Vision and reality: relativity in art

Hawes, Robin (2009) Vision and reality: relativity in art. Digital Creativity, 20 (3). pp. 177-186. ISSN 1462-6268

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Abstract / Summary

A collaboration between an artist and a neuroscientist to examine the processes providing sensory data to the brain and to explore the internally constructive and idiosyncratic aspects of visual perception. The physiology of the retina provides inconsistent information across our field of view, the project set out to reveal the disparity between the visual information gathered by our eyes and the conscious picture of ‘reality’ formed in our minds. Each time someone contemplates a work of art, the work is physiologically ‘re-constructed’ by the viewer. This project set out, in part at least, to make ‘visible’ this hitherto internal, idiosyncratic, unique and unshared neurological event., The paper maps the psychological, neurological and philosophical basis for the research, and presents images produced by the project. The project constituted a number of practical experiments with participants eye-tracked whilst viewing various visual stimuli. The final stages of the project involved creating a specific art for viewing. The outputs included six new original artworks (produced by the eye-tracking patterns of the participants) and animations of the creative process in the form of digital films and flicker books. A commercial publication of the project was also produced. The research was disseminated via public exhibition, a conference paper and a peer-reviewed journal publication.

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