On Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:52:20 -0400, Tom Stiller
wrote:
In article ,
(Floyd L. Davidson) wrote:
However... note the story above about the friend's
mother! I can't do that. Not even close. Consider how
that works with sound too, which we see demonstrations
of every day by talented musicians, so I for one have no
problem believing that lady did the same thing with
color. Not all musicians, but perhaps most, can whistle
any given note, on call. If they sing or play multiple
instruments, they can often hit a given note within a
few Hz at will on all of them. And then they can go
down the road to the next music shop, pick up a violin
for example, and tune it to within a few Hz of exactly
what they played on a piano two days before. That's the
same as selecting the colors of cloth.
Unlike sound, there is always "clutter" in vision experiments outside
the laboratory. Surrounds, lighting, and other factors distort the
mind's perception. Consider:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomstiller/5550052613/
BTW: I'm glad you (and others) posted optical illusions like these to try
to justify the (erroneous) flip-side of the argument. These are good
examples to show just how much that color & visual memory can correct for
these situations that all others will automatically assume are hard facts,
instead of illusions.
I have a hobby of collecting as many optical illusions as I can. And
there's a good reason for this. Take for example the green & "blue" spiral
one. At first glance it's easy to be deceived into thinking there's blue in
that image. However, my knowing it is an intentional optical illusion will
make me examine it further before settling on that first impression. Basing
my perception on my MEMORY of colors and how they are used in optical
illusions. It was then not difficult at all to see that there was no blue
in those spirals. Others who don't have as much memory about colors and
optical illusions will always see blue throughout that image. (In the
tighter spirals however, then visual-resolution has to meld the magenta and
green into blue. This further enhancing the illusion that blue must persist
in the outer spirals.)
This is how color & vision memory can be put to better use. The more you
have experience with all manner of situations, and what causes them, then
you can override your base first-impression instincts and examine it
further, now knowing that your MEMORY should be relied on more than
first-impressions.
I particularly enjoy the optical-illusions where color and shape is used to
induce the sense of motion when indeed there is none. There's been some
excellent ones designed around that principle. Khaki-colored wheels that
rotate, brown-bean shapes that undulate on a green background, etc. Motion
visually induced in a still-image by colors and shapes alone.
Here's just 2 of the many I've collected.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5027/5551547540_a0d633ec4a.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5228/5551547550_b5f73a18c2.jpg
During my arts-era, greatly inspired by Escher, I would use principles like
these in my artwork. I would always impart some little thing into my
drawings and paintings that could not exist in the real world. A stream
that could not quite flow in the direction it was flowing (causing the
viewer's memory to give it motion), tree-branches that shouldn't have
crossed in front of those others, etc. Some slight skew of perception that
nobody else would easily notice, if ever. Unless they too had as much
experience with the natural-world as I did. People were almost always
unaware of why they were fascinated to study the image further and didn't
tire of doing so.
Composition is just the tip of the iceberg on why someone enjoys looking at
a still image.
There's much more to perception than what meets the eye.