Sand Painting and Perception

I recently showed a video from YouTube that had a long clip from an Eastern European nation (I suspect Ukraine or Russia, but am not sure. The video was from a talent show for that nation that involved a woman using a light board, creating images with a camera mounted above and projected to the audience. The scenes evoked images from World War II and the images along with the music brought tears to the eyes of the judges and audience members. We discussed how non-total images can create conclusions of perception due to perceptual sets and learning. Other aspects of perception include edge detection, pattern recognition, emotions and memory, music and emotions, figure-ground, gestalt, and more. We also spoke about the "eye" of an artist and how artists often see the world in a different way than the rest of us--oh, yeah--schemas. The possibilities are quite wonderful. Even better, my students were moved by the creative force illustrated here. It was a good day.

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