Part Two: The Perception of Order
2 The Selective Focus
(The 4th paragraph)
"Hogarth could still write as if focusing and attention were one and the same thing, and it is certainly true that the two are normally coupled. We tend to turn our eyes automatically in the direction of something to which we want consciously to attend. Perhaps it is only detectives who have trained themselves to observe 'from the corner of their eyes' without looking. There are other experiences, however, which all of us share, which justify making this distinction between fixation and attention. The example of reading used by Hogarth is a case in point. It is certainly possible to focus on a printed page without attending to it, and therefore without reading it. We may see a newspaper lying somewhere and become aware of the fact that a given word such as our own nature was printed somewhere on the page though we may have subsequently to search for it with our conscious attention. In discussing decoration, this distinction between seeing and attending is certainly not an idle one: we know that we rarely attend to the details of design, but if we did not see them at all, decoration would fail in its purpose"
Personally, I find this paragraph stimulating because it speaks to what simply relates to the things we are doing in our studio right now. The fact that one can appear to attend something doesn't mean that his/ her mind is attending it. People tend to only pay attention to the things they are interested in and that will lead them to consciously attend it. I like how the text compares it to decorations and details in design in a sense that we do not pay attention to every single detail of it, but as you go through the text more, you will realize that we pay somewhat pay attention to the overall physicality of it. This can relate to the experience I am trying to create by getting me to think that I should create a simulator where people might actually attend to something that intrigues them to come again even when the surrounding is static. I think once we are able to grab the attention of the audience, we can control them in the later step of creating something novelty to appeal to them.
3 Loss of Definition
(The 1st and 2nd paragraph)
"There are many paintings showing the page of a book or a letter covered with squiggles indicating writing or print. As long as we do not attend to them they strike us as fully convincing; even so we must not fall a distance. The reason is simple; these squiggles could stand for any letter"
I find this passage interesting since I have never thought of looking at a painting and thinking that it was just squiggles before. I admit that the paintings do have the quality of having writings on it look absolutely precious and believable. I think it is a good way not to distract your audience if you want them to focus their attention onto something else rather than focusing on the text and making out what it means.
"Perceptual generalizations are used. When theatrical producers want to give the general impression of a muttering crowd they ask the actors on the stage to repeat some nonsense words such as 'rhubarb', 'rhubarb'"
This passage actually intrigues me in a sense that I thought somehow I could use this technique in my experiential simulator. Since the experience I want to create has to be theatrical and dramatic to engender an overwhelming feeling, I can use this technique to create some sort of role play or acoustic effect that can be just noise of people saying something without it having to mean anything, but still the overall effect of it comes out very powerful that people actually understand what message I'm trying to deliver through that. It could be use to create a scene similar to Plaza Mayor Madrid where you are in a public space that is filled with activities even if you do not slowly scan and attend to the activity, you get the sense of what the activity is about and the feeling from it generally. However, the experience I will try to create needs to be strong enough to misguide the audience to surrender to it.
"Saul Steinberg is a past master of doing the same with script. He likes producing spoof documents and signatures which look at first like real writing but turn out to be a mere sequence of loops and strokes so cunningly distributed that they capture the general appearance without containing any genuine letter form. This process of perceptual generalization is also used by typographers who want to demonstrate the appearance of a printed page without distracting the customer by meaningful letters. The artist who covers the pages of an open book in his painting with abbreviated dots and dashes does so largely for the same reason, that he does not want to distract our attention. But visually he can also use real letters just as a muttering crowd might also use real conversation if they could think of anything to say and could be sure they would not be understood"
This passage is similar to the one above where I think the idea of perceptual generalization could be applied to the phase of creating an experience. It is a good distraction while being powerful within itself, which is very fascinating.
4 Testimonies of Art
( The 1st and 2nd paragraph)
"Walter Crane's Line and Form, where it serves him to 'illustrate the value of different quantities in Persian rugs. He certainly achieves this by a gradation of tone and density of texture, which might be all we notice at a first glance. But he also reminds us cleverly of the varying distinctness of motifs, such as the pomegranate design in the main border zone, which is reasonably clear at one point, incoherent further below and standing out in bold but asymmetrical outlines on top, possibly indicating a change of colour... The existence of different 'perspectives of disappearance'. The same rug seen at a greater distance where motifs can no longer be made out would have to be rendered differently and a loss of illumination would result in yet another variant"
" We must never forget the one difference between a representation and reality lies in the simple fact that in reality we can always go on looking and exploring, if necessary with artificial means such as binoculars or magnifying glasses, while the image as image is strictly finite. Magnify it too much and it will cease to be an image and become a piece of texture matter"
Personally, I like these passages and I find it very inspiring since it relates to life where when you do something to represent it, the representation is always finite and it will end eventually (in terms of details and etc.) However, in real life, it is never ending. It is totally different. You can keep on exploring and still something is there for you to explore. This is why in my case studies, I choose to explore night clubs where one I'm familiar with and the other I have never been to or experienced before. The results will be totally different since from actually being in there and just searching through the internet, you get different types of experience and perception from it. This made me realize that I should do it both ways and keep my options open to learn the methods of creating the best experiential simulator to communicate my experience.
