Emerging Visions of the Aesthetic Process: In Psychology, Semiology, and Philosophy

This book is about aesthetic processes and play from the perspectives of psychologists, philosophers, and semiologists. They explore the underlying processes from many viewpoints, including the prehistoric roots of language and art; the historical evolution of artistic styles; the structure of artworks from both gestalt and semiotic perspectives; the biological and psychological processes underlying production and appreciation; personality in relation to artistic style; the testing and measurement of art-related skills; as well as neurobiological, developmental and individual growth perspectives on play activity. The book will be of interest to scholars who want to understand the many ways that aesthetic process can be conceptualised. Not only does it offer a broad basis for discussion, but it also stimulates scholars and students to consider where the study of aesthetic process is heading.

1. Daniel Berlyne and disinterested criticism: inter- and intra-disciplinary discourse John Furedy; Part I. Visual Aesthetics: 2. But is it science? Rudolf Arnheim; 3. The ‘frame’ as a key to visual perception Nycole Paquin; 4. Aesthetics and visual semiotics Fernande Saint-Martin; 5. The complementarity of art and design Tsion Avital; 6. From perception to production: a multileveled analysis of the aesthetic process Gerald C. Cupchik; 7. A science of vision for visual art Francois Molnar; 8. Sweetness and light: psychological aesthetics and sentimental art Andrew Winston; 9. Psychobiography and visual creativity: four pattern Pavel Machotka; 10. Cognitive profiles of artists Ellen Winner and M. Beth Casey; 11. Assessing knowledge in the visual arts George W. Hardiman, Feng J. Liu and Ted Zernich; Part II. Literary and Other Aesthetic Processes: 12. The beginning of a new psychology: Vygotsky’s psychology of art Vladimir S. Sobkin and Dmitry A. Leontiev; 13. Empirical aesthetics in the USSR: selected topics Dmitry A. Leontiev, Vladimir M. Petrov and Vladimir S. Sobkin; 14. The psychology of literature: a social-cognitive approach Janos Laszlo; 15. Why literature is not enough, or: literary studies as media studies Siegfried J. Schmidt; 16. Uncovering the laws of literary history Colin Martindale; 17. Evolution of art and brain asymmetry: a review of empirical investigations Vladimir M. Petrov; Part III. Play: 18. A neurophysiological theory of play Istvan Bende and Endre Grastyan; 19. Paradoxes of children’s play in Vygotsky’s theory Elena A. Bugrimenko and Elena O. Smirnova; 20. The personal component in playing interfaces Moshe D. Caspi.