Week 3 LectureGoal: Understanding visual theories;

introduction to photographyJ7510: Visual Communication with Liz Lance

Sensory vs. Perceptual Theories

• Sensory theories – How the brain responds to light– Visual cues– What does the viewer sense?

• Perceptual theories– How the mind considers cues– Making meaning– What does the viewer perceive?

Sensory Theories: Gestalt

The whole is different from the sum of its parts.

Sensory Theories: Gestalt

Similarity• Objects that look similar will be grouped

together by the brain.

Gestalt: Similarity

Gestalt: Similarity

Gestalt: Similarity

August 29, 2011. An eco-conscious designer gives final instructions for building a environmentally friendly version of Ganesh, the Hindu god of prosperity, in Hyderabad, India. The idol is made mostly of paper cups, which will pose less of an ecological hazard when, as tradition dictates, the decorated model is submerged in the river after the celebration. (Noah Seelam—AFP/Getty Images)

Gestalt: Similarity

August 28, 2011. A girl combs her hair before performing a traditional reed dance in Ludzidzini, Swaziland. Thousands of virginal girls from around the country go there with cut reeds to present to the Queen Mother in an annual eight-day ceremony. (Siphiwe Sibeko—Reuters)

Gestalt: Similarity

September 1, 2011. A worker standing on inflated rubber tubes collects water chestnuts from the banks of river Yamuna in New Delhi. Water chestnut are locally known as "Singada" and are eaten raw, boiled or are grounded into flour after they are dried. (Parivartan Sharma—Reuters)

Sensory Theories: Gestalt

Proximity• The brain more closely associates objects that

are close to one another than it does objects that are farther apart.

Gestalt: Proximity

Gestalt: Proximity

Gestalt: Proximity

Gestalt: Proximity

August 25, 2011. Police are pelted with paint thrown by demonstrators near the presidential palace in Santiago, Chile. A two-day strike that began as a student protest for free education mushroomed into a larger movement for reforms to labor laws and pensions and increases in corporate taxes to fund health and education. (Victor R. Caivano—AP)

Gestalt: Proximity

August 30, 2011. Somali children play with toy guns and weapons in Mogadishu at the start of the three-day Eid al-Fitr feast. Eid-al-Fitr celebrations mark the end of the fasting Muslim month of Ramadan. (Abdurashid Abikar—AFP/Getty Images)

Sensory Theories: Gestalt

Continuation and Closure• The brain seeks to provide smooth

continuation or closure of a perceived movement.

• The brain will see objects on a line as connected, and anything not on that line as disconnected.

Gestalt: Continuation

Gestalt: Continuation

August 30, 2011. Thousands of Muslims gather in Tahrir Square in Cairo to pray and mark ’Id al-Fitr, the end of fasting during Ramadan. The ’Id was the first since revolutionaries demonstrating in the square deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February and triggered similar protests against dictators throughout the Arab world. (Khaled Desouki—AFP/Getty Images)

Gestalt: Continuation

August 31, 2011. The shadow of a museum employee falls onto a Union Flag recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center in New York following the 2001 attacks, at the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, northern England. The flag will form part of an exhibition marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and will start on September 10, running for two years. (Nigel Roddis—Reuters)

Gestalt: Closure

Sensory Theories: Gestalt

Common Fate• The brain groups items together because of

the direction they appear to be going. That is, they appear to have a common fate.

Gestalt: Common Fate

August 28, 2011. A U.S. F-15 fighter fires flares after striking Taliban insurgents in Kunar province in Afghanistan. After Taliban forces shot down a helicopter, killing 30 American soldiers, August became the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war in Afghanistan began a decade ago. (Nikola Solic—Reuters)

Gestalt: Common Fate

August 30, 2011. National Guard Blackhawk helicopters equipped with Bambi buckets drop water on the marsh fire in New Orleans East. (Times-Picayune /Landov)

Gestalt: Common Fate

August 31, 2011. Burning Man participant Karen Wennberg of Sante Fe, New Mexico, pauses after writing a personal message on "The Temple of Transition" during the Burning Man 2011 "Rites of Passage" arts and music festival in the Black Rock desert of Nevada. More than 50,000 people from all over the world have gathered at the 25th edition of the sold-out festival. (Jim Bourg—Reuters)