Emotionality in the Images of Design: A Biological-Evolutionary Theory

Jaime Miguel Jiménez Cuanalo¹, Martha Judith Soto Flores², and Salvador León Beltrán¹

1. Escuela Superior de Artes Visuales (ESAV), Mexico

2. Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México-Tijuana (IBERO), Mexico

Abstract: From the start of this century there has been a proliferation not only in the study of neurosciences and the physiology of perception/emotion, but also in its dissemination. This has resulted in countless programs, courses, etc., that pretend to help the designer, be it architectural, advertising, product, packaging or others (Ulrich, R. S. 1999) to appropriately impact the experience of the end user; tendencies such as biophilia, neuromarketing, user centered design, the influence of color in a space (Aseel AL-Ayash, Robert T. Kane, Dianne Smith, Paul Green-Armytage, 2016), or the impact on behavior and the brain when observing works of art (Kendall J. Eskine, Natalie A. Kacinik, Jesse J. Prinz, 2012), are intended to give us answers based on the neurology and physiology of perception/emotion. Nevertheless, it is hard to separate science from pseudoscience, and even to organize into a useful model the copious scientific information available. The objective is to present a theoretical model that incorporates and synthesizes the state of knowledge in this field, to facilitate its application in the diverse art and design disciplines; this will help both the creator-artist to have a better understanding of their process and comprehension of their work, as well as the designer, to be able to predict the impact their projects will have upon the audience they are directed towards. We are talking from photographers and painters, to architects and illustrators, etc. The methodology consists mainly in the exegesis — and organization of the material resulting thereof — of basic text on this field. In this talk, we present the Theory of Emotive Reactions model, that has been developing in Tijuana since the beginning of this century, we give a shallow explanation of its scientific foundations, we point out its correlation with the state of knowledge and we present the basic principles for its application in the diverse artistic and design disciplines.