Wired for Beauty: Neuroaesthetics and the Rise of Sensory Experience in Contemporary Jewelry

In 2011, neurobiologist Semir Zeki and his colleague Tomohiro Ishizu conducted an experiment that offered a compelling insight into our understanding of aesthetic experience—namely, the felt response that emerges through an encounter with beauty. Volunteers in an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanner were asked to grade paintings and pieces of music as beautiful, neutral, or ugly. The findings were revealing: whenever someone perceived beauty, whether auditory or visual, the fMRI registered increased activity in a specific brain region.


This article is included in the Metalsmith Magazine. Vol 46 No 1. The magazine can be purchased online at SNAG Metalsmith.