12 Jun 2025

What looking at art does to your brain

From Nights, 8:30 pm on 12 June 2025

When seeing a great work of art, does your heart race? Do the hairs on your arms stand on end? Maybe you don't feel anything at all. 

Tamar stands in front of a large, rich landscape painting in an art gallery. She wears a white top and khaki pants.

Tamar Torrance is a PhD student at the University of Auckland. Photo: Supplied

Tamar Torrance is a PhD researcher at the University of Auckland.

Working in the relatively new field of neuroaesthetics, Tamar is conducting research into what goes on in our brains and bodies when viewing art online, in person, and through VR.

She joins Emile to discuss how art and beauty can affect us physically and mentally.

A painting showing a woman in front of a tree, gazing at a large animated head, which is cowling around the tree and staring at her longingly.

Photo: Henry Fuseli / Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Sir George Grey, 1887

Study for the three witches in Macbeth

Study for the three witches in Macbeth Photo: Henry Fuseli / Public domain