In the third conference of 13th February 2013, entitled “Clouds and Dizziness in the Work of Magritte”, a splendid work of this painter is analyzed which, because of its evidently enigmatic nature, up to now has never been decrypted. The work is called “The Heartstring”, in fact, but in the painting there is no sign of any string. The onlooker is thus led to expand his sensorial limits, venturing into an unknown mental territory in search of the hidden string. This operation is not accomplished by the imagination, however, but through the use of scientific instruments that show us not only the point in which the stimulus will appear, but also the unexpected form it will take. At this point there emerges also the semantic nucleus of the painting, represented by contemporary man’s ancestral fear of losing control over his primary source of subsistence: water.
Thus, whilst in the past primitive man resorted to propitiatory rites for rain, today modern city-dwellers have devised new water dowsing methods and new artefacts for catching and conveying water resources. But, as is common knowledge, the outcome of this activation is threatened by ecological instability on both the local and planetary level. The balance between man and nature is therefore showing signs of disruption. Will it rain again?
Nicola Colecchia, neural psychologist and former lecturer in General Psychology at the University of Bologna and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Chieti, has conducted specific research on the biological bases of aesthetic taste and on the processes of the “automatic processing” of visual and multisensory information.
Using the neural network model, he has demonstrated that the success or oblivion of an artwork are determined by biopsychic mechanisms underlying the cultural and stylistic stratifications of the work itself.
He currently supervises Synapticart, a laboratory for the optimization of visual and multisensory systems.
www.nicolacolecchia.it