Title : Art is a record of selective attention
link : Art is a record of selective attention
Art is a record of selective attention
 |
| Painting in Rawlins, Wyoming Watch the video on YouTube |
This way of looking at drawing or painting is based on the "filtering" or "gating" models of perception that have arisen in neurobiology in recent years. You might think of it as a modern way of expressing Emile Zola's 1866 idea that "art is a corner of nature seen through a temperament."
Sensory gating theory proposes that we screen out the majority of information that surrounds us at any given time. The classic case is a cocktail party, where you focus on the conversation, while your brain discards the bulk of other sensory information. That other information is mere noise that might otherwise distract you from the signal.
Sensory gating theory proposes that we screen out the majority of information that surrounds us at any given time. The classic case is a cocktail party, where you focus on the conversation, while your brain discards the bulk of other sensory information. That other information is mere noise that might otherwise distract you from the signal.
Another famous example of perceptual gating is the "Gorilla Experiment." In this demonstration, the observer is asked to count the number of times a ball is passed back and forth. While you concentrate on that task, other things happen that you might not even notice.
In our normal daily life this gating is achieved for the most part automatically. But attention can be distributed consciously and selectively, especially with practice. As artists, we learn to control the perceptual filters that we use, and we deploy them at will. Essentially, this is exactly what we're trained to do whenever we paint or draw.
For example, at the beginning of making a picture, we gate our perception to notice only the perspective, the proportions, the relative measurements, and the slopes of the lines. During these early stages, we ignore such things as colors or edges or textures. As the painting progresses, we shift our attention to notice other aspects of the scene, shifting back and forth between noticing big shapes and small details. A classic beginner's mistake is to paint the eyelashes or buttons at the very start.
In the midst of this process of shifting attention, we also enlist other parts of our brain. We may have some personal connection to the subject. We might be looking for what pose is characteristic, or something might strike us as funny about it. Or the subject might impress us as scary or unsettling. Consciously or not, those emotions will drive choices of what elements we allow to pass through the filter, and what elements get filtered out.
Whether the results are highly realistic or subjective and distorted, they strike viewers as "artistic" because we recognize and identify with the very human filters that the art has passed through. Art enrolls us in kinship with each other because it allows us to pass through the doors of perception from one human soul to another.
In our normal daily life this gating is achieved for the most part automatically. But attention can be distributed consciously and selectively, especially with practice. As artists, we learn to control the perceptual filters that we use, and we deploy them at will. Essentially, this is exactly what we're trained to do whenever we paint or draw.
For example, at the beginning of making a picture, we gate our perception to notice only the perspective, the proportions, the relative measurements, and the slopes of the lines. During these early stages, we ignore such things as colors or edges or textures. As the painting progresses, we shift our attention to notice other aspects of the scene, shifting back and forth between noticing big shapes and small details. A classic beginner's mistake is to paint the eyelashes or buttons at the very start.
In the midst of this process of shifting attention, we also enlist other parts of our brain. We may have some personal connection to the subject. We might be looking for what pose is characteristic, or something might strike us as funny about it. Or the subject might impress us as scary or unsettling. Consciously or not, those emotions will drive choices of what elements we allow to pass through the filter, and what elements get filtered out.
Whether the results are highly realistic or subjective and distorted, they strike viewers as "artistic" because we recognize and identify with the very human filters that the art has passed through. Art enrolls us in kinship with each other because it allows us to pass through the doors of perception from one human soul to another.
Thus Article Art is a record of selective attention
That's an article Art is a record of selective attention This time, hopefully can give benefits to all of you. well, see you in posting other articles.
You are now reading the article Art is a record of selective attention with the link address https://idealbodys.blogspot.com/2018/10/art-is-record-of-selective-attention.html
0 Response to "Art is a record of selective attention"
Post a Comment