Subliminal Messages in Art: Are the Artist and the Work a Singular Whole?

The creative process of 27 professional artists working in various types of art (painting, photography and sculpture) was traced in academic research (Botella et al., 2013). It was noted that their work starts with inspiration. An idea, or a “vision,” can be triggered by a picture, a view or a sound that resonates in a specific way with what has been maturing in the artist’s inner world for a long time. The concepts at the beginning are very general, but after overtalking – usually with a partner or close colleague – the first “sketches” can be created from them.

In the discussion about whether it is possible to separate the artist from his work, it is very important to pay attention to the first stage of the creative process. Inspirations are born through the interaction of personal experiences with what the artist is interested in in the environment.

This was confirmed by another study conducted on writers (Doyle, 1998). When participants were asked why they started writing a particular novel, they answered that the inspiration was an event in their lives that evoked specific feelings in them, such as emotion, surprise, or horror. These experiences were the starting point for work. This means that artists get ideas from their own lives. It can even be said that they include a “part of themselves” in their creation.

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How does a subliminal message affect the brain?

Joseph LeDoux, an American neuroscientist, described two pathways of information processing in the brain – the low and the high. In the low path, information is processed quickly and out of consciousness. It goes from the senses directly to the amygdala, i.e. the structure of the brain responsible for emotional behavior. This results in a rapid reflex movement, often without an accurate recognition of the stimulus. The high path, on the other hand, works slower. The information reaches the cerebral cortex first, which allows us to consciously analyze the stimulus, and only later the amygdala.

Which path will be activated depends on the situation. When the stimulus is highly emotional, for example, someone sees a snake by their leg during a walk in the woods, the brain will take a low path and tell you to jump back to save yourself as quickly as possible. The body will execute the command completely automatically. On the other hand, if there is more time to think, one can allow themselves to process the information using the high path.

Subliminal messages in art

A subliminal message is a type of stimulus influencing so briefly that the brain will not be able to consciously detect it. So it is the information that is processed by the low path. Research shows that in this way unconscious emotions can be evoked in the audience (Murphy & Zajonc, 1993). If a person is shown a photograph of a smiling face for a very short time (ie. just 4 milliseconds) just before the one-second exposure of a neutral stimulus (e.g. A Chinese ideogram), that stimulus is more liked than the same one, preceded by nothing or an angry face. Interestingly, this phenomenon does not occur if the preceding stimulus is exposed long enough to be observed.

The latter result is particularly important for the conversation about subliminal messages in art. It turns out that the emotional response in the brain varies depending on whether the person processes the stimulus consciously or unconsciously. Artworks are created to evoke emotions. Sometimes it’s a reverie, sometimes it’s a shock, but it’s best when the impressions are strong enough to stimulate reflection or at least for a moment to attract the viewer’s attention. Where there are strong emotions, the low information processing pathway will also be triggered more often. Especially in dynamic art, such as music or film, which, unlike static works (photography or paintings), leaves no time for reflection. The experiment with subliminal messages proved that unconscious stimuli can also affect emotions, and sometimes in a way that is completely different from the stimuli that a person is aware of.

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In the whole discussion, it is important to remember what was mentioned at the beginning – artists usually create on the basis of their own experiences. This means that they will put messages in the works that are consistent with their beliefs and how they see the world. What impact can this have on the viewer? It will certainly arouse emotions in them, often unavailable to their consciousness. And if they are so, it will be difficult to correct them by reason. There lies the danger, but also the confirmation that it is very difficult to separate the artist from their work.