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Optical Illusions & Visual Bias
Optical Illusions & Visual Bias
Welcome to Semester 2 - You are going to explore a range of mark-making practices (i.e. calligraphy/experimental drawing), as well as explore concepts of visual/cultural bias and how artists engage with these ideas.
You will begin the unit with some small experiments and tasks involving Mark-making. These tasks will provide you with the context to apply mark-making, calligraphy and ink painting with innovative conceptual practice, as well as the opportunity to deeply engage with a contemporary artist who interrogates traditions and challenges their audiences to understand art in new ways.
You will need to document these experiments in your VAD and submit them as part of your Artmaking Assessment Task. Follow your teachers instructions - telling you which activities you need to submit and how to submit your VAD in class or digitally on the Google Classroom.
What do you see? Watch the video:
What do you see? Watch the video:
Experiments in perception:
Experiments in perception:
“What do we see here, is it a duck or a rabbit? It is our preexisting assumptions, our theories, our prevailing worldview that disambiguate what’s supplied by the senses.”
- Michael Strevens, The Knowledge Machine
“Reality” is constructed by your brain.
“Reality” is constructed by your brain.
What do you see on the left? A young woman looking over her shoulder? Or a close up of an older woman's face?
The stories our brain tells are influenced by life experience
The stories our brain tells are influenced by life experience
Look at the illusion below. You can observe your own brain, in real time, change its guess about the shade of the moving square. Keep in mind that the physical shade of the square is not changing. You might look at this illusion and feel like your brain is broken. It is not. It just reveals that our perception isn’t absolute.
The squares at the top left & right are the same shade of grey.
The squares at the top left & right are the same shade of grey.
These lines are actually straight & parallel
These lines are actually straight & parallel
This is not moving
This is not moving
"When we look at something, the brain uses visual cues –sensory signals that convey information – to help work out what that thing is. This means that our perception of the world is not a simple reflection of sensory information, it is an interpretation of it."
"a person’s culture or brain changes can result in subjective differences in perception"
Visual & Cultural Bias
Visual & Cultural Bias
Critical & Creative Thinking about Cultural Bias
Critical & Creative Thinking about Cultural Bias
What is bias? What are some different kinds of bias?
Get into your assigned pairs - Partner 1 is to open Google Classroom and open up the assigned slideshow. Add both of your names to the slides. You will then work through it together - you are only allowed to whisper!
Your teacher may wish to have everyone go through it at the same time so they can guide you through.
Here is a completely different example of a singer/songwriter exploring the same concept of language/cultural bias.
Here is a completely different example of a singer/songwriter exploring the same concept of language/cultural bias.
"Prisencolinensinainciusol", 1972
"Prisencolinensinainciusol", 1972
Prisencolinensinainciusol is a song composed by the Italian singer Adriano Celentano. It was released as a single in 1972. Both the name of the song and its lyrics are gibberish but are intended to sound like English in an American Accent.
The song is intended to sound to its Italian audience as if it is sung in English spoken with an American accent, however the lyrics are deliberately unintelligible gibberish with the exception of the words "all right". Andrew Khan, writing in The Guardian, describes the sound as reminiscent of Bob Dylan's output from the 1980s.
Celentano's intention with the song was not to create a humorous novelty song but to explore communication barriers. The intent was to demonstrate how English sounds to people who don't understand the language proficiently.
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