While I am bummed out that I missed Ed Vessel's visit to our class on Thursday, I feel that I was able to learn some pretty informative stuff about his area of study (neuroaesthetics) at his lecture on Wednesday. I am interested in both of these fields separately (art/aesthetics and neuroscience/psychology), so seeing how they function together was very new and intriguing. The very basis of Vessel's lecture focused on understanding how we perceive art, what goes on in our brain when we observe art, and what are the psychological and neural aspects that cause our aesthetic responses to art (and other things that surround us like architecture, landscapes, regular everyday objects, etc.). Now, I don't know if I would consider myself an "aestheticist" but I do find myself appreciating and being attracted to "nice looking" forms around me. That sounds a little weird, but what I really mean is that I find that the way things are built/setup/constructed/or just exist around me really affect my mood. Vessel pretty much stated that this feeling is normal and that aesthetic considerations actually affect our well-being! So, surround yourself with things and places and people that you find aesthetically pleasing because, well, it will make you feel better than if you do not. Vessel also explained how environments that are isolating, confining, and extreme can cause potential risks for someone's psychological well-being. He then very quickly mentioned that this kind of setting is unlike the one of today's internet culture, in which we are never isolated and are constantly being fed information from all directions. This point, while short and not his main point, made me ponder on whether McLuhan is accurate in saying that "the medium is the massage." 

While this constant influx of new/improved technology and flow of information can be at times unnerving, it also soothes our worries about being alone or isolated by keeping us constantly connected. Is this benefiting us? Is it helping our well-being? Or is it numbing us? I think we have become desensitized to some of the anxiety we feel about technological innovation because of the aesthetic appeal of the medium itself. Every year there is some new iPhone out that's a little slimmer, a little shinier, and a whole lot of everything else that people like to see and then buy. And at the end of every year that piece of technology is deemed as old, slow, or "so last year" because we know that right around the corner a new and improved version of the same thing will be available! This hedonistic cycle is vicious, but technology keeps feeding into our aesthetic pleasures which makes us all feel good... temporarily. 

The above was a little tangential and I don't even know if it makes much sense. However, I will close this reflection off by saying that Vessel's lecture made me stop and really think about how some things can please the eyes and the senses (and even "move" us). I think that in some ways, the aestheticism that Vessel speaks of is the medium McLuhan writes about. They both massage our minds, numbing us and pleasing us, simultaneously.