In our science in past years there has been substantial debate about two different approaches to stimuli and response. That of the dose of the stimulus or that of the senstivity and quantum of the receptors. In essence the latter has a greater impact in control of response.
What does dose mean? We don't know whether there are thresholds of dose - it is hard to conceptualise that in the end because stimuli once enacted have a continuous range of concentration - whether it be chemical or physical (e.g. aroma or sound). However, strength of stimuli seems important when we consider colour, sound, aroma - even in colour - why does a hard strong red have a different impact from a soft pink? Richard will tell you that we differ in our aroma perception according to the genes that we have for specific receptors - so we can come to an understanding about levels of perception when we talk about specific receptors. We seem a long way from understanding similar levels of complexity with sound and visual stimulation. What makes me want to leave a concert hall (yes I am old-fashioned....) if the music is too percussive? - even Beethoven can be that.
Much of the dicussion has been around multisensory perception. This is interesting from our perspective since the connectivity that we have been talking about doesnt occur at the front end of sensory perception, but at the processing end in the brain. The same occurs in all organisms, whether they are neuronal or not - plant hormones interact - but only downstream once genes have been turned on - the connectivity is more at the level of genes from one pathway promoting activity in another. Its probably the same with our senses.
There is also another level of complexity. You talk about multisenses as though they are equal, but they are not. Aroma preception has another component which is psychological - that of association - we all associate smells with exeriences - often way back into childhood. This is less strong with the other senses. Does it make smell more powerful? Is the synaesthetic mix of colour and sound based on experience or purely genetic? So I have a problem with multisensing - there must be hierarchies and orders of power which differ for each of us. It creates a compelling richness in our response, but consolidates for me the question that came up early in the discussion - we all differ so greatly in response, so how can we communicate that properly. I always remember years ago at a talk given in Auckland by the social philosopher Ivan Illich ( I am child of the sixties) when a woman in the audience attacked him for his male-centric approach and they argued themselves to a standstill where each admitted that they could simply no longer communicate - seems odd re that subject these days - but basically, there must be levels where we simply can't communicate becasue of the intimacy of our preceptions and their associations.
There are a couple of things that Richard and I talked about over a scotch the other night
1. This dicusssion doesn't have a linear trajectory - in science we tend to work somewhat directionally - circularity might be initially interesting but in the end only raises issues and doesnt take us onwards - do you folk think 'onwards'?.
2. We see science contributing to the artistic world. Is the opposite happening?
Ian
________________________________
From: yasmin_discussions-bounces@estia.media.uoa.gr on behalf of nina czegledy
Sent: Sat 13/03/2010 7:52 a.m.
To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS
Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] M.S.P. and Concentricity
Dear Yasminers,
Concerning tactility, I would like to evoke the Touch/Touche, Canadian
touring exhibition, I curated ten years ago, with a particular focus on
Thecla Schiphorst's Bodymaps: artifacts of touch.
http://www.oboro.net/archive/exhib9899/touch.html
By her own admission, Schiphorst, confronts our notions
of navigation, questions our interpretation of interactivity and subverts the
visual/objective relationship between the object
and the eye by creating a fresh,
sensual awareness between the participant and technology.
Quoting from my introduction to the exhibition brochure:
The invitation to touch is a bold proposition.
Touching implies intimacy - a controversial
notion in an age when direct contact is
increasingly replaced by remote control. Only our
eyes are encouraged to investigate, to explore in
our visually privileged culture -our hands are
supposed to be off limits. The dictionary
definition of the verb touch, includes "to hit,
wound, injure, mark, play" and "to affect with
emotion". These terms evoke physical familiarity
and insinuate sensuality, eroticism, brutality -
taboos in the so called "developed" societies
where emotions are hidden behind euphemisms.
nina
>Hello Everyone,
>
>Thanks for inviting me to the list.
>
>I'd like to introduce myself:
>
>My name is Travis Kirton, over the past year
>I've been working as a researcher for the Banff
>New Media Institute, at the Banff Centre. Prior
>to this I was an Interaction Designer, focusing
>on production, development and information /
>interaction architectures for the Ars
>Electronica Futurelab. I have studied
>Interactive Arts at SFU (Vancouver, Canada), and
>am continuing studies in the Interface Culture
>program under Christa Sommerer and Laurent
>Mignonneau. At the moment, I'm currently
>participating as an artist in the Liminal Screen
>residency at the Banff New Media Institute.
>
>I am trying to blend my research and artistic
>practice in a way that allows me to publish and
>exhibit in both contexts, where the production
>of an artwork may result in the development of
>software or technical concepts and vice versa.
>The subject of my media art/research focuses on
>surface interaction, the combination of touch
>and object interaction, and the concepts I
>question in my work look at the invisible
>paradigms of long-established technologies so
>rooted in our perception that we often take for
>granted.
>
>The article that Nina recently posted is very
>interesting for me in that the work looks at
>cognition from a multi-sensory perspective where
>sight and touch combine to produce awareness of
>objects - the results of which provide
>implications towards the perception of one's
>environment.
>
>With regard to my own work, I am interested in
>the visual-haptic for a few reasons:
>- with multitouch interfaces there's an
>incredible space for exploration simply in the
>perception of fingertips, and dexterity, as
>input devices and the perception of more
>personalized involvement with digital media
>- similarly, the perception of unique objects as
>interfaces has received a lot of attention (i.e.
>tangible user interfaces) and so the shifting
>identity of objects between tools and
>representations plays an important role as well
>
>When considered together, the relationship
>between objects and fingertips opens up an
>incredibly new dimension for interactivity that
>can be expressed itself as an artwork or even be
>the vehicle through which new artforms can be
>created.
>
>I am currently looking at typography while
>exploring the perception of the screen as
>object-touch interfaces and the shifting
>perceptions of what is now possible.
>In the past I've explored interfaces for gaming,
>where the touch-object relationship breaks down
>the paradigms of turn-based play, interaction,
>and object identity.
>
>Hope all is well with everyone, and I look forward to more on this disucssion.
>
>Cheers,
>T
>
>www.postfl.com
>
>On 2010-03-08, at 8:57 PM, nina czegledy wrote:
>
>>
>> Hello Jol, Hello All,
>>
>> thanks for posting re the fascinating transcendental
>> cybernetiics aspect of complex systems including
>> multisensory perceptions. Hoping to hear more from you.
>>
>> On sensory perceptions, I found the experiments conducted at the
>> Max Planck Institute for Biological
>>Cybernetics and published under the title:
>> The Process of Perception: A Sensory Puzzle, absorbing.
>>
>> Abstract: Our brain combines different sources of sensory information
>> in the process of perception. There is the possibility that the
>> individual sensory components from which the perception was
>> originally composed may, in certain circumstances, become
>> lost. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological
>> Cybernetics in Tübingen, from the University of California in
>> Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and
>> from New York University have discovered that this loss occurs
>> when differing visual signals are combined. In contrast, in-
>> formation arising from different senses, such as from touch and
>> sight, can be separated again into its separate components
>> (SCIENCE, November 22, 2002)
>>
>> best
>> nina
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Hello My Name is Jol Thomson,
>>>
>>> I wanted to introduce myself and my art practice in the field of
>>> transcendental cybernetics, investigating the
>>>conditions for the possibility
>>> of complex systems. Essentially this means the structural examination of
>>> the feedback cycle as an imminent and eminent relationship. This is a
>>> research and process oriented practice where the spatial, sonic and visual
>>> representations reflect upon the concentric multiplicities of the seemingly
>>> universal element of the feedback loop in nature, time, space, perception
>>> and communication.
>>>
>>> In terms of multi sensory perception and synaesthesia the matching of the
>>> spatial and sensual autopoietic systems leads to interesting relationships
>>> and interactions creating phenomenological and neurophysiological responses
>>> that may be of interest to both scientists and artists alike. I experiment
>>> with complex analog environments, revealing all of the elements of the
>>> system. In this way there is nothing left out
>>>or hidden from a participator,
>>> and yet it remains captivating and mysterious.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My practice is experimental, intuitive and playful yet yields results in a
>>> specific and concrete way. From a formalist approach, references to
>>> abstract expressionism and geometric
>>>abstraction are evident, continuing and
>>> opening up discussions not yet exhausted. Considering feedback from a
>>> structuralist perspective reflection, refraction, and recording are
>>> considered as polyvalent and are explored in their multiplicities, opening
>>> or continuing transdisciplinary discussions
>>>in many of the science, arts and
>>> humanities field.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Currently a resident at the Banff New Media Institute located in Alberta,
>>> Canada, I am investigating the potentials of
>>>immersive stereoscopic feedback
>>> environments and so far there appears to be some intriguing results. The
>>> area of most significance for currently is
>>>concentric and parallactic space,
>>> where again the term space has many connotations. I feel that presenting
>>> space in and on itself transmits or initiates a deeper understanding or
>>> awareness of the nesting occurring in all complex systems.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I look forward to the lively and intriguing posts.
>>>
>>>
>>> jol thomson
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> ~www.jolthomson.ca~
>>> _______________________________________________
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