[Fis] Art as human practice

[Pedro C. Marijuán]

Dear Laszlo & FIS Colleagues,

Let me continue the initial reaction to the Kickoff text. As I was 
writing: "[arts] appear as an 'overflow' derived from two sources: the 
strong brain demands from social groups involved in emerging linguistic 
practices, plus a strange aesthetic impulse that i do not know how to 
qualify (and perhaps has a deep biological significance)."

I have been reflecting on different approaches potentially connected 
with the above apparent dichotomy: The Social Brain (Robin Dunbar) and 
the Sociotype works of my research group. Then the "Trophic Theory" by 
Dale Purves (late 80s, early 90s) making a partial bridge to the 
aesthetics effects, finally Manfred Clynes and his "sentic forms" (an 
Austrian musician, neuroscientist, inventor, socialite) where we clearly 
find the link with emotions and art 'forms', and somehow return to the 
social brain... Too much, too long. I will encapsulate the basics.

1. Social Brain, about the relative constancy of the number of 
acquaintances in our social-personal networks. This number (aka as 
Dunbar's number, around 200 people in modern humans), may be found in 
tribes, companies, army organization, business... it generated a fashion 
in management gurus a couple of decades ago --these ideas are very easy 
to find in the literature. Evolutionarily and quite crucially, the 
number of individual contacts, say the size of natural social groups in 
humans, correlates with cortex size along the evo process of Homo. Thus, 
larger social groups, tightly connected, demanded far more extra cortex, 
particularly in relation with linguistic practices....  Enter the 
"sociotype", making clear the crucial correlation behind our social 
nature: genotype--phenotype--sociotype. This concept also 
captures linguistic practices, by showing a parallel with Dunbar's 
number, now regarding how much talking time we devote to maintain the 
different circles of the sociotype bonds (say, thinking in modern 
societies: family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances). We need those 3 
- 4 hours of talking time, on average of course, depending on situations 
and personalities. Loneliness otherwise becomes a mental toxic (we made 
applied biomedical research on that) and becomes a fundamental health 
risk factor. It is a growing problem in today's young people hooked on 
screens... and in the elderly. (Interesting works by Jorge Navarro, my 
former collaborator).

2. What does talking imply for our brains? Dale Purves was fashionable a 
few decades ago: according to his views, we could interpret that talking 
activities mobilize trophic resources that maintain synaptic networks in 
good shape by refreshing the supply and circulation of neuropeptides, 
neuromodulators, neurohormones, etc. A good conversation leaves an 
intense feeling of well being. But it may also be achieved by exciting 
activities in matters of personal interest (eg, creating art, watching 
art, participating in collective ceremonies). So, it seems that 
something else is needed apart of the daily ration of casual 
conversation. And in this respect the collective is of enormous interest 
and importance for the individuals of our species (Laszlo's main paper 
is great via the empirical works showing the appreciation of the 
collective dimension in the arts). Thereafter, your strong bonds of the 
sociotype --family, friends-- may grant you personal happiness, and the 
acquaintances may bring you funny novelties, but inevitably an extra 
trophic is needed. It has been always that way: from Greek recitals, 
drama and Olimpics, to Roman Circus, to the enormous Entertainment 
industry of our times, or the Tourism monster-destroyer of today, or the 
world crazy on mass-sport spectacles. It is the unending quest for the 
extra trophic!

3. And concluding with Clynes, he catalogued the fundamental "sentic 
forms" related to basic emotions (following Paul Ekman, more or less). 
You find these 'forms' in our voice emotional overtones, in the physical 
contacts we make, in laughter superimposed melodies too (again, research 
with Jorge Navarro), and in the structures of formal music... Seemingly 
we have to express them 'all' --all the forms, all the emotions-- a 
thing not easy to do in daily life, so he proposed an expression method 
(and made a little business about it). Indeed he proposed quite strong a 
connection of these sentic forms with the art forms & contents, and the 
deep aesthetic impulse. I would ad that emotions become an inner 
apprehension of the factors that most affect our daily life, the 
advancement of our own lives in a social niche, full of open-ended 
problems that easily overload our thin cognitions and have to be 
channeled in adaptive ways. Expressing them, at least partially via 
surrogates, looks good and healthy, for the 'social brain' convenience. 
Nevertheless the extra trophic, the 'overflow' of our brains, remains. 
It can be fed in trivial surrogates, in brutal ones, or in more 
difficult but more rewarding domains--which are called Arts most of them.

Enough. Hope the text can be followed and makes some sense.

Best regards,
--Pedro

El 15/01/2026 a las 10:27, OARF escribió:
> Hi Mark, Marcus, Laszio, Kate and Fis Colleagues,
>
> I don’t know if the creation of art follows the same logic as the 
> logic of mathematics. I recall in university  trying to prove some 
> difficult theorem will walking down the campus hill back home, I would 
> use fast backtracking form some start to the finish (the theorem). By 
> the time I. got down the hill I usually had it.
>
> In contrast,  when I do art there is no backtracking only spontaneous 
> adaption to what is.  I have a general idea of what I want but the 
> motor part takes over to execute.  Not does emotion necessarily play a 
> role in the creative process other than the fun of it. Similar to the 
> fun of shooting a basketball while jumping and turning high in the air 
> and making a perfect shot.  Or the feel of the body and breathing the 
> fresh air while cross country skiing. The art of the physical! The 
> very doing of art is the deeper beauty.  The end product is just that. 
>  Much like sex but there nature can take over to produce its own art 
> and product.
>
> ///Below is from a previous post on the same topic in another thread:
>
> I grew up with an artist, my mother who wanted to be a sculptor but 
> life had other plans for her. Surrounded by actual art being done day 
> by day by mother or my fathers love of wood and carpentry and me 
> doodling while bored in grade school and later doing cartoons and 
> later theoretical mathematical cartoons.
>
> As an adult at University I also viewed S.C. Kleene’s Introduction to 
> metamathematics as art. Or von Neumann’s mathematical theory of games 
> and his mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics as art.  There 
> is a wonderful beauty in abstract thought and especially in the 
> personal process of construction of new theoretical concepts much like 
> my mother’s actively painting an oil.
>
> So art for me is tied to the emotional construction of it.
>
> As for animals and art, my theory of communication and cooperation 
> also applies to animal communication.
> For an early version see: 
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.tark.org/proceedings/tark_mar7_88/p129-werner.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SIlOqpuzpN-MN4Xtzw-_P4Geuw5hRjxIUw7dXIcqHgLS_BxGxfEmOZmO8kKpm4GOofQAo9avt1Ls-OqYctQE019d0_FQ$  
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.tark.org/proceedings/tark_mar7_88/p129-werner.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!XHWQY6CdfW4Dr6-g1VLtgrCAfPILHe90MKVPjng6oDkL1Unq1h5LESbCQVi_BvGjbnV1VTTlAhHKr2mDnZug0Nc$>
> I think animals are highly intelligent and have complex communication 
> systems with art being a form of communication important in the 
> cooperative ecology of sexual reproduction.
> The social cooperation and communication theory links information with 
> value and intentional states. I see emotions as a complex of 
> intentions (strategic), action-abilities, information and their 
> evaluation.  Art combines all these themes.  It is the bedrock of the 
> formation of and what makes society possible at all.
>
> This relates to Artificial Social Intelligence 
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07847__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SIlOqpuzpN-MN4Xtzw-_P4Geuw5hRjxIUw7dXIcqHgLS_BxGxfEmOZmO8kKpm4GOofQAo9avt1Ls-OqYctQE0wx1axNv$  
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07847__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!XHWQY6CdfW4Dr6-g1VLtgrCAfPILHe90MKVPjng6oDkL1Unq1h5LESbCQVi_BvGjbnV1VTTlAhHKr2mDYTXT6Sc$>
>
> Now with AI we are at the doorstep of combining the abstract with 
> biological synthesis:
> See my “AI-CAD-CRISPR Protocols to Crack the Cancer Code: Reverse 
> Engineer Multicellular Life and Design in silico Brains with Natural 
> Architectures” 
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395391173_AI-CAD-CRISPR_Protocols_to_Crack_the_Cancer_Code_Reverse_Engineer_Multicellular_Life_and_Design_in_silico_Brains_with_Natural_Architectures__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SIlOqpuzpN-MN4Xtzw-_P4Geuw5hRjxIUw7dXIcqHgLS_BxGxfEmOZmO8kKpm4GOofQAo9avt1Ls-OqYctQE042M3ebs$  
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395391173_AI-CAD-CRISPR_Protocols_to_Crack_the_Cancer_Code_Reverse_Engineer_Multicellular_Life_and_Design_in_silico_Brains_with_Natural_Architectures__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!XHWQY6CdfW4Dr6-g1VLtgrCAfPILHe90MKVPjng6oDkL1Unq1h5LESbCQVi_BvGjbnV1VTTlAhHKr2mDfCQ68-U$>
>
> What will be the role of Art in the Bio-AI world?
>
> -Eric
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