Sensing & Perception
Brains and senses
Organization of sensing
Theory of Bubbles
Art as sensory
Engineering
Sensing
It all starts with sensing
Sensing starts with stimuli
Stimuli (in the context of sensing)
Any type of energy that can be sensed by your nervous system.
Earth is full of stimuli
- Salinity
- Electric fields
- Magnetic fields
- Chemicals
- Light
- Pressure
- Osmolarity
- Temperature
Electromagnetic Spectrum
We can only see a subset of the electromagnetic spectrum, the visible spectrum (380-760nm). Some organisms can see more/less colors.
All colors are associated with wavelengths.
Organisms that respond to light
- Euglena
- Sunflowers
Organisms have genes that determine their visible senses
By looking at genomes, we can determine an organism’s best senses.
The mantis shrimp
Has 12 (vs. 3 that humans have) different base colors that they can see
A majority of life lacks brains
3 major modes:
- Food
- Mate
- Predator
Exteroreceptors & Interoceptors
exteroception: stimuli coming from outside the body
interoception: stimuli coming from inside the body
Theory of Bubbles
Jacob Von Uexkull
Baltic German who studied how animals think and feel
Published Umwelt(German for environment): combination of interoception with exteroception in the context of action organs
Umwelt is the world that you build for yourself
His theories are used heavily in robotics
Bubbles
Tick's Umwelt
Tick’s sensory world
Ticks can wait up to 18 years until touch, temperature, and smell are present in its environment.
Human Umwelt
Action world
- Temperature
- Pressure
- Taste
- Audition
- Smell
- Sight
- Nociception
- Proprioception
Sound/hearing
Comparative Umwelten
Human 20-20,000 hz, 300m
Elephant 16-12,000 hz, 150 mi
Whale 14hz-120,000 hz, over a thousand mi
Imperceptibility
- Caffeine
- Climate Change
- Gravitational Waves
- Infrared light
- Pesticides
- Radiofrequency exposure
- VOCs (volatile organic compounds)
Art and sensory stimuli
Art starts with organization of sensory stimuli
Artists organize sensory input
Artists amplify and intensify sensory stimuli (Deleuze)
(Some) artists are engineers of the sensory world
Art CONTROLS what goes in your Umwelt