The familiar and the novel....and the tension between the two

Steve Genco writes a genuinely insightful blog post "One of the unsolved mysteries of the brain is why it is attracted to both the familiar and the novel, and how these two predispositions duke it out in bringing objects to our conscious attention.  On the one hand, we find the familiar comforting, and often ascribe positive emotional valence to objects just because we have seen them before.  On the other hand, we are attracted to novelty and originality, precisely because it is not familiar.  Aesthetics, I think, is about this attraction to the novel and original, and neuroaesthetics is about what happens in our brains when this attention and attraction occur."

I totally agree, I believe making work that touches the familiar is a powerful way to use visual language to reach out and grab someone.