More (Kinds of) Consciousness

This chapter argues that Nietzsche allows for other forms of consciousness besides reflective consciousness. In order to demonstrate this thesis, it introduces and discusses Nietzsche’s claim that reflective consciousness involves ‘falsification’. It identifies perceptual consciousness as a second kind of consciousness which is language-independent and characterized by pictorial content, and qualitative consciousness as a third kind of consciousness which Nietzsche only ascribes to pure sensations and raw feelings. It is argued that qualitative consciousness is the only kind of consciousness that does not involve ‘falsification’. It is further argued that affects are always conscious at least in the qualitative and, arguably, also in the perceptual sense, while drives—qua dispositions—are typically strictly unconscious.

Visual illusion of the change of the size of architectural and urban objects observed upon a change of the observer's distance: Parameters that influence it phenomenologically

This paper explores the visual phenomena of a seeming change of the target-object's size (as a focus of concrete visual perception) in the function of an observer's motion so that it 'seems' contrary to the law of linear perspective (in the sense of an expected increase of the target volume/monumentality - by getting closer or a decrease - by getting farther away). This phenomenon is described in a geometrical and perceptual aspect; the result of this comprehensive approach led to identify parameters that determine it phenomenologically. It was established that the explored visual phenomenon is a specific 'size illusion', i.e. an 'angular size illusion' that occurs when influenced by factors of the perceptual kind - activated by a specific dynamic relationship (on a visual plan) between the target object and its surrounding competitive objects, as an observer moves. By understanding the character of this phenomenon (both in a geometrical and perceptual sense), it is possible to apply the acquired knowledge in practice - in programming the visual effects to be obtained (such as to visually optimize or minimize the monumentality of targeted objects) in all architectural and urban fields (planning, designing and reconstruction).

Analyzing Form and Measuring Perceptual Content in Mozart's Sonata K. 282: A New Theory of Parametric Analogues

Hierarchic analysis in music necessarily separates form from content. However, in active listening, the two are indivisible. To illustrate this, I first analyze in Part 1 the opening movement in Mozart's Sonata K. 282 from the top down, using traditional methods in music theory. Arriving at the manifest level, I then dissect the music from the bottom up, relying on the implication-realization model (Narmour, 1977,1989,1990,1991a, 1992). The contrasting perspectives reveal in great detail some of the movement's richly complex structuring. More generally, they confirm the inextricable feedback between parametric content and the meaning of form, specifically with respect to the contrary functions of closure and nonclosure. Following these analyses, Part 2 forges a synthesis by developing an implicative theory of analogical structures for melody, harmony, duration, and meter. Because, in terms of bottom-up processing, the analytical symbology for tracking structures is commensurable, we can, in all four primary parameters, weight similarity (aa), difference (ab), closure (stability), and nonclosure (implication) with comparable numbers. Further, by adding in some essential stylistic properties from the top down (scale step, diatonic pitch set, tonal cadential closure), we are able to represent the overall rhythmic shape of the first phrase in a single twodimensional graph. Thereby, we recapture from hierarchic analysis the perceptual sense that, in on-line listening, form and content are synthetically one.

Scent and Sound of Vision: Expressing Scent or Sound as Visual Forms

This article describes three experiments on the possibility of expressing scent or sound into visual forms made by design engineering students. The hypothesis tested was that people are able to pick up patterns in the energy flow that the students transposed from one perceptual sense to another. In Exp. 1 subjects were given different scents and were asked to choose a sculpture designed according these scents. In Exp. 2 subjects were given different musical pieces and asked to match them with portable cassette players designed according to this music. Exp. 3 was identical to Exp. 2 but different music selections, similar to the ones in Exp. 2, were used. In all three experiments subjects were indeed able to perform the tasks above chance level. Results are discussed within the framework of the theory of direct perception of Gibson.

Cloze and Closure: The Issue of Definition

Taylor's use of the word cloze, from the Gestalt concept of closure, to describe the task of replacing words systematically deleted from a prose text is defended. The charge that the Gestalt view of closure was confined to a narrow perceptual sense is countered with citations from the principal Gestalt psychologists supporting a much broader view, one which would have included the cloze situation.