#openningtalk

Guest Speaker: Asst.Prof.Dr. İnci Ayhan

Reality and Representation

  The first guest speaker of our studio course this semester was Asst.Prof.Dr. İnci Ayhan. She explained to us reality and representation. Does everything we see really exist or are objects as much as we perceive?

Picture 1.1 from İnci Ayhan’s Presentation

  For example, is this pipe picture really a pipe or is it just a picture representing the pipe? Even though most people say that when they look at this picture, they see a pipe, maybe it's just a representation. 

  She also talked about perceptual presence in her speech. She explained perceptual presence is the experience and perception of all objects that we perceive as if they actually exist. Objects actually vary according to how we see and perceive them. Sometimes when we look at objects from different angles, we can perceive them completely different than they really are. We can see examples of this situation in the images below.

Picture 1.2 from İnci Ayhan’s Presentation

Picture 1.3 from İnci Ayhan’s Presentation

What is a line?

  In her presentation, she quoted the words from Visual Perception, which is the definition of line 'sudden changes in the amount of light reflected off a surface, corresponding to the boundaries of an object'.

  She mentioned that in reality there is not much of a clear transition between dark and light. In fact, what we define as lines are indicators of difference. For example, the sharp transition between two textures or the distinct contrast between two colors reflects to our eyes as if there is a line between those two things. However, that point of contact is not a line. We can see an example of this situation on the horizon.

Picture 1.4 from https://www.metinaytekin.com/

Multiple Spatial Scales in the Visual Systems

  Again, a situation related to perception is scale. We may perceive some pictures differently when we look at them from a distance and different as we approach them. To illustrate, in the painting created by Murat Pulat with his technique named 'diptych', it is observed that the continuity increases as the closer to the picture (Picture 1.5).

Picture 1.5 from İnci Ayhan’s Presentation

  Another example can be observed in the picture below as Albert Einstein. As we move away from the picture, the person we see is not Einstein, but Marilyn Monroe.

Picture 1.6 from İnci Ayhan’s Presentation

Lines

  In her presentation, she claimed that neurons in the visual system have been evolved to attain contour information (using luminance and spectral contrast). The visual system completes a picture differently with each glance. Lines are used in drawings to mark the boundaries of objects and their parts.Although there are no lines in certain areas in some images, our eyes automatically perceive as if there is a line there. The reason this happens is that the eye perceives that image as total and spontaneously completes that image as a whole. 

Example 1.1 from İnci Ayhan’s Presentation

Abstraction and Gestalt Psychology

  Reducing the information content of a concept is called abstraction. This reduction is mostly done in order to obtain the information required for a specific purpose more easily.

  The main principle of Gestalt psychology is that the mind organizes itself to see a whole in what it perceives. The figure-ground relationship is one of the principles used by this psychology.

Example 1.2 from Baykan Günay’s Article

  Consequently, when looking at an object, we tend to perceive that object as a whole, not partly. For this reason, the objects we see around us do not depend on how they actually are, but on how we perceive them.

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