as you can figure out from my approach to teaching life drawing, i believe art and science are like peanut butter & chocolate (they need each other!). this post is basically a link to the new york academy of sciences--which has lots of information (and conferences) about the links between art and science, including this one on mirror neurons.
abstract of the article (found in Trends in Cognitive SciencesThe implications of the discovery of mirroring mechanisms and embodied simulation for empathetic responses to images in general, and to works of visual art in particular, have not yet been assessed. Here, we address this issue and we challenge the primacy of cognition in responses to art. We propose that a crucial element of esthetic response consists of the activation of embodied mechanisms encompassing the simulation of actions, emotions and corporeal sensation, and that these mechanisms are universal. This basic level of reaction to images is essential to understanding the effectiveness both of everyday images and of works of art. Historical, cultural and other contextual factors do not preclude the importance of considering the neural processes that arise in the empathetic understanding of visual artworks.find more of this article here
click here for some reading on proprioception and mirror neurons. It is an excerpt from the book The Athlete's Way: Sweat and the Biology of Bliss by Christopher Bergland (left) and provides a good explanation of how our bodies and brains help us understand each other's movements, increasing our sense of muscular empathy (our ability to sense how and what others are feeling). This information is helpful for learning yoga itself as well as for understanding why Dr. Bland and I work at putting fitness yoga and life drawing together.
The more you become aware of how your body feels in all kinds of movements and situations, the more aware you become while observing others' movments. In turn, you get better and more refined with your movements, yoga poses, gestures--and ability to see the model; turn his/her poses into felt responses on the paper; draw with your whole body not just your fingers; and choreograph your hand and eye movements to occur nearly simultaneously.
How to make use of this information is simply to 1) pay attention to how your body feels, 2) when you are watching others in a yoga pose or looking at the model in a pose, imagine in your mind/body what that pose feels like.
When you imagine making a particular movement for yourself, you shift the pose/gesture from being an external, removed, "seen" image to an internal, connected, "felt" sensation. The latter is what gives you the ability to refine yoga poses, get better at life drawing, and become more sensitive and empathic to what is happening in and around you.
