Arts and Humanities

Abstract: Nigeria's 2023 Presidential Election represented the country's most technologically ambitious electoral exercise, with the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to enhance voter accreditation, transparency, and public confidence. Yet the election revealed a fundamental contradiction: technologies introduced to strengthen electoral integrity became, in practice, sources of suspicion and contestation. Existing scholarship has largely examined electoral technologies and AI-driven disinformation as separate phenomena, leaving insufficient attention to how their interaction shapes perceptions of electoral integrity. This study addresses that gap by examining the paradoxical relationship between Artificial Intelligence, digital technologies, and electoral integrity in Nigeria, using the 2023 Presidential Election as a case study. Guided by the Cyber-Elections framework and employing a qualitative content analysis, the study analyses official reports, judicial decisions, election observer reports, fact-checking evidence, and relevant academic literature. The findings reveal two interrelated paradoxes. First, the infrastructural paradox demonstrates that although BVAS significantly improved voter accreditation, IReV's failure to upload presidential election results in real time, together with inconsistent official explanations for the failure, weakened public confidence in the results collation process. Second, the informational paradox shows that the same digital platforms that expanded civic participation also enabled AI-generated deepfakes, coordinated disinformation, and misinformation, creating competing narratives among state institutions, political actors, and citizens regarding the credibility of the election. The paper argues that electoral integrity in the digital era depends not only on technological innovation but also on the interaction between infrastructural reliability, institutional transparency, effective communication, political trust, and digital literacy. It concludes with five policy recommendations aimed at strengthening electoral technology, legal and regulatory frameworks, institutional communication, digital literacy, and independent oversight to enhance the credibility of future elections in Nigeria.

Abstract: Studies of AI-generated visual art use value to describe aesthetic ratings, price judgments and acquisition decisions. A synthesis based on these labels alone can combine responses with different meanings. This structured methodological review examines the instruments behind those labels in 12 selected empirical reports from 2018–2026. Targeted searches, reference checking and examination of public methods, supplements and a codebook yielded 25 study units and 46 outcome-family records. Classification distinguished question content, response format and financial consequences, with separate records for source attribution and the object evaluated. Seven study units included economic wording answered without currency; five elicited sale-price judgments, five personal monetary willingness to pay, four purchase intentions or relative buying preferences, and two consequential auction bids. Categories overlap, including within mixed composites. Close reading identified scaled payment questions, a selling-price prediction described as willingness to pay, and an aesthetic-value composite containing economic items. Both auction samples came from one report. The contribution is a classification linked to source passages and a set of reporting fields that preserve these distinctions. For synthesis, a change in rated worth, a recommended or predicted selling price and a consequential bid should be interpreted as different outcomes. For new experiments, the question, response unit and acquisition rule need to be specified together.

Abstract: This article examines the development of muralism on the island of Tenerife between 1850 and 1950, focusing on its main manifestations, artists, iconographic characteristics, techniques, and conservation conditions. The study analyses the transition of religious painting from the nineteenth century, when it was primarily devotional in character, to the gradual incorporation of mural painting into civic and institutional spaces during the first half of the twentieth century. Through the study of representative works, the contributions of artists such as Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre, Mariano de Cossío, and José Aguiar are assessed, while the technical transition from dry painting on lime-based mortars to techniques such as encaustic painting and marouflage is documented. The material characteristics of the artworks and the influence of Tenerife's climatic conditions on their deterioration and conservation processes are also considered. In conclusion, the study highlights the close relationship between muralism, architecture, and territorial identity, emphasizing the urgent need to develop preventive conservation strategies adapted to the microclimatic conditions of the buildings.

Abstract: The convergence of generative artificial intelligence and brain-computer interface technology is pushing artificial dreaming from science fiction into the scope of academic inquiry. Existing research has focused primarily on technical implementation pathways and sensory fidelity goals; while fragmented ethical and risk warnings exist, there remains a lack of systematic assessment of the physiological costs that artificial dreaming imposes on core sleep functions, a scarcity of theoretical refinement grounded in the dream system's own generative rules and aesthetic nature, and an absence of clear demarcation between different application paradigms. Taking a complete REM sleep–awakening boundary consciousness experience as its phenomenological point of departure, this paper draws on sleep neuroscience and neuroaesthetics to develop a theoretical inference that distills four layers of constraint in the human dream system: the visual bias of PGO wave conduction pathways, the functional auditory suppression of thalamic gating's "external-open, internal-closed" strategy, the emotional safety threshold of the auditory–amygdala short pathway, and the gating leakage effect during sleep-boundary transitions. On this basis, the paper assesses the impact of three levels of intervention—mild, moderate, and severe—on sleep restoration functions across four dimensions: neural repair, memory consolidation, emotional regulation, and somatic recovery, clarifying the upper limits of dream vividness corresponding to different intervention intensities. The study further proposes that artificial dreaming diverges into two paradigms: artistic dreaming and ludic dreaming. The former is an advanced form of AI art's transition from "exogenous generation" to "endogenous generation"—its core is not full-sensory realistic replication, but the continuous dynamic alignment of generated content with the subject's experience while protecting sleep's physiological functions. The latter targets open-world immersive experience, demanding higher intervention intensity and technical capability, and carrying higher health risks. The paper accordingly proposes the aesthetic concept of "dreamness," infers the design constraints of two layered technical pathways—non-invasive and invasive—and introduces the perspective of "consciousness ecology," arguing for four boundaries: neural safety, aesthetic value, sleep health, and ethical norms. It concludes that the "right of offline consciousness" should constitute the ultimate limit that artificial dreaming must never transgress. It should be noted that this paper is a cross-disciplinary theoretical construction; the relevant judgments regarding intervention effects and risks are hypothetical conclusions, and the cultural-symbolic and deep psychological dimensions of dreams are not yet covered.

Abstract: The uncontested preeminence of the golden ratio (ϕ) has come to occupy a central role in aesthetics and graphic design due to its uncanny appeal to the human eye. This ratio represents an irrational number and has been called the divine proportion for its uncanny presence and applications in the natural world. Hence, this paper critically reevaluates the status of the golden ratio as the secret to innate design and composition. Academic literature has a bifurcation that either supports or suppresses the golden ratio, and studies several of its features and effects in abstract isolation. This paper discusses various arguments to reveal the true nature of the divine proportion. The findings contribute to comprehending parallel proportions like 1:1 and 1:√2 as effective substitutes, creating unexplored and unconsidered avenues for cultural coherence and formulating an aligned brand identity. To resolve the chasm between standardisation and localisation of corporations, this article proposes a modular arrangement of multi-media assets that cater to a wide-ranging audience. This paper also portrays a blueprint to coalesce developments in artificial intelligence and generative technologies, and the golden ratio, into precise logo creation and global brand management. This integrative literature review has sought to validate or pierce the praised reputation of the divine ratio in the figurative blueprint for extralimital design. The future of global brand management relies entirely on extracting an equilibrium between a recognisable market face and user-tailored purposeful design, and treating context-specific malleability as the roadmap to an eclectic audience.

Abstract: Public art does not enter public life as an autonomous object in a neutral setting; it is a relational encounter embedded in urban life. Its meanings are co-produced through the political, spatial, and visual organisation of the city. Drawing on theories of socially produced space, visual culture, spectacle and aesthetic governmentality, this paper examines a few contemporary Indian public-art situations where curated visual narratives coexist with informality, congestion, contested histories, and intensely lived public realms. The cases are the India Gate–Kartavya Path precinct in New Delhi, the Statue of Unity in the Narmada Valley, the Kempegowda statue at Bengaluru’s international airport, and Kolkata’s Durga Puja pandals. These are embedded within projects of nation-building, infrastructure development, city branding, heritage production and ritual expression. The cases reveal distinct modes of visual-spatial production: reinscription, as political narratives are rewritten through inherited monumental landscapes; territorialisation, as monumentality extends into infrastructure and development; translation, as regional memory is reformulated through metropolitan aspiration; and distributed production, where aesthetic production cannot be attributed to a single institutional author. In state-backed cases, public art may function as an aesthetic instrument through which the postcolonial state stages preferred narratives of development, identity, and aspiration; these are subsequently reframed through interactions with informality, ritual, memory, and everyday use.. This paper develops the concept of the visual-spatial field to examine how public art is read through relations among co-present signs and practices. The paper consequently positions urban design as an active mediator in the politics of public art: through decisions about location, access, visibility, and surrounding development, they structure the conditions of encounter without determining their outcome. The paper distinguishes power over meaning from power over the conditions under which meaning is produced, arguing that co-production should not be confused with equal capacity.

Abstract: This study analyzes the evolution of chair design in the Argentine Republic as a sequence of paradigmatic transformations analogous to those described by Thomas S. Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Through a qualitative hermeneutic approach, it examines three emblematic cases — the matera chair, the B.K.F. chair, and the Aro chair — all situated within the American Liberal Social Order, but corresponding to three successive aesthetics: non-modern (proto-rationalist), modern (neo-rationalist), and postmodern (eclecticist).The analysis draws on the categories proposed by Jordi Llovet, who critically adapted Jean Baudrillard's semiological concepts to the field of industrial design. Llovet's four constitutive values of the designed object — functional, aesthetic, symbolic, and economic — are expanded here with a fifth, emergent value: socio-environmental use-value, integrating ecological sustainability, social justice, and the revaluation of local knowledge.The findings show that the matera chair exemplifies a phase of Kuhnian normal science (artisanal), in which the functional, aesthetic, and symbolic values appear unified. The B.K.F. chair, by contrast, embodies a Kuhnian paradigmatic revolution (industrial), characterized by the fragmentation of these values and the hegemony of exchange-value. Finally, the Aro chair illustrates a new crisis of the Kuhnian paradigm (industrial) and the gestation of a hybrid-sustainable paradigm (semi-industrial, semi-artisanal), in which the values are critically and ethically reintegrated.The study confirms that the everyday object — in this case, the chair — functions as a material document of historical revolutions, in which worldviews, modes of production, and social relations are contested.

Abstract: Nameless is a practice-based project at the meeting of art, physics, and philosophy, built from one question: what is the simplest thing that can exist, and what does it hold? Its starting point is the smallest unit of quantum information, a single qubit whose states form a sphere. The project follows that sphere as it rings, into its vibration patterns, its linked circles of symmetry, and a chain of further structure that physics already knows, all fixed by two assumptions with nothing left to adjust. We treat this physics as material for art rather than a truth we defend, rendering it as a slowly turning sphere of light, a vibrating cavity, and a voice that answers from inside the framework. Every step is marked as proven, matched, or assumed, and that honesty is treated as part of the art. The accompanying philosophy reads the world as one distinction observing itself, so that beauty becomes the transparency of the perceiver. Because the work was made with a large language model that also speaks within it, it asks how authorship is shared between people and machines, and proposes that science, the contemplative traditions, and art circle one recognition by three roads.

Abstract: This critical narrative review and theoretical framework explains the conditional role of music in learning by shifting the focus from whether music directly improves academic achievement to how it regulates learning readiness. Learning readiness refers to the proximal psychological–neural conditions surrounding entry into a specific learning task, including emotional stability, attentional accessibility, motivational activation, cognitive-load fit, and interpersonal safety. Drawing on research on musical emotion, the reward system, cognitive load, learning engagement, and classroom interaction, the review proposes a path model linking musical features, emotion–reward–cognition mechanisms, learning readiness, and learning processes or outcomes. Music is more likely to facilitate low-load tasks, emotion-startup tasks, and collaborative-expression tasks, whereas it may interfere with tasks involving high language load or high executive-control demands. Educational applications should therefore be designed around the task, the learner’s state, individual differences, and the classroom context.

Abstract: Currently AI-generated works in music, literature, painting, and film have drawn widespread attention, yet assessments of its capabilities remain largely at the empirical level. This paper proposes an analytical framework based on neuroaesthetics, distinguishing the essence of artistic creation into two levels: "Alignment" (statistical fitting) and "Evocation" (fragmentation and reorganization). Based on this distinction, it establishes the " Ring Scale" to quantify aesthetic intensity. Within this framework, the paper analyzes the neural foundations of the auditory, visual, and literary pathways and their integrative effects in multimodal comprehensive art (film and television), explains the deeper reasons why AI has achieved breakthroughs first in the auditory domain, and points out that the current core capability boundary of AI lies in the fact that "alignment has reached its extreme, while evocation still faces hierarchical obstacles." On this basis, the paperproposes three levels of strategic shifts—from replacing humans to complementing humans, from exhaustive imagery to probing fragments, and from pursuing ring counts to pursuing fission—and establishes imagination as the core productive force in human-AI collaboration. The paper anchors the key to theoretical implementation in "Prompt Engineering," arguing that its essence is the process by which human creators translate imagination into AI-executable instructions, and proposes three core strategies: physiological arousal description, multimodal simulation prompts, and strategic blank-leaving. This paper also explores the potential positive value of AI's "hallucination" property at the evocation level. Finally, this paper systematically compiles the testable hypotheses proposed throughout the study, designs corresponding validation approaches, and calls for empirical research.

Abstract: A 16th-century gilded and polychrome limestone relief depicting the Annunciation, attributed to the workshop of the Persio family and tentatively associated with Aurelio Persio, belongs to the main altarpiece of the Cathedral of Madonna della Bruna and Sant’Eustachio in Matera (Italy). The artwork showed a highly compromised preservation state, with two superimposed decorative phases, extensive loss of legibility and compact deposits masking the original gilding and polychromy. A multi-analytical diagnostic campaign (UV fluorescence, FTIR, SEM–EDS, PY-GC/MS and GC-MS) revealed casein-based preparations, oleoresinous binding media (linseed oil, colophony, lanolin), organic lakes, lead white and smalt. The presence of highly hygroscopic preparatory layers and fragile gilding made traditional solvent cleaning risky. A combined approach was therefore developed, integrating controlled solvent pre-conditioning, local consolidation with 2% acrylic dispersion K52 in hydroalcoholic solution, and laser cleaning using a Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) in Q-switched mode. Damage and ablation thresholds were experimentally determined for gold leaf, oleoresinous missions and white preparations. The most effective and selective results were obtained with low-energy Q-switched laser irradiation, assisted by ligroin or hydroalcoholic pre-moistening through Japanese paper. The method allowed the safe removal of concreted deposits and the recovery of the original brilliance of the gold leaf and chromatic nuances of both decorative phases, demonstrating the potential of integrated laser–solvent treatments for complex gilded polychrome stone surfaces.

Abstract: This paper explores the role of visual art beyond the realm of individual artists, emphasizing its impact on community development, collective identity, and social engagement. As a universal language, art transcends personal expression, becoming a powerful tool for shaping perspectives, fostering connections, and addressing shared societal concerns. When integrated into public spaces, visual art transforms environments, giving communities a voice and a means to reflect their values, histories, and aspirations. Murals, sculptures, installations, and performance art serve as more than creative expressions—they act as catalysts for awareness, inclusion, and change. By engaging with local narratives and cultural identities, these artistic interventions empower people to participate in shaping their surroundings. This paper examines case studies in India where art has moved beyond the individual artist and become a collaborative force in social, economic, and cultural development. Furthermore, it highlights future possibilities for research into emerging trends, interdisciplinary approaches, and innovative applications of visual art as a dynamic and participatory practice.

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This study uses Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) forecasting models and regression analysis to explore the impact of three government funding mechanisms on financial sustainability in Singapore’s arts and heritage sector. Based on data obtained from the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) for FY (FY refers to “Financial Year”, which is generally from 1 April to 31st March of the following year) 2022-2024, we modelled three funding scenarios: direct organisational grants (Scenario A), citizen-directed cultural vouchers (Scenario B), and a hybrid model combining both approaches (Scenario C). The results showed that while direct funding provides the most significant immediate capacity increase, a hybrid model provides a better balance between organisational stability and demand, thereby offering a more sustainable pathway for sector development. Our study makes a methodological contribution by illustrating the application of ARIMA forecasting to cultural policy evaluation, and compared the outcome of supply-side and demand-side interventions in the cultural sector.

Abstract: This paper examines the pedagogical and material implications of wax carving in vocational jewellery education through arts practice-led research incorporating arts-based inquiry. The finger ring operates as both material object and conceptual lens, enabling an exploration of sustainability, temporality, and meaning in craft practice. Industry-standard synthetic carving wax—primarily composed of polyethylene—perpetuates environmentally and bodily harmful material cultures when taught as normative technique. Drawing upon six months of studio experimentation, drawing, and reflective practice, Author 1 interrogated what are considered as “ordinary” material use in her practice as a jeweller and jewellery teacher, with Author 2 who is also an artist/educator/researcher working with metals and sustainable practices. Natural alternatives, including beeswax-resin blends and cheese were explored for alternative mould-making. These experiments generated idiosyncratic cast outcomes and expanded creative and pedagogical possibilities. The inquiry reveals a dynamic interrelationship between making, drawing, and teaching, positioning the educator of crafts and metal art as an alchemic mediator who transforms material practice and knowledge transmission. The paper argues for jewellery and sculpture pedagogy that is rooted in practices, fosters material curiosity, ecological responsibility, and reflective engagement, aligning vocational craft and art education with broader sustainability imperatives.

Abstract: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming creative practice, particularly within the conceptual design process, by augmenting human creativity and enhancing design productivity. Despite widespread adoption, fundamental questions persist about how GenAI influences design cognition, collaboration, and, critically, human agency. This paper synthesizes findings from a systematic literature review of GenAI's role in conceptual design with original empirical evidence drawn from two qualitative studies (Study 1, n = 6; Study 2, n = 7) exploring how individuals experience creative agency during co-creative tasks involving AI-generated images and text. Using think-aloud protocols and semi-structured post-task interviews, we identify four central dimensions of creative agency in human-AI collaboration: creative self-efficacy, control over creative action, autonomy in the creative process, and ownership of the creative product. We further identify self-regulatory and metacognitive mechanisms—including progressive refinement, selective appropriation, and counter-inspiration—that users employ to sustain agency when navigating unpredictable AI outputs. Building on these findings and anchored in the Co-Creative Framework for Interaction Design, we propose the Generative AI Enhanced Conceptual Design (GAECD) Framework, which delineates roles, responsibilities, and interaction modes for effective human-AI co-creation. This paper contributes both a critical evaluation of the current state of GenAI-human collaboration and a practical roadmap for designers, developers, and researchers seeking to harness GenAI's full potential while preserving meaningful human creative agency.

Abstract: This study uses a process -based technical approach combining X-ray radiography, visible and raking-light examination, and cross-modal image comparison to assess the construction logic of a Cubist-period painting associated with Pablo Picasso. Across the X-ray dataset, the painting shows orientation-dependent structural coherence, hierarchically organized planning seams with mechanically sensible terminations, and a multistage base-layer construction that remains interpretable under polarity inversion and rotation. Visible and raking-light images reveal physically incised inscriptions names, places, and numerals with later paint settling into grooves and, in some areas, bridging over them, establishing a clear sequence in which inscriptions precede over-painting. Reduced color and polarity-inversion checks confirm that these features are carried by luminance and surface relief rather than color artifacts. Together, these converging lines of evidence demonstrate a multi-campaign, orientation-aware con-struction process consistent with documented working methods from Picasso’s rele-vant period and difficult to replicate by superficial imitation.

Abstract: Pareidolia is usually framed as a viewer-side illusion, a tendency to perceive meaningful forms, especially faces, in ambiguous inputs. This Concept Paper argues that pareidolia can also be deliberately engineered and therefore provides a tractable entry point into the neurophysiology of visual creativity. We propose a unifying construct in which pareidolia functions as externally scaffolded mental imagery. Minimal visual constraints trigger a completion process that shares functional features with imagery, including reliance on internally generated templates and top-down inference, while remaining anchored to sensory input. This perspective connects mental imagery, visual perception, artistic cognition, and creativity within a single mechanistic narrative. Using Arcimboldo’s composite portraits and Dürer’s embedded face in View of the Arco Valley as complementary case studies, we outline how artists may transform an internally simulated pareidolic template into a stable perceptual outcome in the viewer, anticipating attention, viewing conditions, and individual differences. We then propose an operational bridge to creativity research by linking pareidolia design to constructs classically measured by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and we formulate testable predictions for behavioral and neuroimaging paradigms. Finally, we discuss cultural motivations for pareidolic techniques, including virtuoso “challenges” between artists and the possibility of layered or contestatory messages embedded through cryptic symbolism, and we highlight clinical resonance in neurodegenerative disorders where pareidolia can be quantified and is clinically meaningful.

Abstract: This work presents the first in-depth investigation of Theodor Aman’s paintings that focuses on three of his heritage artworks: „Hora de peste Olt” (1866), „Teleleice in Harem” (1879), and „Regimul vechi” (1881), and that relies on both elemental and spectroscopic analytical techniques. Non-destructive Raman spectroscopy was employed on all three works of art to identify the pigments used by the Romanian master. In addition, micro-samples were available from "Hora de peste Olt" and "Teleleice in Harem", which were further analyzed using XRD, micro-Raman, ATR-FTIR, and SEM-EDS techniques to provide complementary information on the pigments. SEM-EDS was also applied to study the structure of the preparation layers. The analyses revealed significant differences between the artworks in terms of both the pigments employed and the preparation of the canvas, suggesting that the earlier artwork belongs to one creative phase, while the newer pieces can be attributed to a later phase in the artist’s career.

Abstract: This study is part of the FAIST research project - Agile, Intelligent, Sustainable and Technological Factory, coordinated by the Footwear Technology Centre of Portugal (CTCP), which aims to develop an innovative production process through the creation of a sustainable footwear model fully adapted to the user’s foot anatomy and personalized according to individual aesthetic preferences. Within this context, the need emerged to design an online platform with an interface capable of effectively addressing user needs throughout all stages of the personalization process, from three-dimensional (3D) foot scanning to the aesthetic personalization of the model, while ensuring an efficient, intuitive, and pleasant navigation experience. Thus, this work aims to demonstrate how the design process of a footwear personalization platform, across its different phases, can contribute to the revitalization of the Portuguese footwear industry, as well as to describe its effectiveness, with the goal of being potentially adapted and implemented in similar contexts. The adopted methodology was based on the principles of Design Thinking, an approach centered on user needs. The development of the platform involved the creation of personas, the definition of the information architecture, the development of wireframes and workflows, and the execution of usability tests using the System Usability Scale (SUS). The results demonstrate a high success rate, validating the proposed solution with users and confirming the suitability of the applied methodologies.

Abstract: This paper proposes a new theoretical framework to understand the failure of the NFT market (2021-2023) through a synthesis of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of The Field of Cultural Production [1] and the theological concept of apostolic succession. The central thesis of this argument is that the collapse of NFT value is not merely a phenomenon of a bursting financial bubble, but a manifestation of a more funda- mental institutional failure—namely, the inability to create a chain of legitimacy required for the transubstantiation of digital objects into valuable works of art. NFTs attempted a ”Protestant Reformation” of the hierarchical structure of the art world (by decentralizing the authority of curators, galleries, and muse- ums) without first building an alternative mechanism to produce collective belief. Without a traceable chain of legitimacy—conceptualized in this paper as apostolic succession—value fails to undergo ontological transformation and remains lifeless digital data, despite technological claims of blockchain-verified artificial scarcity. Through a comparative analysis between consecration mechanisms in tradi- tional art institutions (”The White Cube Church”) and legitimacy practices in the NFT ecosystem (”The Digital Heresy”), this paper demonstrates that cryp- tographic technology, however sophisticated, cannot replace the sociological and temporal infrastructure required to maintain symbolic value [7]. The concept of ontological debt—the collector’s psychological debt to historical narratives—is introduced as a key variable explaining the behavioral differences between traditional art collectors and NFT speculators.