A recent NEA survey of the arts revealed a dismaying trend: a consistent decline in public participation across nearly every discipline studied, including music, theater, dance and the fine arts. And while ScienceBlogger Chad Orzel points out that the survey neglected to include rock or pop music, film, or other video art, he also speculates that weakening musical education programs might contribute to the decline in appreciation for "high art"--particularly, classical music. As Scicurious explains on Neurotopia, an ear for classical music might help some scientists listen for subtle differences in brain activity using a new technique to convert brain waves to sound. Two cultures? What two cultures?
- What Is Your Musical Background? on Uncertain Principles
- If It's Not Boring, It's Not Art on Uncertain Principles
- The Music of the Brain on Neurotopia
- Music and IQ on Cognitive Daily
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One of the PDF-only studies that I complained about earlier is a hand-wringing report from the NEA on how public appreciation of art is on the decline. As summarized by Inside Higher Ed:
Compared to the NEA's 1982 survey, the steepest decline was in ballet, which that year was seen by 11.0 percent…
[Originally posted in April 2007]
Cognitive decline as we age is all over the news lately. "Brain fitness" products are available for cell phones, Game Boys, and Xboxes, all designed to prevent the natural decline in cognitive ability as we age. There's even a significant body of work suggesting…
Cognitive decline as we age is all over the news lately. "Brain fitness" products are available for cell phones, Game Boys, and Xboxes, all designed to prevent the natural decline in cognitive ability as we age. There's even a significant body of work suggesting that this sort of product really can…
There's an interesting discussion going on in a place I can't link to, spinning off a comment to the NEA post from the other day:
The point is that the amount of people who see value in or are trained to appreciate more esoteric, more difficult, less accessible music **may** have dropped.
The…