Bullot & Reber (B&R) make a strong case for the role of causal reasoning in the appreciation of artwork. Although I agree that an artistic design stance is important for art appreciation, I suggest that it is a subset of a more general framework for evaluating artworks as the causal extensions of individuals, which includes inferences about the creator's mind, as well as more physical notions o...

This research examines the relationship between body art (tattoos and piercings) and deviance. With the increasing mainstream presence of visible tattoos and piercings among entertainers, athletes, and even in corporate boardrooms, we wonder the extent to which long-time enthusiasts and collectors regard the phenomenon as encroachment. We use sub-cultural identity theory to propose that individ...

It has been argued that greater intra-category structural similarity for living things may make them more difficult to recognize and name (e.g. Humphreys et al., 1988). Nevertheless, the precise meaning and quantification of 'structural similarity' remain unclear. We developed three new visual measures derived from the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) corpus and examined their relationship with ...

We live today under the empire of image. After oral and written words, image acquires an unprecedented relevance. It dramatically determines our life, both our way of seeing the world and of performing our individual and collective existence. Our aim is to present a video installation – Body-image – followed by a discussion where, taking images of the body as a case-study, questions related to ...

During the special showing of the Holy Shroud at Turin in Spring 2010, an art exhibit at the Venaria Reale – the Savoy hunting palace just outside the city – will focus on Western artists’ interest in the body of Christ as subject. With works of painting and sculpture from the late Middle Ages to the Baroque period (and some earlier pieces), the exhibit will parallel the religious event, sheddi...