Showing posts with label perception. Show all posts

Colors we See

by talkbackty on Apr 3, 2012

Part 3 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.


Colors are one of those interesting things that we, as a spieces, seem to understand but are entirely self-created. Admittedly, I am not an expert on colors or light so bear with me. It is rapidly becoming clear that I have something of a fixation on perception, since in three days that is where my mind landed twice. And colors are really all about perception. 


What we know is color is the reflection of light off a surface and into the receptors of our eye, translated by our brain, processed, labeled and, finally, understood. Despite the fact that our ability to visually percieve color is based on a narrow field of vision (the rainbow), we are remarkably confident about what things are which color. 


For example, let's look at a chair. Let's look at the chair Morpheus sat in during The Matrix...cause why not, it's the internet.


What color is it?



How about now?


Is it the same color as this?


Or this?


The hint is that I did not adjust the "redness" of any of those pictures. Each picture plays with the light source, turning it up or down. Most people's reaction is to say that the chair is red, just in the dark or light, but always a red chair. That is the brain's rationalization. That is the quick lie the mind tells itself to make sense of a chair our eyes' receptors said was one color and now telling us it is a different color. 


Color always fluctuates. It changes with the light source and with the perception of the viewer. The way we should look at an image is that there are objects and there are colors, not that objects are a color. 


Perceptions are important to constantly check and recheck because of our mind's tendency to seek laziness. Brains are bombarded with stimuli and spend day after day trying to simplify. Taoism talks about water that does not continually flow becoming a swamp. Our perceptions can also become swamp-like if we forget to update them.  


Once again, this observation is meant to point out how wrong we are in our day to day lives. And if someone who understands light better than me comes along and tells me this blog is complete nonesense, well then that is only more evidence- albeit evidence just showing that I am wrong on a day to day basis, not us as a collective. 


Think about it.


~~~~~~
Bonus Edit: I found a color test. I scored a 12. Zero is perfect. It takes a little time to complete. Best of luck.



Anteaters and Aardvarks: a thought on perception

by talkbackty on Apr 1, 2012

Part 1 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

A few weeks ago I went to the San Francisco Zoo. I walked around for a few hours and took pictures for Gridlock Magazine, a rather enjoyable use of my Saturday. Then I saw a Giant Anteater. Here's a picture for the uninitiated.

For my entire life I thought I knew exactly what an anteater was, an animal with a long snout and tongue to dig in the ground and eat ants. The only problem was that I was picturing an aardvark.
I guess intellectually I knew that anteaters had more hair and that they are usually brown & black in color, but whenever I thought of an anteater I pictured an aardvark with a slightly longer, more triangular snout. Then seeing a Giant Anteater, as tall as a Great Dane and seven feet long, I was perplexed. I silently had one of those moments when all you think is, "Ooooohhhhhhhh."

The strangest thing is how sure my brain was that it knew exactly what an anteater looked like. There was absolutely no questioning of my aardvark-inspired, anteater look-a-like. The image and thoughts I have about anteaters is, admittedly, minuscule. However, before my trip to the zoo basically all those thoughts were based on some figment of my imagination I created while watching PBS's Arthur.
How many other things have I constructed to the point of comfort in my mind? Thoughts, images, memories that I do not even realize are inherently wrong. I assume that most are small things, like anteaters and aardvarks, but what if the big things are wrong as well? Political affiliations, historical events, the color of my shirt.

The only thing to do when realizing one's infallibility is to seek knowledge while remaining humble. A new day reminds us only of how little we know- and how much we can learn. Hopefully, I can remember that as I continue to move through this world of anteaters, aardvarks and everything else.