2026-09-19T19:51:39Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/1235982021-07-05T14:03:20Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
Judith Barry.
Shen, Xiaoyan,S.M.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
2020-01-23T16:59:10Z
2020-01-23T16:59:10Z
2019
2019
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123598
1135865402
Thesis: S.M. in Art, Culture and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2019
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 61-64).
In this thesis I discuss methods of projects that create cognitive effects that can be categorized into two situations: through sensation (outside stimulations/objective/bottom-up processing in neuroscience) or through perception (arousing background knowledge of inner mind/subjective/top-down processing in neuroscience). Similar effects can be reached through different ways. For example, to make something disappear, blending it into the environment through camouflage is changing the external stimulation, while a "lilac chaser illusion" is the result of influencing the retina and our brain. I will apply research on human sensation and perception from two perspectives: the psychological (neuroscience) realm and the phenomenological. My research mostly focuses on theories of vision, current studies on physiological information processing in visual systems, and the phenomenological theories of sensation and perception according to Kant, Hegel, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty.
It also includes a conceptual framework for theories of perception, dreams, consciousness, imagination, and hallucination presented by Dennett, Windt, and Metzinger. I also explore case studies of artistic projects and discuss these in terms of the ways that controlling visual stimuli or influencing perception affects the ways we apprehend the visual. Practices that are famous for affecting and challenging human cognition, including light and space arts and opt arts, will be discussed. The artworks created by different artists, such as James Turrell, Ann Veronica Janssens, Richard Anuskiewicz, and Brio Gysin, will be discussed and categorized into either top-down (sensation) or bottom-up (perception) works of art based on the methodology used to affect audiences' experiences and cognition of their work.
Finally, I will also involve my own practice during past years in discovering the relationship between art and neuroscience, the outside stimulation and inside interpretation, the objectivity and subjectivity. Through this thesis, I will argue for an approach that allows for a new hermeneutics of seeing that ultimately enhances the viewer's capacity to perceive.
by Xiaoyan Shen.
S.M. in Art, Culture and Technology
S.M.inArt,CultureandTechnology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture
64 pages
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Architecture.
Sensation vs. perception : a study and analysis of two methods affecting cognition
Sensation versus perception
Thesis
application/pdf
2020-01-23T16:59:09Z
Publication
Master
Arch
unknown
unknown
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<Abstract>In this thesis I discuss methods of projects that create cognitive effects that can be categorized into two situations: through sensation (outside stimulations/objective/bottom-up processing in neuroscience) or through perception (arousing background knowledge of inner mind/subjective/top-down processing in neuroscience). Similar effects can be reached through different ways. For example, to make something disappear, blending it into the environment through camouflage is changing the external stimulation, while a "lilac chaser illusion" is the result of influencing the retina and our brain. I will apply research on human sensation and perception from two perspectives: the psychological (neuroscience) realm and the phenomenological. My research mostly focuses on theories of vision, current studies on physiological information processing in visual systems, and the phenomenological theories of sensation and perception according to Kant, Hegel, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty.</Abstract>
<Abstract>It also includes a conceptual framework for theories of perception, dreams, consciousness, imagination, and hallucination presented by Dennett, Windt, and Metzinger. I also explore case studies of artistic projects and discuss these in terms of the ways that controlling visual stimuli or influencing perception affects the ways we apprehend the visual. Practices that are famous for affecting and challenging human cognition, including light and space arts and opt arts, will be discussed. The artworks created by different artists, such as James Turrell, Ann Veronica Janssens, Richard Anuskiewicz, and Brio Gysin, will be discussed and categorized into either top-down (sensation) or bottom-up (perception) works of art based on the methodology used to affect audiences' experiences and cognition of their work.</Abstract>
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