Post date: May 20, 2011 6:45:21 AM
http://royalsociety.org/Events/The-Curious-Brain-in-the-Museum/
This film was commissioned by the Royal Society and produced by Carey Born in connection with my Henry Cole lecture. If you want to see the slides I used for the lecture you can find them in the attachment. They provide background material, notes and references to the science behind the film.
As part of the 350th Anniversary Celebrations of the Royal Society I gave the Henry Cole Lecture at the V&A on 18th November 2010.
The Curious Brain in the Museum
The human mind/brain is exquisitely social and automatically responds to signals sent by other people. These signals can be artfully designed objects, and these can come from people long in the past. The art and design that is embodied in the object can evoke in the brain different streams of imagination: how it was made, the value it represents, and the meaning it conveys. The human mind/brain has ancient reward systems, which respond to, say, stimuli signaling food to the hungry, but also respond to social stimuli signaling relevance to the curious. This makes for a never ending well spring of spontaneous teaching and learning. Education in the museum environment is perfectly attuned to the curious mind.