'The eye and brain are not like a fax machine, nor are there little people looking at the images coming in’
– Torsten Wiesel
– Torsten Wiesel
Our brain is an artist that paints the reality that surrounds us. It converts energy into colour: links distances, movement and form to create reality in 3D; interprets visual stimuli and compares them to memories and sometimes, it makes mistakes.
You don't see with your eyes, you perceive with your mind. We have all read or heard before “seeing is believing”. Typically, we think of it and apply it in the context of people requiring to see something in order to believe that is not false. I personally agreed the suggestion of different concept ‘seeing is perceiving'.
Now the question is what is perception and why is it different from seeing?
Seeing is perceiving and what is perceived is reality. I also agreed that we cannot change other’s minds, but you can change their perception. Perception can be positive or negative, depends on how a person perceives. The negative perceptions at sometimes include interpretation that are not what you intend.
Seeing is also a very complex higher-order brain function, and a huge percentage of our brains is needed for doing nothing other than recognize what is in front of us.
From my understanding, perception is the interpretation of visual stimuli. Intuitionists state that perception can only happen if we have a concept of reality. Perception is not just the passive recording of sensory stimuli.
These stimuli include the irregularities between the retinal images due to the different positions of the eyes known as disparity, perspective distortions of the object and shadows
What we perceive really relies essentially on unconscious cognitive conclusion. It is rather an active mental reconstruction of the real world that surrounds us.
Some idea is part of common sense, that does not mean it is true. It was once common sense that the Earth stands still while the Sun and stars revolve around it. In fact, the Earth does not stand still.
A great philosopher René Descartes once said '...were I perchance to look out my window and observe men crossing the square, I would ordinarily say I see the men themselves just as I say I see the wax. But what do I see aside from hats and clothes, which could conceal automata? Yet I judge them to be men. Thus what I thought I had seen with my eyes, I actually grasped solely with the faculty of judgment, which is my mind.'
The conclusion that he sees people outside his window must be something that his mind adds to the sensory information, not something that his eyes give him directly. Which I agreed with , this mean that one perceives with one’s mind, not one’s eyes.
 |
| René Descartes |
Lack of experience may cause one to misinterpret what he has sensed. In other words, perceiving represents our comprehension of an existing situation in terms of our previous experiences.
 |
Immanuel Kant |
Therefore I agreed to this statement, seeing is not the same as perceiving. The process of seeing is indeed determined by our biological properties.
Perception cannot be unconscious and it is planned, which shows us how images are developed and why they affect us so.
References :
- D. Darby and T. Shelby (eds) Hip Hop and Philosophy, with a preface by Cornel West (Open Court, 2005): 27-37
- Smith K, Moriarty, Barbatsis G, Kenny K (2005) Handbook of Visual Communication: Theory, Methods and Media
- Jamieson, H. The perceptual connection. Visual Communication: more than meets the eye. Bristol: Intellect Books. (2007) p14-27
- http://www.kyb.mpg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/files/publications/pdfs/pdf3050.pdf
- http://people.virginia.edu/~msg6m/MGreenonhiphop.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment