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Table 2 Information compression and the Arts.

From: Musical beauty and information compression: Complex to the ear but simple to the mind?

REGULARITY (COMPRESSIBILITY)

MUSIC

VISUAL ARTS

POETRY

EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

HIGHLY REGULAR (trivial compression)

Repeated notes, simple ascending scales

Simple geometric shapes

Limericks, nursery rhymes (anapaestic tetrameter)*

Indifference, boredom (irritation?)

EDGE OF REGULARITY (challenging compression)

Beethoven (Classical)

Picasso (Classicism, Surrealism, Cubism)

Shakespeare (Iambic pentameter)

Pleasure

EDGE OF CHAOS (very challenging compression)

Duke Ellington (Jazz)

Jackson Pollack (Abstract expressionism)

Robert Louis Stevenson (Free verse)

Pleasure

CHAOTIC (impossible compression)

Noise

Random splashes of paint

Random letter/word generator

Indifference, boredom (irritation?)

  1. The most appealing Artistic patterns are in between order and chaos, with those that are challenging but highly compressible including Beethoven's music. * Limericks and nursery rhymes arguably sit closer to the "edge of regularity" than "highly regular", but were positioned here to discriminate them from more sophisticated literary art.