Book contents
- A Complex Systems View on the Visual Arts
- A Complex Systems View on the Visual Arts
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Part I Art as a Complex Process
- Part II Entangled Timescales of Visual Arts
- Chapter 6 Timescales of Art as Interacting Processes
- Chapter 7 Timescales of Artistic Activity
- Chapter 8 Timescales of Artistic Careers
- Chapter 9 The Timescale of Excellence and Celebrity
- Chapter 10 The Timescale of Art History
- Chapter 11 The Timescale of Deep History and of Human Evolution
- Part III Understanding Art Through Dynamic Models
- References
- Index
Chapter 7 - Timescales of Artistic Activity
Creation and Experience of Art
from Part II - Entangled Timescales of Visual Arts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 March 2025
- A Complex Systems View on the Visual Arts
- A Complex Systems View on the Visual Arts
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Part I Art as a Complex Process
- Part II Entangled Timescales of Visual Arts
- Chapter 6 Timescales of Art as Interacting Processes
- Chapter 7 Timescales of Artistic Activity
- Chapter 8 Timescales of Artistic Careers
- Chapter 9 The Timescale of Excellence and Celebrity
- Chapter 10 The Timescale of Art History
- Chapter 11 The Timescale of Deep History and of Human Evolution
- Part III Understanding Art Through Dynamic Models
- References
- Index
Summary
Chapter 7 discusses the short-term timescale of artistic activity, which includes both the creation and experience of art and shows how the creation or the experience of a painting or installation is a dynamic system with typical features of complexity. The creation of a work of art is described as a process in an attractor landscape, with self-organizing attractors as emergent types of creative activity. Existing linear models of creation are compared to a complexity model. An example is given of how a very short-term activity, namely, a single brushstroke, is a complex system in itself, interacting with higher and lower timescales. The discussion of the experience of art begins with existing sequential models and shows how they can be reinterpreted as non-linear, complex, metastable processes occurring on interacting timescales.
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- A Complex Systems View on the Visual Arts , pp. 118 - 166Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025