4040 Vision Lecture Neurology and the Passion for Art

Vision in Art and Neuroscience Fall 2021

9.72 (UG)

nine.720 (G)

Tues & Thurs 3-5 pm in 10-150 (MIT Museum Studio)

contact: visualstudies AT mit.edu

The constructive nature of perception is at work in the gap between the observer and the outside – there, the world of experience is generated. From limited and noisy data incoming through the senses, our brains construct the rich world nosotros perceive. Creating visual art throws that world of feel back to the outside, and in it we discover reflected some mechanisms of the effective procedure of vision. As such, we can find examples in art which allow us to "perceive perception." Through readings, lecture, discussion, and projection-based piece of work, this class explore the neural and computational mechanisms of vision and their parallel manifestations in visual art. Working together, we will follow recipes for seeing to interpret different levels of the visual processing hierarchy into the domain of experience, using the power of simple materials to foreground straight visual perception. The course is divided into 1 seminar-style lecture and one session of studio instruction per week. Each student will have access to studio materials and equipment for creating and documenting visual experiences. Students will be expected to set up simple captures of work and work processes to share with the class every bit needed and to contribute to the exhibition content that will have concrete and online aspects. A final project and exhibition of pupil work will replace a final examination.

Fall 2021 Syllabus  (last updated 9.2.2021)

Course Construction

The course consists of one two-60 minutes seminar (Tuesday) and one 2-hour studio workshop (Thursday) per week. Seminars volition include slide talks, demonstrations, video documents, etc. by the team as well as invited guests. Advisedly called readings and student presentations will fuel discussions. In previous years, workshop hours during the first weeks of class were spent in a nighttime room where students were guided through experiments visualizing the fundamental interactions of calorie-free and vision. As the semester progresses, studio sessions will serve preparation of final projects for exhibition. The seminar volition be divided into 6 modules that build, one upon the next, to introduce principles of vision neuroscience and their parallels in the creation of visual art. Toward the end of the semester, we will design, install and open a public exhibition of projects in the Compton Gallery.

Online Catalogues of Past Work

See Total INTERNAL REFLECTION , a virtual exhibition of piece of work from our Fall 2020 grade offering, online now!

Perceiving Perception (Dec 2017 - February 2018), MIT Museum Studio Compton Gallery

Web Catalog
Dessert of the Real (Dec 2018 - May 2019), MIT Museum Studio Compton Gallery

Instruments of Vision (Dec 2019 - May 2020), MIT Museum Studio Compton Gallery

Course Modules

Module 1 The origins of structure in perception and art

 Optional:

Module ii Early visual processing

    Optional, extra resources:

                          Vision in Motility (Moholy-Nagy 1947)

Language of Vision (Kepes 1951)

Module 3 Binocular vision, depth, and movement perception

Optional, extra readings:

Selection from More than Light artists (Lipp, Zec 1985)

Module iv Colour and Light

Module five Recognition, compositionality, and perceptual primitives

Module 6  ​ Art and associative recall

Instructors

Pawan Sinha

Pawan Sinha is a professor of vision and computational neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He received his undergraduate caste in computer science from the Indian Institute of Engineering science, New Delhi and his Masters and doctoral degrees from the Department of Computer science at MIT. Using a combination of experimental and computational modeling techniques, research in Pawan'due south laboratory focuses on understanding how the homo brain learns to recognize objects through visual feel and how objects are encoded in memory. The lab's experimental work on these problems involves studying good for you individuals and as well those with neurological disorders such as autism. A key initiative of the lab is Project Prakash; this endeavor seeks to accomplish the twin goals of providing treatment to children with disabilities and likewise understanding mechanisms of learning and plasticity in the encephalon.

contact: psinha AT mit.edu

Seth Riskin

Seth Riskin runs the MIT Museum Studio and Compton Gallery, a space for interdisciplinary projects and experimental exhibitions. He besides oversees the Holography and Spatial Imaging area at the MIT Museum. A light creative person who conducts humanistic research of light across disciplines and cultures, Seth brings to the form hands-on methods for decision-making low-cal and shaping the visual perception of form, space and time, as well as expertise in the values and meanings of light and how they contribute to what we meet.
contact: riskin AT mit.edu

Sarah Schwettmann

Sarah Schwettmann is a computational neuroscientist interested in creativity underlying the human relationship to world: from the brain'south fundamentally effective role in sensory perception to the explicit creation of experiential worlds in fine art. She is a postdoc with the Vision group in MIT CSAIL. She received her PhD from MIT's Department of Encephalon and Cognitive Sciences, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Swain. Previously, Sarah was also a fellow member of the Eagleman Laboratory for Perception and Activity at Baylor College of Medicine and the Shouval Lab for Theoretical Neuroscience at UT Wellness Science Heart Houston. In the arts, Sarah uses her background in computation to create installations that explore construction in human cognition and the nature of intelligence. Her work has been exhibited at FiftyThree in New York and at OPEN Gallery in Boston. Sarah received BAs in Computational and Practical Mathematics and Cognitive Science from Rice University, where she was a Trustee Distinguished Scholar, Century Scholar, and taught courses on Engineering Computation and Women Leaders in Stem.

contact: schwett AT mit.edu

@cogconfluence

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