Talk at Edinburgh Printmakers 24th September, 2015
The Mind's Eye
How is visual imagery encoded in the brain? Dr Rita Carter explains the unlikely processes which result in conscious
perception of the world around us, and shows how our view is distorted
by expectation, edited on a need-to-know basis and valued as beautiful
or ugly according to the physical state of our bodies.
What follows is a brief and sketchy account of Rita's talk.two weeks ago. Anyone wishes to find out more could read her books.
All our knowledge has a physiological basis in the brain, and seeing is an active and unconscious construction. Language evolved to replace the intuitive process, but the subject/object relationship conceals an underlying homogeneity. Every individual perceives differently (contrary to what we might assume), and language is too crude to describe this complex experience. There is also a variation between species.
Rita Carter explained that there are pathways and zones in the brain which interpret visual data in different ways - "where"(zonal) , "what"(verbal) and "who (friend or foe)" (emotive). The paths travel to different parts of the brain and then meet again at the front and come into consciousness.
"Bottom up" activity involves the hand and mind and the emotions, whereas "top down" activity is concerned with learned behaviour and expectations. Learning actually affects the way you perceive. There is a relationship between these two modes of activity.
The "aha" moment of discovery and realisation has been shown to have a physical basis. So, when I feel that a drawing or painting is complete, it may be because I have found a balance between the two kinds of activity - and moved into a new way of seeing, just a little. The "aha" reflex can be learned and developed as well, according to Carter.
She also mentioned an autistic child who drew exquisitely from life from an early age precisely because her conceptual development was different, maybe underdeveloped.
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