What looking at art does to your brain
When seeing a great work of art, does your heart race? Do the hairs on your arms stand on end? Maybe you don't feel anything at all.
Tamar Torrance is a PhD student at the University of Auckland.
Photo:
Supplied
Tamar Torrance is a PhD researcher at the University of Auckland.
Working in the relatively new field of neuroaesthetics, Tamar is conducting research into what goes on in our brains and bodies when viewing art online, in person, and through VR.
She joins Emile to discuss how art and beauty can affect us physically and mentally.
Photo:
Henry Fuseli / Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Sir George Grey, 1887
Study for the three witches in Macbeth
Photo:
Henry Fuseli / Public domain
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Daniel Rankin A.K.A Man Can Cook
Daniel Rankin runs one of New Zealand's most successful baking Instagram pages - Man Can Cook . He takes an Only Fans recipes with shirtess photos, pouring stuff over his abs, and cute photos of his pug Fraser. And for the next month he's bringing those skills to the Starship Hospital's Big Bakeoff . Daniel speaks to Perlina. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
New music for the silent Len Lye film, Tusalava
Composer Andrew_Faletau Photo: 2025 Nick George Creative, all rights reserved. Artist Len Lye was known for not only his kinetic sculptures, but also his experimental films. One of his best known films is Tusalava - an animated black and white short form film showing the evolution of a cellular creature. The work was created in 1929 and while the film still exists the sound track has been lost. However Samoan composer Andrew Faleatua has written a new composition to be performed with the film as part of Wellington's midwinter arts festival Lōemis. He joins Kathryn to talk about writing the new music for a piece that heavily features Māori and Pacific motifs. Tusalava will be played along with a number of other silent, avant-garde films, featuring new scores played by the music ensemble Stroma at Wellington's Roxy Cinema, Monday 16 June.
RNZ News
17 hours ago
- RNZ News
In its 57th year, Fieldays is still a hit for farmers across the country
Over 100,000 people attend the annual Fieldays at Mystery Creek Photo: Stephen Barker When Fieldays first kicked off in Te Rapa 57 years ago, farmers could get their boots shined. Those days are over, but it is still the place where farmers go to dream. And spend. And watch competitions like the tractor pull. It is the place you can buy a tractor for $500,000, or get the latest in rural fashion. More than 1000 exhibitors from drone makers to kiwifruit leather inventors are at the largest rural expo in the Southern Hemisphere to sell their products, do commercial deals or simply introduce their products and services to the crowds. Despite the concrete paths, gumboots were a popular choice of footwear at the 2025 Fieldays Photo: Davina Zimmer Retired dairy farmer Mike from Ōhaupō in Waikato has only missed one Fieldays, when he was in London. He tells The Detail how he has watched the event grow from its agricultural roots. "We were always dreaming to get ahead. It's a different sort of show now," he says. "You'd go and polish your boots, but that's gone because it would cost them big money to have a stall here." But one feature that's lasted for the past five decades is the tractor pull. Tractor pull organiser and champion Dan Reymer says heavy rain has made this year's track difficult, a real test of the drivers' skills. Daniel Reymer with The Detail's Sharon Brettkelly Photo: Davina Zimmer "It's the slowest and hardest we've ever seen," he says. "It's the same as the paddock and the farm: you have to adapt your machine to suit the conditions." When this "tractor and machinery nut" is not pulling slabs of concrete in a race, he is out checking the new machinery. But with prices in the hundreds of thousands, he doesn't dare dream of buying anything. He says that the family contracting business just spent "over a mil" on a new harvester. At the Polaris stand Andrew Simpson, aka 'Simmo', is demonstrating a new light utility vehicle, commonly known as a side-by-side. "This is my sandpit," he says as he steers it up a steep track. Simpson runs a training business that teaches people how to safely operate farm vehicles, some of which have been responsible for a number of farm deaths and accidents. "There's still deaths happening. It's not just quads but also side-by-sides. But with these we've got roll protection, we've got seatbelts. So that's one of the key things, we've got to wear a seatbelt because if we were to tip it over and we got chucked out that would kill us. Tractors raced each other pulling concrete blocks weighing several tonne. Photo: Davina Zimmer "Historically we've seen that happening, people don't wear their seatbelts, or they take their doors off, they take their nets off ... and they expose themselves to a lot more risk." The Detail also talks to two Chinese businessmen who are looking for new customers for their agrochemicals. They say there is nothing like Fieldays in China for basic farmers, and it is difficult to describe what it is like to people back home. "It's amazing. This experience is something you can only imagine." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .
