Seeing and understanding 22nd September

 Seeing and understanding 22nd September

Understanding and seeing are two very different things. In art you have to be careful when describing a work and choose your words carefully. The brain can be very easily manipulated into seeing something that isn't there. This has to be in the back of your mind when you're viewing artworks and describing them. You should always say what you actually see and not want you think you see.

Artists deal in the art of illusion and manipulation. An artist can take a piece of paper and with a few carefully placed marks, trick the mind into making an image or scene appear. That is what art is, strategically placed lines on a page to represent an object or concept the artist wants the viewer to see or feel. Some of the tools used to do this include perspective, measurement and composition. These tools give artists the ability to create the appearance of a three dimensional world. For example, linear and aerial perspective both help create the illusion of depth and space. Linear perspective deals with the organisation of shapes in space. Things further away appear smaller. Overlapping shapes also gives a feeling of depth. Aerial perspective is about the atmospheric effects on tones and colours as shapes get further away. An object appears duller and less clear the further it is from the viewer. Shadows and shading also add to a feeling of distance and space.

An artist can manipulate the viewer's brain into believing they are seeing a three dimensional thing, and not a two dimensional piece of paper. To achieve this, each mark by the artist is important.

Manipulating the mind can be an easy if you understand the way the mind works. As we have evolved, our brains have given us some wonderful advantages, one of which is called space perception and the need to make sense of the world and what we see. This is the ability to see things where there isn't anything. If given very little information the brain searches our memory to find answers and fill in the gaps so we can understand what we are looking at. The mind very cleverly fills in empty spaces with what we think should be there. However, as we are all unique and our brains work in very different ways, one person will sometimes see something different to another, even if they are looking at the same image.

A good example of this is the "young women - old women" optical puzzle

When I first saw this image, the only thing I could see was a picture of a young women looking away from me. I couldn't see the old women looking down until it was pointed out. This image demonstrates that if a group of people are shown the same image, they might not see the same thing. There are two images in the same picture, but the brain lets you only see one at a time. The brain chooses which one because otherwise it is dealing with too much information.

Understanding and mastering the various techniques of creating illusions enables an artist to make artworks that not only manipulate a viewer's mind, but also makes them wonder how it was done. One artist who is a master of optical trickery is M.C. Escher. He created irregular perspectives that looked as if they were three dimensional, but could only exist a two dimensional world. Escher's understanding of illusion and manipulation gave him the ability to create these wonderful artworks depicting an impossible reality. This serves to remind us that an artist works on a two dimensional surface and rules of a normal real world don't have to apply.

Leonardo da Vinci is quoted as saying, "The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding." Seeing isn't understanding because you can be easily tricked by what you think you see. Understanding comes from thinking clearly and seeing the true meaning of things. This is done with an open mind, study, knowledge and practice. Seeing and understanding develops insight and once you understand something, you can begin to see how it works, the rules it follows, and can create your own illusions.