Art Media and the Sense Modalities

Author(s):  
Dominic McIver Lopes

According to a core doctrine in aesthetics, the arts comprise a collection of art media, each characteristically perceived through a different sense modality. This doctrine depends on a doctrine in the theory of perception according to which it is possible to distinguish the senses in certain ways. Thus the view that pictures are essentially visual depends on the view that the content of vision is uniquely perspectival; pictures are visual because they are perspectival. However, raised-line drawings made by congenitally blind people cast both views in doubt. The chapter considers the implications of this conclusion for aesthetics and for theories of vision.

Perception ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton A Heller ◽  
Jeffrey A Calcaterra ◽  
Lisa A Tyler ◽  
Lynnetta L Burson

In three experiments the production and interpretation of perspective drawings by blind and sighted subjects were examined. Blindfolded sighted, early-blind, and late-blind subjects first attempted to produce raised-line drawings of a surface at a number of angles—0° (panel horizontal), −22.5°, −45°, −67.5°, and −90° (vertical). Congenitally blind subjects did not show foreshortening in their naive raised-line drawings. However, the congenitally blind subjects were able to understand aspects of perspective, and performed as well as the blindfolded sighted and late-blind subjects in a subsequent multiple-choice task. Subjects in the multiple-choice task were required to match tangible perspective drawings to a slanted board. Although the three groups performed alike, both groups of blind subjects performed better than blindfolded sighted controls on judgments involving drawings of the vertical panel in the second experiment. In a final experiment, in which vision and touch were compared, sighted subjects were required to adjust the angle of the panel to match foreshortened, perspective drawings. This experiment yielded significantly better performance with vision than with touch, but only for drawings of the board at the vertical orientation. The results suggested that congenitally blind people may benefit from haptic exposure to raised-line configurations representing geometric perspective.


Author(s):  
Heather Tilley ◽  
Jan Eric Olsén

Changing ideas on the nature of and relationship between the senses in nineteenth-century Europe constructed blindness as a disability in often complex ways. The loss or absence of sight was disabling in this period, given vision’s celebrated status, and visually impaired people faced particular social and educational challenges as well as cultural stereotyping as poor, pitiable and intellectually impaired. However, the experience of blind people also came to challenge received ideas that the visual was the privileged mode of accessing information about the world, and contributed to an increasingly complex understanding of the tactile sense. In this chapter, we consider how changing theories of the senses helped shape competing narratives of identity for visually impaired people in the nineteenth century, opening up new possibilities for the embodied experience of blind people by impressing their sensory ability, rather than lack thereof. We focus on a theme that held particular social and cultural interest in nineteenth-century accounts of blindness: travel and geography.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Crollen ◽  
Tiffany Spruyt ◽  
Pierre Mahau ◽  
Roberto Bottini ◽  
Olivier Collignon

Recent studies proposed that the use of internal and external coordinate systems may be more flexible in congenitally blind when compared to sighted individuals. To investigate this hypothesis further, we asked congenitally blind and sighted people to perform, with the hands uncrossed and crossed over the body midline, a tactile TOJ and an auditory Simon task. Crucially, both tasks were carried out under task instructions either favoring the use of an internal (left vs. right hand) or an external (left vs. right hemispace) frame of reference. In the internal condition of the TOJ task, our results replicated previous findings (Röder et al., 2004) showing that hand crossing only impaired sighted participants’ performance, suggesting that blind people did not activate by default a (conflicting) external frame of reference. However, under external instructions, a decrease of performance was observed in both groups, suggesting that even blind people activated an external coordinate system in this condition. In the Simon task, and in contrast with a previous study (Roder et al., 2007), both groups responded more efficiently when the sound was presented from the same side of the response (‘‘Simon effect’’) independently of the hands position. This was true under the internal and external conditions, therefore suggesting that blind and sighted by default activated an external coordinate system in this task. All together, these data comprehensively demonstrate how visual experience shapes the default weight attributed to internal and external coordinate systems for action and perception depending on task demand.


Author(s):  
Rolando Vazquez ◽  
Miriam Barrera Contreras

RESUMEN Hay que pensar la decolonialidad en relación a las artes. En esta entrevista exploramos cómo las artes decoloniales se diferencian de la estética moderna/colonial. La decolonización de la estética conlleva la liberación de a la aiesthesis, es decir de las formas de relacionarnos con el mundo y de hacer mundo a través de los sentidos. La aiesthesis decolonial se distingue de los principios del arte contemporáneo y en particular de su sujeción a la temporalidad moderna, abriéndonos hacia las temporalidades relacionales. Los artistas decoloniales ejercen una temporalidad distinta que conlleva no sólo una crítica radical al orden de la representación y de la visualidad modernas sino que también nos dan la posibilidad de entender a la decolonialidad cómo un movimiento cargado de esperanza, cargado de la posibilidad de nombrar y vivenciar los mundos interculturales que han sido negados. PALABRAS CLAVE Decolonialidad, tiempo relacional, esperanza, cuerpo, interculturalidad KAI SUTI AESTHESIS ÑAGPAMANDA KAUSAKUNA TUKUIKUNAWA TAPUCHI SUG RUNATA ROLANDO VÁSQUEZ SUTITA SUGLLAPI Kaipi kawachinakumi iska ruraikuna ñugpamanda chasallata kunaurramanda. Kai suti aiesthesis, kawachiku imasami pai kawa kawachimanda ukusinama paipa iuaikunawa. Aiesthesis kame tukuikunamanda sugrigcha.Lsx artistxs kawachinakumi ñugpamanda kausikuna munankuna kawachingapa charrami kausanakunchi parlanakumi ñugpata imasami mana lisinsiaskakuna allí ruraikuna tukuikunamanda. IMA SUTI RIMAI SIMI: Ñugpamanda, parlaikuna sullai, nukanchi kikin, tukuikuna. DECOLONIAL AESTHESIS AND THE RELATIONAL TIMES. INTERVIEW WITH ROLANDO VÁSQUEZ ABSTRACT We have to hink the decoloniality in relation with the arts. This interview explores the difference between the modern/colonial aesthetic and the decolonial arts. The aesthetic decolonization leads to the release of the aesthesis, ergo it relates in every way to the connection and creation of a world through the senses. The decolonial aesthesis is particularly different from the contemporary art principles in the way it grasps the modern temporality consenting the creation of a path toward relational temporalities. The decolonial artists exercise a different temporality that results in not only a radical criticism to the modern representation and visuality but it makes possible to understand the decolonialization as a hopeful movement, full of possibilities for naming and experiencing neglected intercultural worlds. KEYWORDS Decolonialization, relational time, hope, body, interculturality ESTEHÉSIE DÉCOLONIALE ET LE TEMPS RELATIONNELS. ENTRETIEN À ROLANDO VASQUEZ RÉSUMÉ Il faut penser la décolonisation en relation aux arts. Dans cet entretien on explore comment les arts décoloniaux sont différents de l’esthétique moderne-coloniale. La décolonisation de l’esthétique entraîne la libération de l’estehésie, c’est-à-dire, la libération des façons de nous mettre en relation avec le monde et d’en créer un nouveau à travers les sens. L’estehésie décoloniale se différence des principes de l’art contemporain, principalement pour son fixation à la modernité en nous emmenant vers les temporalités relationnelles. Les artistes décoloniaux exercent avec une temporalité qui n’implique pas juste une critique radicale à l’ordre de la représentation et de la vision moderne, mais aussi de la possibilité de comprendre la décolonisation comme un mouvement plein d’espoir, chargé d’une possibilité de nommer et de mettre en relief les interculturalités qu’ont été niées. MOTS-CLEFS Décolonisation, temps relationnels, espoir, corps, interculturalité ESTESIA DESCOLONIAL E O TEMPO RELACIONAL ENTREVISTA A ROLANDO VAZQUEZ RESUMO Temos que pensar a descolonização em relação as artes. Nesta entrevista é explorado como as artes descoloniais são diferentes da estética moderna-colonial. A descolonização da estética conduz a emancipação da estesia, isto é, das formas de relacionamento com o mundo e da fôrma de fazer mundo a partir dos sentidos. A estesia descolonial distinguese dos princípios da arte contemporânea particularmente pela fixação o tempo moderno, abrindo-nos para a temporalidades relacionales. Os artistas descoloniais exercem uma temporalidade diferente que implica não só uma crítica radical à ordem da representação e à visão moderna, mas também à possibilidade de entender a descolonização como um movimento cheio de esperança, carregado da possibilidade de designar e viver os mundos interculturais que foram negados. PALAVRAS CHAVES Descolonização, esperança, tempo relacional, fôrma, intercultural.   Recibido el 20 de enero de 2015 Aceptado el 26 de febrero de 2015


Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3340 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1263-1274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton A Heller ◽  
Deneen D Brackett ◽  
Kathy Wilson ◽  
Keiko Yoneyama ◽  
Amanda Boyer ◽  
...  

We examined the effect of visual experience on the haptic Müller-Lyer illusion. Subjects made size estimates of raised lines by using a sliding haptic ruler. Independent groups of blindfolded-sighted, late-blind, congenitally blind, and low-vision subjects judged the sizes of wings-in and wings-out stimuli, plain lines, and lines with short vertical ends. An illusion was found, since the wings-in stimuli were judged as shorter than the wings-out patterns and all of the other stimuli. Subjects generally underestimated the lengths of lines. In a second experiment we found a nonsignificant difference between length judgments of raised lines as opposed to smooth wooden dowels. The strength of the haptic illusion depends upon the angles of the wings, with a much stronger illusion for more acute angles. The effect of visual status was nonsignificant, suggesting that spatial distortion in the haptic Müller-Lyer illusion does not depend upon visual imagery or visual experience.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Manescu ◽  
Christine Chouinard-Leclaire ◽  
Olivier Collignon ◽  
Franco Lepore ◽  
Johannes Frasnelli

Abstract Although often considered a nondominant sense for spatial perception, chemosensory perception can be used to localize the source of an event and potentially help us navigate through our environment. Would blind people who lack the dominant spatial sense—vision—develop enhanced spatial chemosensation or suffer from the lack of visual calibration on spatial chemosensory perception? To investigate this question, we tested odorant localization abilities across nostrils in blind people compared to sighted controls and if the time of vision loss onset modulates those abilities. We observed that congenitally blind individuals (10 subjects) outperformed sighted (20 subjects) and late-blind subjects (10 subjects) in a birhinal localization task using mixed olfactory-trigeminal stimuli. This advantage in congenitally blind people was selective to olfactory localization but not observed for odorant detection or identification. We, therefore, showed that congenital blindness but not blindness acquired late in life is linked to enhanced localization of chemosensory stimuli across nostrils, most probably of the trigeminal component. In addition to previous studies highlighting enhanced localization abilities in auditory and tactile modalities, our current results extend such enhanced abilities to chemosensory localization.


Author(s):  
Seongil Lee

The inherently visual nature of graphical user interfaces often makes it difficult for visually impaired or blind people to access current information systems. The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of using haptic modality for “blind access” to graphical information systems by examining haptic discrimination performance of icons under geometrically transformed conditions. Seven sighted and five congenitally blind subjects discriminated ten icons by touch using the raised line drawings and the Optacon. Two haptic tasks were performed for each subject: 1) naming the icons, and 2) matching the icons under geometrical transformations. The performance in haptic discrimination of icons was dependent on display type and transformation. No significant difference in accuracy and latency between sighted and blind subjects could be found for the two-dimensional tactile displays employed in the study. The results of this study may have implications in the design of tactile communication systems.


1997 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 731-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alida S. Westman ◽  
Gina R. Alliston ◽  
Emily A. Theriault

Four indices used to measure 36 students' preferred sense modality did not correlate well with each other or with classroom tasks such as recalling visual and auditory information from a videotape, imaging ability, problem solving, etc. Three were paper-and-pencil indices for group presentation (Fleming and Mills' test, Kirby, Moore, and Schofield's index, and Westman's index), and one required individual testing (Swassing-Barbe Modality Index). Students indicated that their analyses of task requirements rather than their preferences for sense modality determined the use of their sense modalities.


Neuroreport ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (13) ◽  
pp. 1449-1452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Chen ◽  
Ming Zhang ◽  
Xiaolin Zhou

Gesnerus ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-271
Author(s):  
Roger Smith

This paper outlines the history of knowledge about the muscular sense and provides a bibliographic resource for further research. A range of different topics, questions and approaches have interrelated throughout this history, and the discussion clarifies this rather than presenting detailed research in any one area. P art I relates the origin of belief in a muscular sense to empiricist accounts of the contribution of the senses to knowledge from Locke, via the idéologues and other authors, to the second half of the nineteenth century. Analysis paid much attention to touch, first in the context of the theory of vision and then in its own right, which led to naming a distinct muscular sense. From 1800 to the present, there was much debate, the main lines of which this paper introduces, about the nature and function of what turned out to be a complex sense. A number of influential psycho-physiologists, notably Alexander Bain and Herbert Spencer, thought this sense the most primitive and primary of all, the origin of knowledge of world, causation and self as an active subject. Part II relates accounts of the muscular sense to the development of nervous physiology and of psychology. In the decades before 1900, t he developing separation of philosophy, psychology and physiology as specialised disciplines divided up questions which earlier writers had discussed under the umbrella heading of muscular sensation. The term ‘kinaesthesia’ came in 1880 and ‘proprio-ception’ in 1906. There was, all the same, a lasting interest in the argument that touch and muscular sensation are intrinsic to the existence of embodied being in the way the other senses are not. In the wider culture – the arts, sport, the psychophysiology of labour and so on – there were many ways in which people expressed appreciation of the importance of what the anatomist Charles Bell had called ‘the sixth sense’.


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