No Neuron Is an Island: A Neuroaesthetic Inquiry into Omer Fast’s Mimetic Interactions

Abstract

Neuroaesthetic research tends to support a form of Cartesian dichotomy between conscious and nonconscious processes. I propose that some artworks, considered in art contexts, can produce embodied forms of aesthetic knowledge that are inaccessible in the epistemological context of the fMRI lab. In my critical approach to neuroaesthetics, I trouble hierarchical dichotomies between conscious and nonconscious processes, positioning mind as a physiological process that is not isolated in a brain, but fully embodied and co-constitutive with worldly, social in-teractions. In this essay, I examine the neuroscientific literature on mirror neurons as it informs a critical neuroaesthetic analysis of Fast’s Talk Show, which in itself facilitates embodied forms of knowledge through reflexive, mimetic engagement.