to me.
Similarly, I don't really know all the people who h
I don't know the pilot and the crew members of th
I don't know the people who invented and manufa
I'm saying.
I don't know the people who wrote all the books an
And I certainly don't know all the people who mig
New Delhi.
Nevertheless, even though we don't know each oth
This is something chimpanzees cannot do.
They communicate, of course, but you will never
them a talk about bananas or about elephants, o
Now cooperation is, of course, not always nice; a
have been doing some very horrible things -- all th
Prisons are a system of cooperation; slaughterhou
cooperation.
Chimpanzees don't have slaughterhouses and pri
Now suppose I've managed to convince you perha
large numbers.
The next question that immediately arises in the m
alone, of all the animals, to cooperate in such a
We can cooperate flexibly with countless numbe
create and believe fictions, fictional stories.
And as long as everybody believes in the same fic
same values.
All other animals use their communication system
A chimpanzee may say, "Look! There's a lion, let's
bananas!" Humans, in contrast, use their language
realities.
A human can say, "Look, there is a god above th
will punish you and send you to hell."
And if you all believe this story that I've invented
cooperate.
This is something only humans can do.
You can never convince a chimpanzee to give you
heaven ..."
(Laughter)
"… and you'll receive lots and lots of bananas f
So now give me this banana."
No chimpanzee will ever believe such a story.
Only humans believe such stories, which is why w
research laboratories.
Now you may find it acceptable that yes, in the rel
Millions of people come together to build a cathe
in the same stories about God and heaven and h
But what I want to emphasize is that exactly the s
cooperation, not only in the religious field.
Take, for example, the legal field.
Most legal systems today in the world are based o
But what are human rights? Human rights, just like
They are not an objective reality; they are not so
Take a human being, cut him open, look inside, yo
find any rights.
The only place you find rights are in the stories t
They may be very positive stories, very good stori
The same is true of the political field.
The most important factors in modern politics are
But what are states and nations? They are not an o
A mountain is an objective reality.
You can see it, you can touch it, you can even sme
But a nation or a state, like Israel or Iran or Franc
extremely attached to.
The same is true of the economic field.
The most important actors today in the global econ
Many of you today, perhaps, work for a corporatio
What exactly are these things? They are what lawy
They are stories invented and maintained by the
(Laughter) And what do corporations do all day?
Yet, what is money? Again, money is not an obje
Take this green piece of paper, the dollar bill.
Look at it -- it has no value.
You cannot eat it, you cannot drink it, you cann
But then came along these master storytellers --
us a very convincing story: "Look, you see this gre
And if I believe it, and you believe it, and everybo
I can take this worthless piece of paper, go to th
before, and get, in exchange, real bananas which
This is something amazing.
You could never do it with chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees trade, of course: "Yes, you give me
That can work.
But, you give me a worthless piece of paper and
a human? (Laughter)
Money, in fact, is the most successful story ever
believes.
Not everybody believes in God, not everybody be
everybody believes in money, and in the dollar bil
Take, even, Osama Bin Laden.
He hated American politics and American religion
He was quite fond of them, actually.
(Laughter)
To conclude, then: We humans control the world
All other animals live in an objective reality.
Their reality consists of objective entities, like riv
We humans, we also live in an objective reality.
In our world, too, there are rivers and trees and l
But over the centuries, we have constructed on to
made of fictional entities, like nations, like gods,
And what is amazing is that as history unfolded,
most powerful forces in the world are these fict
Today, the very survival of rivers and trees and
entities, like the United States, like Google, like t
Thank you.
Reducing the Effects of Climate Change
Mark Rowe reports on the increasingly ambitious

Such is our dependence on fossil fuels, and such i

that many experts agree that significant global wa
They believe that the best we can do is keep it at
cutting back on our carbon emissions.
But while a few countries are making major stri
the rate of increase, let alone reversing it.
Consequently, an increasing number of scientist
which generally refers to the intentional large-scal
According to its proponents, geo-engineering is th
on fossil fuels – fails, we require a Plan B, employ
warming.

B
Geo-engineering; has been shown to work, at lea
For decades, MayDay parades in Moscow have t
iodide and cement powder to disperse clouds.
Many of the schemes now suggested look to do th
The most eye-catching idea of all is suggested by
His scheme would employ up to 16 trillion minu
sunlight-refracting sunshade in an orbit 1.5 milli
This could, argues Angel, reduce the amount of l

The majority of geo-engineering projects so far

iron in the ocean to stimulate the growth of algae
But some look specifically at reversing the melti
The reasoning is that if you replenish the ice she
back into space, so reducing the warming of the oc
D

The concept of releasing aerosol sprays into the

This would involve using sulphur or hydrogen s
would, in turn, lead to a global dimming.
The idea is modelled on historic volcanic explosio
short-term cooling of global temperatures by 0.5
Scientists have also scrutinised whether it’s poss
cables, preventing icebergs from moving into the s
Meanwhile in the Russian Arctic, geo-engineering
Whereas the region's native evergreen pines shade
thus enabling radiation to be reflected by the snow
Re-routing Russian rivers to increase cold water fl
some climate scientists.

E
But will such schemes ever be implemented? Gene
scientists involved in the research.
Angel says that his plan is ‘no substitute for deve
And Dr Phil Rasch of the US-based Pacific Northw
engineering: ‘I think all of us agree that if we were
its pre-engineered condition very rapidly, and p
That’s certainly something to worry about.’

The US National Center for Atmospheric Research

atmosphere might affect rainfall patterns across
‘Geo-engineering plans to inject stratospheric ae
the extent of sea ice,’ says Rasch.
‘But all the models suggest some impact on the d

G
‘A further risk with geo-engineering projects is tha
School of Geophysical Sciences, who has studied
‘You may bring global temperatures back to pre-in
should be and the tropics will be cooler than be
To avoid such a scenario,” Hunt says, “Angel’s pr
that the best option is to avoid the need for geo-en

The main reason why geo-engineering is support

little faith in the ability of politicians to agree –
Even leading conservation organisations see the va
According to Dr Martin Sommerkorn, climate cha
‘Human-induced climate change has brought huma
this topic and its possibilities.’
Neuroaesthetics
An emerging discipline called neuroaesthetics is
given us a better understanding of many mast
The blurred imagery of Impressionist painting
Since the amygdala plays a crucial role in our
moving.

Could the same approach also shed light on abst

colour, to Pollock’s seemingly haphazard arrange
like such works simply because they are famou
We certainly do have an inclination to follow the
When asked to make simple perceptual decisio
choose a definitively wrong answer if they see
It is easy to imagine that this mentality would ha
no right or wrong answer.

Angelina Hawley-Dolan, of Boston College, Mas

paintings – either the creations of famous abstr
They then had to judge which they preferred.
A third of the paintings were given no captions, w
viewing a chimp’s messy brushstrokes when they
In each set of trials, volunteers generally preferre
or a child.
It seems that the viewer can sense the artist’s visi

Robert Pepperell, an artist based at Cardiff Unive

representational.
In one study, Pepperell and his collaborators aske
whether they saw anything familiar in the piece.
The longer they took to answer these questions, t
neural activity.
It would seem that the brain sees these images as
the moment of recognition.
And what about artists such as Mondrian, whose
of colour? Mondrian’s works are deceptively sim
and that simpiy rotating a piece radically changes
With the originals, volunteers’eyes tended to stay
would flit across a piece more rapidly.
As a result, the volunteers considered the altered

In a similar study, Oshin Vartanian of Toronto U

had altered by moving objects around within the
He found that almost everyone preferred the orig
Vartanian also found that changing the composit
meaning and interpretation.

In another experiment, Alex Forsythe of the Univ

and her results suggest that many artists use a key
Too little and the work is boring, but too much re
What’s more, appealing pieces both abstract and
different scales, fractals are common throughout
It is possible that our visual system, which evolv

It is also intriguing that the brain appears to proc

writer’s moment of creation.
This has led some to wonder whether Pollock’s w
artist used as he painted.
This may be down to our brain’s ‘mirror neurons
The hypothesis will need to be thoroughly tested
It might even be the case that we could use neuro
While the fashions of the time might shape what
the most likely to linger once the trends of previo

It’s still early days for the field of neuroaesthetic

It would, however, be foolish to reduce art appre
We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of th
of their time.
Abstract art offers both a challenge and the freed
In some ways, it’s not so different to science, wh
can view and appreciate the world in a new way.