Human faces don’t normally belong on clouds or slices of toast. Potatoes are not seals. And peppers don’t usually look like they need a little hug. But the human mind has a tendency to perceive something as significant or meaningful, even if what we actually see or hear is vague or ambiguous. And looking at […]

The International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) of Johns Hopkins University recently teamed up with Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions (CNHP) on an innovative new study of the therapeutic potential of virtual reality. Led by Girija Kaimal, EdD, assistant professor in CNHP’s Creative Arts Therapies Department, and Susan Magsamen, executive director […]

IAM Lab recently launched a new section of its website dedicated to Impact Thinking, our translational research approach to enhance human potential in health, wellbeing and learning through the arts. Impact Thinking is an eight-step model designed to build open-source knowledge and a pipeline of arts + mind research focused on solving real-world problems. By […]

Everything is aesthetic. The environments in which we live and work, the sounds we hear, sights we see, and smells we encounter are the pathways through which we experience the world around us. And aesthetics is so much more than enjoying beautiful things. The uniquely human response to aesthetics constantly influences our mental and emotional […]