In their book, The Art of Possibility, Rosamund and Benjamin Zander say that humans "perceive only the sensations that we are programmed to receive." That statement makes me wonder if different individuals perceive different things. Its been proven that cats, dogs, and other animals see differently than humans, and according to the Zanders, its because they see what they need to see to survive. But what about humans? Does one human see things differently than another human?
After reading just the first few paragraphs of the first chapter and thinking about the statement above, I was reminded of the movie Mallrats. There's a particular scene where Willem (played by Ethan Suplee) has been staring at a MagicEye 3-D poster for hours trying to see a sailboat, while everyone around him glances at the same poster for a few seconds and sees the boat with no problems. Willem gets aggravated with everyone because they can see the sailboat and he can't.
So why couldn't Willem see the sailboat? Was he not programmed to see it or was he just not "relaxing his eyes" like the other characters advised him to do?
**I apologize for the quality of the video posted. The video I wanted to post does not allow embeds, so I couldn't embed it into this post. It can be viewed here, however.
It is interesting to me that you made that observation. My instinct was to think of the eye diagrams of how you see like the ones in a science book that flip the image two or three times. I would say that humans do perceive things differently. I like to take a lot of photos but I generally will notice the lines and/or texture of an image before I'll see the people or the whole scene. I think it is based on programming, some environmental and some natural. One assignment in a photography class was to take a roll of film on textures, another on shadows, and another on reflections. While some students really struggled to see them at the beginning, by the end of it they were good at it. We did the same thing with portraits. I struggled greatly with them. The teacher worked with me and eventually I was able to do it but it took work. Like I already said, some of it is environmental (being taught how) and some of it is natural (born with the ability).
ReplyDeleteI've never seen the movie Mallrats, but I can total sympathize with Willem. I have never been able to see those MagicEye 3-D pictures or poster. Everyone made be feel like there was something wrong with me, because I couldn't/can't see them. I think it has something to do with my astigmatism.
ReplyDeleteAs I'm pondering your comments, I tried to think back to when I first discovered that not everyone thinks like I do. I think that it is part of our growing process. When we are young, we are the center of our universe. As we grow and gain years of knowledge, we learn or discover that there are other people who deserve attention to and we begin to empathize with them and help them. And still yet, as we grow older, we discover the more we help 'others' the better 'our' world seems. I guess you could say, I'm still discovering daily that other see things differently than I do. I find students today, really see things differently, therefore, so must I. I need to 'see' differently, but I must also 'respond' differently.
@ Rebecca
ReplyDeleteGreat video clip! I believe that life becomes routine for us. While we should strive to get out of the norm, I believe that we'll most likely get right back into it. Our perceptions work in mysterious ways. I teach Spanish. This year I had the pleasure of teaching a Spanish 4 class. Currently, the fourth quarter consists of famous hispanic artists. WOW! Their perceptions seem to change drastically and of course they are not different species. A critic once commented that Picasso's art was not realistic, rather it was limited and two dimensional. It lacked realistic features so he proceeded to take a picture of his wife from his pocket. Picasso looked at the man and said, she looks rather small and flat to me.
I apologize if I was not directly on with this story about Picasso, but it truly opens your eyes to different perceptions.
Becky,
ReplyDeleteI think that different individuals perceive things differently and that is just one part that makes us individual. I think that the more familiar that you become with something, the greater detailed your perception becomes. I believe that some humans see things differently than other humans do, partially based upon experience/learning and partially based upon innate ability/talent. I also think that different learners react differently to different teachers so the ability of a teacher to “teach” also influences the ability of a person to see different things. I think that sometimes you see things that you are more familiar with more clearly and with greater definition. Unfortunately, though, sometimes familiarity clouds your perceptions because you see what you think is happening and not what is truly occurring.
Tia Foster
http://web.me.com/auntsissy00/MediaAssetCreationBlog/
Becky,
ReplyDeleteI never thought to question whether humans would have different perceptions. The idea that the man’s brain wasn’t hardwired to ‘relax his eyes’ to view the sailboat illustrates how frustrating it is when you continue to measure yourself against the success or failure of others.
Loretta Burkley
http://web.me.com/lburkley/site_5/welcome.html
@Becky
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post. The book's reference to the frog's viewpoint was really eye-opening (pun intended). I, too, have been one of those people who had trouble 'seeing' the hidden pictures. One lesson we can learn is that some people who can easily 'see' often don't understand those that find 'seeing' difficult. This reminds me of teachers who are extremely good at a subject and do not have patience for those who, to them, see like frogs.
Diane Frymire
http://mediaassetcreation.blogspot.com/
I hate those 3D posters and have never seen the images... 'course I have pretty bad eyesight. But the point is well taken. Thanks I just spent the last 30 minutes watching Kevin Smith clips on YouTube.
ReplyDelete