Visual Indeterminacy Art and NonDualistic Perception

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Visual Indeterminacy Art and Non-Dualistic
Perception

• Robert Pepperell PhD
• Cardiff School of Art Design
• UK

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Meditation
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Meditation
Semantic satiation Prolonged periods of visual
fixation or repetition decrease the perceived
meaning of a stimulus (Kanungo and Lambert, The
American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 76, No. 3.
pp. 421-428)
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Visual Agnosia
John's drawings, from Humphreys and Riddoch, To
See But Not to See A Case Study of Visual
Agnosia (1987). Visual agnosia "The patient is
unable to recognize common objects by sight, even
though the visual fields are perfectly intact and
even though the ability to recognize the same
objects using other senses (such as hearing or
touch) might be intact." (Nolte 1999)
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Visual Agnosia
In general, his case supports the view that
'perceptual' and 'recognition' processes are
separable, because his stored knowledge required
for recognition is in tact". (Humphreys and
Riddoch, p. 104)
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Visual Indeterminacy
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Visual Indeterminacy
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The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919)
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Visual Indeterminacy
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Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump (1768)
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Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump (1768)
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J M W Turner (1775-1851)
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...so much was left to be imagined that it was
like looking into a coal fire, or upon an Old
Wall, where from many varying and undefined forms
the fancy was to be employed in conceiving
things.
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Claude Monet (1840-1926)
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Claude Monet (1840-1926)
wished he had been born blind and then suddenly
gained his sight so that he could have begun to
paint in this way without knowing what the
objects were that he saw before him."
(quoted in Karmel, 2003)
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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
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Still life with glass and lemon (1910)
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Gerhard Richter (1932-)
After Titians Annunciation, 1973
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Gerhard Richter (1932-)
After Titians Annunciation, 1973
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Odilon Redon (1840-1916)
"The title that occasionally identifies my
drawings can be superfluous. It is justified only
when it is vague, indeterminate, and even
equivocal. My drawings inspire and cannot be
defined. They do not determine anything. They
place us as music does in the world of the
ambiguous and the indeterminate. Odilon Redon,
"Confessions d'artiste", Soi-même. Journal
(1867-1915) in Henri Dorra, Symbolist Art
Theories, 1995
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Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Objects don't exist for me except in so far as a
rapport exists between them, and between them and
myself. When one attains this harmony, one
reaches a sort of intellectual non-existence
what I can only describe as a state of peace
which makes everything possible and right. Life
then becomes a perpetual revelation. in
Georges Braque An American Tribute, Edited by
John Richardson,1964.
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Nirvikalpa indeterminate perception
the immediate apprehension of the mere form of
an objectan undifferentiated and non-relational
mode of consciousness, devoid of assimilation and
discrimination, analysis and synthesis Sinha,
1934
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Visually indeterminate perception, being devoid
of distinct objects, brings us closer to a
non-dualistic experience of reality in which
sensory perception is (temporarily) detached from
cognition.
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Visually indeterminate perception, being devoid
of distinct objects, brings us closer to a
non-dualistic experience of reality in which
sensory perception is (temporarily) detached from
cognition.
Here, the conceptual boundaries we impose on the
world dissolve and we are left with an experience
of potential objects.
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Visually indeterminate perception, being devoid
of distinct objects, brings us closer to a
non-dualistic experience of reality in which
sensory perception is (temporarily) detached from
cognition.
Here, the conceptual boundaries we impose on the
world dissolve and we are left with an experience
of potential objects.
Potential images...make the beholder aware
 either painfully or enjoyably  of the active,
subjective nature of seeing Gamboni, 2003
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Paralysis. Oil on panel, 2005. 27 x 33 cm
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Succulus. Oil on panel, 2005. 123 x 123 cm
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Fragrance. Oil on canvas, 2005. 30 x 40 cm
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Charged. Oil on panel, 2005. 56 x 80 cm
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Impulse. Oil on canvas, 2006. 80 x 70 cm
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Congrulation. Oil on canvas, 2005. 101 x 111 cm
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Paradox. Oil on canvas, 2005. 50 x 60 cm
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Open day. Oil on canvas, 2005. 40 x 50 cm
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Drip Painting 1. Oil on panel, 2008. 50 x 75 cm
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To be and knot to be. Oil on panel, 2008. 123 x
123 cm
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Scientific research
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Behavioural study
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Summary ? Subjects perceived recognizable
objects in 24 of the RP paintings. ? Response
latencies were significantly longer for
indeterminate than representational
paintings. ? The aesthetic affect rating of ALL
paintings was similar. ? Response latencies for
judgment of aesthetic affect were significantly
longer in RP paintings. ? Increased object
recognition latencies in RP images are correlated
with higher aesthetic affect. Ishai, A.,
Fairhall, S. Pepperell, R. (2007) Perception,
memory and aesthetics of indeterminate art. Brain
Research Bulletin, Volume 73, Issues 4-6, pp.
319-324.
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Follow up fMRI study
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Our findings indicate that this seemingly
effortless process occurs not only with familiar
objects, but also with indeterminate stimuli that
do not contain real objects. It therefore seems
that the primate brain is a compulsory object
viewer, namely automatically segments
indeterminate visual input into coherent images.
Fairhall, S. L., Ishai, A., Neural correlates
of object indeterminacy in art compositions,
Consciousness and Cognition 17, 923-932. (2007)
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Psychophysical study
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Wallraven, C., Kaulard, K., Kürner, C.,
Pepperell, R and Bülthoff, H. (2007).
Psychophysics for perception of (in)determinate
art. APGV 2007. New York, NY ACM Press, pp.
115-122.
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Summary
The apparently native distinctions that exist in
the world arise through the activity of the
perceptual system.
The world itself knows no boundaries or objects
reality is boundless or nondualistic.
Consciousness studies To understand the
processes by which the body and brain create a
fragmented, dualistic experience from a boundless
reality.
Studying those brief moments when this dualistic
experience is interrupted, such as in visual
indeterminacy, may offer important clues.