The sky of ideas
Text by Magali Gentet

Since Plato hung them in the sky, ideas, that according to his metaphysical and ontological doctrine form the dualism between the real things down here and the intelligible world of reality, have always been the subject of a quest responding to the needs of transcendence, idealism and knowledge of human beings.

Today, our civilisations all participate in a race for the rare idea, for a genial illumination. In other words, the legendary aphorism ‘Eureka’ have found (it), uttered by Archimedes when he discovered the principle that was a revolution for the science of his time, has never been as important as it is in our contemporary societies. Because in order to exist today, you have to be the singular inventor of the new cognitive “material’ that consists of an idea!

The cognitive sciences have examined our relation with art and beautiful things from its aesthetic perception to the significant effects that they cause But they have perhaps not yet sufficiently explored the processes inherent in the creation of this famous spark.

How are ideas born? Are they really new? What happens in our minds when we create something? And, a fortiori, what happens in an artist’s head? What is the pathway, the mechanism that links brain and hand?

www.parvis.net/en/node/427