The brain is constantly trying to recognize what it sees, to connect the new signals it receives to what it already knows. What we perceive with our eyes and ears is processed through the brain in close connection with our personal experience of life. Thereby, the reception is highly personal and will vary for each individual.

What makes an aesthetic experience? The reception of art is strongly subjective, but can also talk to people in a universal way. Its beauty resides in the link between both of these personal and universal aspects, connecting people on many different levels.

Possibly, (need to research more), art creates a dissonance in the brain that is trying to connect what it receives to what it already knows, but can’t grasp of the unfamiliar feeling that emanates. Going back to Pierre Reverdy’s definition of poetry, it could be an explanation of why, “the more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and just, the stronger the image will be”. We understand each reality separately, but as they are put together, it creates a new image that has a particular force.

I believe there is no such thing as objectivity in art. We can always analyse a work, acknowledge its good execution, but what it makes us feel is a personal experience. If art only talks to our brain, we might see something interesting, but we may miss out on a more emotional experience. I believe, as I went through both ways of receiving art, that we can choose to perceive it on a brain/intellectual level, or on a heart/emotional level. Both can be important, but our sensibility will be touched in a different manner. Depending on how we choose to open ourselves to art, the resulting aesthetic experience can, even for the same individual, take very different aspects.