Josefina SantosThesis I

Prof. Jane Pirone

THESIS DOCUMENTATION

INTRODUCTIONAt the beginning stages of concepting and researching themes for my thesis I was finding it very difficult to decide upon one subject that encompassed everything that I wanted to explore during this one year project. I started examining three very broad topics: Evolution, Ways of Thinking and the Sci-ence of Visual Perception. After a couple of weeks of arduous research on subjects comprised around these three topics, followed by a lot of synthe-sizing, The Science of Visual Perception came to be the one theme that en-closed all of my interests. What mainly interested me with subject was our relationship as humans and designers with Perception.

As I go deeper into my research, I’m examining how Experience, Perception and Illusion influence the way we interpret the world and the elements that surround us.

MIND MAPPING AND BRAINSTORMING

MIND MAPS

DEFINITIONS There are several important ongoing terms across my thesis that are con-stantly intertwining and affecting each other. To avoid confusion I have de-fined all of the terms to provide some clarity.

PERCEPTIONConscious sensory stimulation. The act of understanding by the means of the senses.

INTERPRETATIONThe act of processing and give meaning to things.

COGNITIVEThe process of obtaining knowledge through thought, experience, and the senses. From Latin “to consider” — it means to think deeply on… knowing or apprehending by the understanding of something.

STIMULUSAn agent, action or condition that incites action or a response. An incentive.

SENSITIVITYThe ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli.

ATTENTIONThe cognitive process of selectively focusing on sensations of interest. There-fore causing these sensations to be better processed than other stimuli.

ILLUSIONAn illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally orga-nizes and interprets sensory stimulation.

EXPECTATIONAn expectation, which is a belief that is centered on the future, may or may not be realistic. In the case of uncertainty, expectation is what is considered the most likely to happen.

SURPRISE Action or condition that was not expected or planned.

EXPERIENCEThe observing, encountering, or undergoing of things generally as they occur in the course of time.

SENSATIONSThe passive process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and to the brain.

CONCEPT STATEMENT My Thesis belongs to the larger systems of Cognitive Perception and Self Experience. Throughout the research of disciplines such as Psychophysics, Phenomenology and Gestalt Psychology especially its Principles of Visual Perception, I intend to understand how we process, make sense, and react to the influx stimuli that we intake.

Understanding the inner workings of human perception through the effect of illusion and the previously stated disciplines, will provide me with the necessary tools to engage my audience in a hyper-sensitized experience.

The effect of going through a hyper-sensitized experience will cause the audience to wake up from the unconscious numbness their senses are dai-ly subjected to. Therefore, resulting in an awakening of the senses and a heightened self awareness of your place in space.

ISSUE & GOAL

We are currently living in a world of overload and overstimulating. The universe is constantly emitting influx stimuli at us that we have become numb to most of our sensory experiences.

The effect of undergoing through a hyper-sensitized experience, in which you’re engaging all your senses in a intense manner, leads to a complete sensory awakening and a heightened self awareness of your surroundings.

PHENOMENOLOGY - PSYCHOPHYSICS - GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY

SENSATIONS

PERCEPTIONS

SELECTIVE ATTENTION

PERCEPTUAL EXPECTANCY

Relationship between Phenomenology, Psychophysics and The Gestalt Psychology

The way these three disciplines work together is :

Sensation occurs - sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment - sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain.

Perception Follows - the brain organizes the information and trans-lates it into something meaningful - But what does “meaningful” mean? Since the world is constantly throwing stimuli we input, the brain has to select what stimuli it wants to focus on and give importance to.It does this through:Selective Attention - Process of discriminating between what is impor-tant and irrelevant, influenced by motivation. Perceptual Expectancy - How we perceive the world is a function of our past experiences, culture and biological makeup. In a world that is overloaded with visual information, our brains rely on previous experi-ence to take shortcuts and make assumptions. These assumptions are not always correct.

SENSATIONS

PERCEPTIONS

SELECTIVE ATTENTION

PERCEPTUAL EXPECTANCY

PSYCHOPHYSICS

All of the previously stated is Psychophysics - The study of how physical stimuli are translated into a psychological experience. In other worth relationship between physical stimuli (detectable change in the internal or external environment) and the effect they have on our sensations and perception.

SENSATIONS

PERCEPTIONS

SELECTIVE ATTENTION

PERCEPTUAL EXPECTANCY

PSYCHOPHYSICS

PHENOMENOLOGY

Encompassing Psychophysics comes Phenomenology - the study of the way we experience things, and the meaning of the things we experience.

SENSATIONS

PERCEPTIONS

SELECTIVE ATTENTION

PERCEPTUAL EXPECTANCY

PSYCHOPHYSICS

PHENOMENOLOGY

GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF

VISUAL PERCEPTION

Lastly Gestalt Psychology’s theory of mind examines the way we respond to all the input stimuli that we are given and it organiz-es it into form-generating information. Particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of collec-tion of simple lines and curves. “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Gestalt Psychology refers to Theories of Visual Perception to describe how we organize visual elements into unifies wholes when certain principles are applied. These principles are :

1. Figure and Ground2. Simplicity / Pragnaz / Good Form3. Proximity4. Similarity5. Continuity6. Common Fate7. Closure

METHODOLOGY

IN-DEPTH RESEARCH

INTERACTIVE EXPERIMENTS

Further in-depth research on the previously mentioned disciplines, Phenomenology, Psychophysics, Gestalt Principles of Visual Percep-tion, plus Cognitive and Perceptual Psychology and Illusionists.

I also plan to engage in a series of interactive experiments, misdi-rections and tricks to demonstrate how our brains create the illusion of a seamless reality through our memory, sensory perceptions and selective attention.

Through the results of some of these experiments I intend to find out how the anatomy of the eye influences what we see, how we make decisions, how experiences affect perception, how these per-ceptions then influence our state of mind and how we process both real and false memories, amongst many other.

GRAPHIC/COMMUNICATION DESIGNERS

PEOPLE WITH INTENSE DAILY ROUTINES

EVERYONE

ADVERTISERS

FINE ARTISTS

SELECTED AUDIENCES OF THESE 3 FIELDS

AUDIENCE

RESEARCH

DISCIPLINES AND FIELDS

PHENOMENOLOGYPSYCHOPHYSICSGESTALT THEORYCOGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYPERCEPTUAL PSYCHOLOGY

PEOPLE

ROBERT IRWINJAMES TURELL OLAFUR ELIASSON

CHRISTIAN VON EHRENFELS

RUDOLF ARNHEIM

BOOKS

ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH

PRECEDENTS & INSPIRATION

UNITED VISUAL ARTISTS

JEAN EUGENE ROBERT-HOUDIN

DAVID COPPERFIELD

SARAH KABOT

ROBERT LAZZARINI

DANIEL ROZIN

RUFUS BUTLER SEDER

DEBORAH SPERBER

MARY TEMPLE

5X5 EXPERIMENTS5 EXPERIMENTS DONE IN THE COURSE OF 5 DAYS, 1 EXPERIMENT PER DAY

As I previously mentioned in my Methodology, as part of my re-search I plan to engage in a series of interactive experiments to basically demonstrate how our brains and our senses can be manip-ulated through memory, stimulation and attention.

These first five experiments are just quick view of more to come. Through these experiments I wanted to find out how the anatomy of the eye influences what we see, how we make decisions, how ex-periences affect perception, and how these perceptions then influ-ence our state of mind.

THE HERMANN GRID

MY TSHEIS WILLSOHW YOU HOWPRECPEITON, IULOISN AND ERIPECXENE CAN MPLAIUTNAE THE HMAUN MNID.

SELECTIVE AWARENESS TEST

LENTICULAR

TYPOGRAPHY DISTORTION