How the Human Brain Looks at Art (Part 1): The Law of Peak Shift

"Aerosol Abduction" by Grandlarsen

How does the human brain decipher art?  Renowned neurologist, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran claims to have the answer.  Ramachandran has developed a set of “Universal Laws of Art,” which attempts to explain what role evolution and survival instincts play in how the human brain deciphers art. 

Art and Survival

Humans use their visual abilities to detect what they need to be aware of for survival.  However, they only use a certain amount of mental attention on the most important elements of their physical surroundings.  This is the basis of Ramachandran’s first law, “peak shift.”  Due to evolutionary developments of the human brain meant for survival,  human beings find it stimulating when an artist depicts distorted or exaggerated features of a subject matter.

For example, when eating a steak, a person will use most of his or her mental attention on the important elements needed to accomplish the task.  These elements include the steak, fork, and knife.  If the person put equal visual attention to everything in the environment, eating the steak would be difficult.  The steak, fork, and knife would blend into the environment.  The person would have difficulty discerning the difference between the table, floor, dish, napkin, knife, fork, and steak.  The person may even try to eat the napkin or the fork. 

Peak Shift and Representational Art

Many artists use peak shift in their representational work by only depicting essential elements necessary to decipher subject matter.  For example, most stencil artists, such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey only use a silhouette of the subject matter.  In Faiery’s “Obey Giant” only the essential elements of eyes, nose, mouth, and hair are represented through contrast with background color.  The fine details of the skin texture and color are absent.  This technique is effective because it allows quick comprehension of subject matter without having to decipher extraneous information.  This also makes stencils especially effective street art tools.  

Multi-Layered Stencil Art

Some stencil artists have taken the medium to another level by using multi-layered stencils, which add more detail to the depiction.  Some of these artists include San Diego artists Keemo and Grandlarsen.  These artists have been featured in various Thumbprint Gallery exhibitions and have created stencil art using as many as ten layers.  However, due to the stencil medium’s limitations, only so much detail can be added.  Therefore, Ramachandran’s law of peak shift is still in play no matter how many stencil layers are used. 

To a certain extent, all styles of representational art are limited in capacity to depict detail.  Therefore, all styles of representational art use Ramachandran’s peak shift law to a certain degree.  Neither the most sophisticated camera nor the most skilled artist could replace “real” life. 


Part 2 coming soon.

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Sources

A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness by V.S. Ramachandran, published in 2004.