Beauty in artistic expressions through the eyes of networks and physics

Abstract

<jats:p>Beauty is subjective, and as such it, of course, cannot be defined in absolute terms. But we all know or feel when something is beautiful to us personally. And in such instances, methods of statistical physics and network science can be used to quantify and to better understand what it is that evokes that pleasant feeling, be it when reading a book or looking at a painting. Indeed, recent large-scale explorations of digital data have lifted the veil on many aspects of our artistic expressions that would remain forever hidden in smaller samples. From the determination of complexity and entropy of art paintings to the creation of the flavour network and the principles of food pairing, fascinating research at the interface of art, physics and network science abounds. We here review the existing literature, focusing in particular on culinary, visual, musical and literary arts. We also touch upon cultural history and culturomics, as well as on the connections between physics and the social sciences in general. The review shows that the synergies between these fields yield highly entertaining results that can often be enjoyed by layman and experts alike. In addition to its wider appeal, the reviewed research also has many applications, ranging from improved recommendation to the detection of plagiarism.</jats:p>

The Cyborg Philharmonic: Synchronizing interactive musical performances between humans and machines

“…Musicology, the traditional field for the study of music, explores various dimension of music in terms of theory and evolution (Boretz, 1995), along with its societal associations (Soley and Hannon, 2010), therapeutic benefits (Davis et al, 2008), and connections between physics and artistic expressions (Perc, 2020). Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to research in Cognitive Musicology, which involves the modelling of musical knowledge with computer models, enabling the combination of cognitive science and musicology (Laske, 1999) for developing physical-mechanical systems to produce music.…”

Fried Carbohydrate-rich Food as a Potential Source of Malondialdehyde and Acrylamide: a Consumption Pattern to Evaluate the Risk of Cancer in Population

“…Samples were analyzed by LC-Tandem Mass (Quattro Micro API micro mass Waters 2695, USA) [1]. EC HPLC column (analytical), NUCLEODUR C18 Gravity, 5 µm, 250x2 mm (MACHERY-NAGEL, GERMANY) was used for chromatography with isocratic conditions: Methanol: Formic acid (94: 5: 1) was used at a ow rate of 1 ml/min.…”

“…The food contains macronutrients, micronutrients, minerals, and vitamins that dietary habits such as methods of cooking can affect these nutrients. Cuisines refer to the traditional methods of cooking and consumption common in each country and are one of the factors that can be bene cial or harmful to health [1]. Rice is the chief staple food of the Iranian diet [2].…”

Dissecting landscape art history with information theory

“…Thanks to the recent proliferation of unprecedented numbers of large-scale digital scans of paintings ( 13 – 15 ), researchers have been able to develop and apply quantitative and statistical methods to study the visual arts, complementing qualitative research both validating and disproving previous insights ( 16 ). Computational assessments of visual art so far contributed to characterize diverse statistical properties of paintings such as the fractal dimension, the Fourier power spectrum, and frequency distributions in color space ( 17 – 21 ).…”