This Digital Tool Kit Reveals How Art Benefits Our Brains
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To stay healthy, we know that our bodies need nourishment, hygiene, and exercise. According to those who study neuroaesthetics, how the brain responds to and engages with various forms of creative expression, they need art, too. Susan Magsamen, a leader in the field (and the guest on Ep. 34 of our At a Distance podcast) who runs the International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab)—an initiative at John Hopkins University’s School of Medicine that connects brain scientists with artists to fuel neuroaesthetic research—has long maintained that artistic experiences go hand in hand with mental, emotional, and social well-being. Last month, the IAM Lab teamed up with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Google Arts & Culture to create Arts + Health & Wellbeing, an immersive online tool kit that offers visitors an engaging dose of art, and consequent mental fitness, from anywhere with an internet connection. (Google and the IAM Lab previously joined forces to create a series of rooms informed by the principles of neuroaesthetics at the 2019 Salone del Mobile design and furniture fair in Milan, as discussed by Ivy Ross, Google’s VP of hardware design, on Ep. 11 of our Time Sensitive podcast.)