The Artists Guide to Perception

Catalog description

Perception is vital to our daily lives and our interactions with the world. While we perceive the world in a fraction of a second, our perception is not a copy of the world, rather it is an interpretation of the world. Current research in Psychology and Neuroscience aims to uncover the mechanisms that give rise to our percepts. Strikingly, artists have often attained deep insights to perceptual principles even before scientists, sometimes even centuries earlier. Interestingly, not only do artists provide interesting perspectives to elucidating perception, but they are able to implement these insights in their artwork. This course will illuminate mechanisms of visual perception gleaned from the artists' perspectives based on original artwork from the vast collections presented in the museums of Paris. In other words, students will study the artworks that demonstrate perceptual insights, and understand the underlying mechanisms based on present neuroscience and psychological knowledge.