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  • Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

  • BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.

  • And I’m Sam.

  • Would you say youre artistic, Sam?

  • Can you draw or paint?

  • Do you dance or play music?

  • I play the piano a bit. Yes, I’d say I’m

  • quite artistic. How about you, Neil?

  • Well, if you count playing football as artistic

  • then yes, but basically no – I can’t paint.

  • Weve been wondering why artistic ability

  • comes more naturally to some people than others,

  • so in this programme well be asking:

  • are artistsbrains different?

  • Well hear two expert opinions, and as usual,

  • well learn some useful new vocabulary as well.

  • So, what do you think, Neil? Are artistsbrains

  • different from other people’s?

  • I’m not sure, Sam, but it’s true that many

  • artists behave differently, often in very

  • strange ways. For example, did you know

  • that Michelangelo worked so hard he never

  • took a bath! Or that guitar legend, Jimi Hendrix,

  • once set fire to his guitar on stage!

  • Well hear more about the artist’s brain soon,

  • but first I have a question for you. As you said,

  • artistic ability comes naturally to some people,

  • including the famous composer,

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart was

  • considered a child prodigy - a young child with

  • very great musical talent. So, how old was

  • Mozart when he composed his first

  • piece of music? Was he: a) five years old?

  • b) ten years old? or, c) fifteen years old?

  • I’ll guess he was a) five years old.

  • OK, Sam. I’ll reveal the answer later in the

  • programme. If artistsbrains are different,

  • it could mean they see the world in unusual ways.

  • Dr Rebecca Chamberlain is a researcher in

  • the neuroscience of art. She investigates how

  • artists see the objects they  are drawing by measuring 

  • saccadesthe rapid movements our eyes make

  • as they jump from one thing to another. Here she

  • shares her findings with BBC

  • World Service programme, CrowdScience.

  • Artists seem to be processing the visual world

  • in a different way to non-artists, particularly

  • when theyre drawing. The artist actually takes

  • a more global approach to lookingso they

  • make bigger saccades, bigger eye movements,

  • and shorter fixations on  the image. So, it’s almost

  • like theyre getting much more of a kind of

  • gist level view of the thing theyre looking at.

  • Rebecca’s experiments seem to confirm that

  • artistsbrains work differently because of their

  • processing of the visual worldthe way

  • their brains make sense of information.

  • Interestingly, processing also means the act

  • of developing pictures from photographic film.

  • When they draw, artists make bigger, quicker

  • eye movements so they are able to see the

  • whole picture, something also known as

  • the gistthe overall, general impression of

  • something without focussing on the details.

  • If youget the gistof what someone is saying,

  • you understand the overall meaning of what

  • they say, but not the details.

  • The second expert to answer our question

  • about the artistic brain is Mike, a BBC World

  • Service listener from Malawi. Mike is

  • a self-taught painter who creates large,

  • colourful pictures in his studio.

  • According to him, artistic ability isn’t something

  • youre born with - it can  be learned, as he explained

  • to BBC World Service’s, CrowdScience.

  • I had this other studenthe was really

  • at the zero, like, he could not drawat all.

  • So, I gave him some tips, and in a month,

  • he was really goodhe was like really surprised,

  • blown away, he never expected it.

  • So, there are some things that are trainable,

  • it’s like a bike. In my case, I learned how to do

  • those things without anyone telling me,

  • you know like, if you are drawing the face,

  • the human face, the distance between your eyes

  • is the same as one of your eyes.

  • Mike gives tips to his studentshelpful

  • pieces of advice about how to do something,

  • in this case, to paint. After getting Mike’s

  • tips, one of his students really improved and

  • started painting much better. Mike was

  • blown awayan informal way to say very

  • impressed or surprised.

  • Like learning to ride a bike, Mike thinks that

  • painting is trainable – a word from American

  • English meaning that it can be taught

  • or trained. For him, this is proof that

  • artistsbrains are not so different after all.

  • So, there we have ittwo different options,

  • but no final answer to our question.

  • Still, some scientists think there may be

  • third possibility: everyone’s brain works

  • by focussing on some areas and ignoring others,

  • making a kind of jigsaw puzzle with

  • missing pieces. Maybe all of usyou, me,

  • Mozart and Jimi Hendrix - are just filling in

  • the missing pieces our own way.

  • Speaking of Mozart, Neil, it’s time to reveal

  • the answer to your question.

  • Right. I asked how old child prodigy Mozart

  • was when he first composed music.

  • I said he was five years oldso, was I right?

  • Your answer was correct! Mozart was five

  • when first wrote music, and by the age of six

  • he had performed in front of the

  • Emperor of Austriatwice!

  • Now there’s an artistic brain!

  • OK, Neil, let’s recap the vocabulary from

  • this programme, starting with child prodigy -

  • a young child, like Mozart, with

  • a great talent in something.

  • Processing describes how your brain

  • makes sense of the information it receives.

  • The gist of something is a general

  • understanding of it, without the details.

  • Tips are useful pieces of advice about

  • how to do something better.

  • If you are blown away, you are very

  • impressed or surprised by something.

  • And finally, trainable means able to be

  • trained or taught, in American English.

  • Once again, our six minutes are up.

  • It’s goodbye for now!

  • Goodbye!

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