Good morning!
Is it really Monday? Seriously?
Actually, in Taiwan, where my father-in-law lives, Monday's almost over, so I guess time has no meaning.
That's actually what's on my mind today.
Perception, meaning, and time.
One of the most wildly fascinating things to me is how the human brain can interpret meaning from any number of visual stimuli, for instance:
-A sequence of images can appear to be in motion when layered over top of each other and played one by one. That's how video game characters all used to be made!
Video game sprite.
-If you show someone a single image with areas of highly contrasting color, it can appear to be in motion. (I'm not going to put an example because those things give me a headache, but here're some examples.)
-Additionally, if you show the abstracted face of a human, and the viewer will fill the details in with themselves or someone they know.
Thus, what in reality is no more than a bunch of straight and wavy lines in motion registers as a person playing ping-pong with a squirrel.
Honestly, I've been thinking about this for days...reading articles and such...and the best I can come up with for WHY this happens is the below:
-Human brains are absolutely ASTOUNDING at pattern recognition.
-We are BUILT to see patterns, meaning and stories in anything and everything.
-We are but 4-dimensional beings, and thus, we can be "tricked" by simple manipulations of our sensory organs.
Knowing we as creatives are skilled in all the ways that a person's senses can be led to reveal a story, entertain, maybe show a greater truth...it's such a gift, and a responsibility.
We are truly all magicians.
Well, I have to go for now.
Take care,
Cathy
P.S. My order of books came early! If you already ordered one, I'll send them out shortly. If you want to grab a copy, I will sell two more of this particular run.
