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Art and the right half of the brain

Speech Bielefeld 15.3.1984, Furniture store Eggert






Ladies and gentlemen,

You must have been a little taken aback when you read in the invitation that I wanted to talk about "Art and the right hemisphere of the brain".

I hope that I have aroused your curiosity a little, because I believe that the latest findings in brain physiology can contribute a great deal to our understanding of the nature of art.

As everyone knows, the functions of the halves of the body are cross-connected with the halves of the brain, so that a left-sided stroke, for example, causes right-sided paralysis and vice versa. Since the First World War, it has been recognized that speech disorders only occur in left-sided brain injuries, from which it could be concluded that speech is located on the left. Attempts have been made to find out more details, with little success.

A more recent theory compares the brain to a hologram: you can cut up a hologram plate at will, but each of the parts still produces the whole image when projected, at most slightly coarsened. Just as each part contains the whole, a particular memory, for example, could be stored in any part of the brain instead of in a specific one, as was initially thought.

Since the mid-1960s, a whole series of important discoveries have been made that have significant consequences for a wide range of disciplines, including questions of lifestyle. West German television even recently tried to provide information about this in a multi-part series in the 3rd program.

The occasion was an operation on around 25 severe epileptics, mainly in the USA. Both hemispheres of the brain are connected by a bridge, the corpus callosum. In these patients, the corpus callosum was severed. As with the right hemisphere, virtually nothing was known about this connecting bridge. This separation of the cerebral hemispheres gave researchers the opportunity to gain insights into the functions of the cerebral hemispheres through experiments that had to be invented.

One of the experimental set-ups looked like this, for example: the test subject looked at the center of a projection screen onto which the image of a pair of scissors was projected very briefly on the right and the image of a spoon on the left, so that only the corresponding eyes could perceive the respective images.

The subject was then asked to describe in words what they had seen. The answer was: "Scissors". At the same time, however, she shook her head and then said: "Why am I shaking my head?" Asked to reach under a cloth in a hodgepodge for the object she had seen and show it, the test subject chose the spoon. How is this to be understood?

A wealth of similar and other ingenious experiments have shown that both hemispheres of the brain fulfill very different functions, complement each other and are vital in their interaction, which is achieved via the connecting bridge.

In the experiment described above, the left hemisphere of the brain, which is capable of language, named the object seen with the right eye scissors. The right hemisphere, deprived of contact with the left and therefore speechless, was only able to register its deviating information through the silent protest of shaking its head. Feeling and touching under the cloth, however, was a matter for the right hemisphere of the brain, which was now able to present the spoon object seen by the left eye, while the left hemisphere was left behind.

This conflict between the two hemispheres of the brain is often grotesque for the patients concerned and sometimes even tragic. For us normal people, however, the knowledge gained from this results in extremely important insights.

First of all, it turns out that both hemispheres of the brain have very different functions, only a few of which can be listed here. For example, language is located on the left, visual-spatial experience on the right, logic on the left, paradox on the right, abstraction on the left, concreteness on the right, temporal sequence on the left, simultaneous experience on the right, rationality on the left, emotion on the right, deduction on the left, intuition on the right, and so on.

I'm sure some of you are familiar with the conflict between the two halves of the subject described above, such as when you reflect after an intensive lecture: the words have convinced me, but I don't like something about it. The right side has gathered information that cannot be expressed linguistically, but which certainly contradicts that of the left side.

Another example: many times a day we grasp a situation, such as a conversation partner, a mood, a traffic hazard, instantly, i.e. with the right side, and immediately act accordingly. A teacher, for example, tries to assess the state of the class with a glance, the pupils in turn try to assess the teacher's mood in the same way, and so on.

As these few examples show, this function is absolutely vital and can be neglected or perfected just like others. A person who deals responsibly with people, for example, needs a great deal of knowledge of human nature, which is notoriously difficult to argue about: books cannot teach this, words are of little help.

If, on the other hand, a situation is to be analyzed, the left side comes into its own, which then uses language step by step in a logical and deductive manner. If we then look at our teaching, training and education systems, it quickly becomes clear that our attention is almost exclusively focused on developing the functions of the left hemisphere of the brain, while those of the right hemisphere are, if not completely suppressed, at least severely neglected.

This has the consequence, for example, that in our civilization we can stubbornly pursue goals that are quite obviously highly harmful to us. Perhaps we will even manage to put a definitive end to ourselves and many others with us. There are even people who are able to imagine this apocalypse as logical and consistent.

I'm sure you're beginning to want to hear what all this has to do with art. If you realize that although art plays an extraordinarily important role in the public consciousness, it somehow doesn't seem quite justifiable, in contrast to roads, kindergartens or exhaust filter systems, for example, the suspicion might already arise after what has been said before that the right side is coming into its own here, while the left shows a lack of understanding.

Just like the gift of understanding human nature, art appreciation seems to be a godsend; no curriculum, no institution pretends to want or be able to achieve anything in either respect. However, the prices paid for art, which are repeatedly marveled at, ranging from the price of a home to the price of a castle, just like sales on the music market, show the strength of the needs that obviously have to be satisfied at all costs.

But more can be said. The creation and enjoyment of images is a function of the right hemisphere of the brain. In the last 15 years, a school of drawing has even been developed that essentially aims to set tasks that overtax the left hemisphere so that the right hemisphere, which is always dominated by the left due to our one-sidedly left-oriented civilization, can take the lead. The right hemisphere is then in its element and masters the tasks with the left, so to speak.

Let me give you an example. If you had to draw a portrait, you would be terribly disappointed with your product: because your left brain, used to doing everything, would not draw what you see instead of the eyes, for example, but would put a symbol: an almond shape with a dot for the pupil, for example.

Now you can overtax the left side if you ignore the fact that the observed shape is an eye and concentrate on the shape of the white in the eye instead of the shape of the eyelids and the pupil. The white has common edges with the pupil and the eyelids: by drawing the white, you automatically produce the shapes of the eyelids and the pupil. The left side has no concept, no symbol for the shape of the white, it says: what is that stupid and boring and finally withdraws.

The right side, however, specializes in recognizing shapes and the smallest deviations. Each of you can recognize familiar faces at crazy distances, interpret moods precisely and immediately identify the smallest changes, such as slight swellings: my God, are you getting the flu? That's the reaction.

So the right-hand side takes on the problem and, after a short period of practice, skillfully produces eyes, portraits, whatever you want. However, this is far from being art; but the change from the left to the right side, once observed, becomes clearly perceptible. The moment of transition itself eludes perception, similar to the moment of falling asleep, but the state of being in the right state itself is clearly perceptible and familiar to most people.

It is characterized by a loss of the sense of time, being anchored in the here and now, being at one with oneself, the object and the action, somnambulistic security, a feeling of floating to the point of euphoria, grace and economy of movement, at the same time maximum concentration and relaxation, a joyful mood and an energetic mood afterwards, even after many hours of intense activity.

Some people know this from immersed reading captivating books, I myself know it from dancing, where, given favorable circumstances, I am one with the music and perform movements and sequences of movements, harmonious, elegant, graceful, astonishing in their development, which would inevitably lead to a fall if I were to observe myself, for example. For example, I would observe myself: I don't dance to the music, the music dances me - and then of course from painting, discovered in decades of effort, confused and reluctantly accepted, because as I said, the left side is stubborn and doesn't want to give up control.

My experiences led me at some point to formulate the remark that my task as a painter is to let the picture paint itself. That sounds like a good aphorism, but who is supposed to do anything with such a statement?

Of course, I am not the first and only person to have had such experiences; although today many things that are produced on the left are also called art, the testimonies of the millennia up to the present day repeatedly speak of the mystery of creativity, the artist's trembling before his own product and the work process, which allows him to experience himself as a tool, sometimes suggesting direct intervention by the gods.

A closer look may reveal further connections. Meditation and other techniques have been spreading in the West for a long time, the aim of which could perhaps be to allow the right mode of being to be experienced and become the norm.

In any case, it is astonishing to find the trick with the white in the eye in the teachings of the Indian magician and warrior Juan Matus, who urges his pupil Carlos Castañeda to focus his attention on the shadows cast by the rocks instead of on the rocks, or to find there, as well as in Zen Buddhism, the demand to live in the here-and-now, to let actions and decisions develop themselves, to dance a dance in an energy-saving, harmonious and graceful way. The koans of Zen as well as the tests and tasks of Don Juan are direct challenges to the left side, unsolvable for it, an appeal to throw in the towel and clear the way.

But back to art. What I have said so far concerns not only the artist, but also you yourself. For images cannot be grasped or experienced on the left, and this poses a great difficulty: our civilization lives on the left, is stunted on the right, and for the time being has no access to images, to art. Many words are spoken by professionals, experts and scientists about art, works of art and artists without ever taking into account that access to art is not through words, that the creative process does not take place in the left-hand mode, e.g. discursively and logically, but that both take place in the right-hand mode, that the essence of art is completely beyond the reach of words.

I often hear from people who have a very intense relationship with works of art: "Actually, I don't understand anything about it!" This means that they have nothing to say about it and is meant in an absolutely derogatory way. However, this sensual-concrete relationship is the only important thing; in many cases, the admired talk of the eloquent even serves to conceal the lack of access. The results of brain physiology are therefore also a great encouragement for art lovers to take themselves and their experiences seriously, to ward off insecurities caused by intellectualized concepts.

If the access, the enjoyment is there, then after a while the left side may also come forward and offer its abilities. Recognizing its limitations, it can do an excellent job and complement the right side. But woe betide you if you mix things up!

Finally, I would like to tell you something about my work. Art is a means of self-knowledge, a mirror of the soul, a plan to the self, to God, to perfection. The artist goes his way like the pilgrim or monk, leaving behind images and signs that are a help to those who can see on their own path.

Thank you for your attention.


 
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