Project Overview
The spark for this project began when driving from New Mexico to Arizona on one of those endless empty roads. I was listening to the audible version of the book “A Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD”. I remember that day clearly. What she experienced and how she described what happened to her was a complete epiphany for me.
On the morning of December 10, 1996 Jill Bolte Taylor, a 37-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four brief hours. As the damaged left side of her brain – the rational, grounded, detail and time-oriented side – swung in and out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realties: the euphoric nirvana of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace; and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized Jill was having a stroke, and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely….
Amazon.com book review
I was consciously alert and my perception was that I was in the flow. Everything in my visual world blended together, and with every pixel radiating energy we all flowed en masse, together as one. It was impossible for me to distinguish the physical boundaries between objects because everything radiated with similar energy. It’s probably comparable to when people take off their glasses or put eye drops into their eyes-the edges become softer. In this state of mind, I could not perceive three-dimensionally. Nothing stood out as being closer or farther away. If there was a person standing in a doorway, I could not distinguish their presence until they moved. It took activity for me to know that I should pay special attention to any particular patch of molecules. In addition, color did not register to my brain as color. I simply couldn’t distinguish it.
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The brain’s ability to be able to see objects as energy rather than as solid form changed my entire worldview. Although she wasn’t talking about animals I had the thought. What if this is a clue to how some animals, because they are all different, experience the world. So I came up with this project to explore these ideas and imagine what an animals individual experience might be.
Human eyes share the same biological vision mechanisms, for example how many of rods and cones that make up our eyes, but our perception of color and detail can vary. Ask people to describe a blue sky, and you’ll hear everything from a simple “blue” to detailed descriptions that reveal countless subtle hues of color. The critical concept I’m trying to achieve is the idea of perspective, of stepping outside our understanding of reality. for us to get outside what we think reality is to experience what another might be. There are limitations since I’m unable to paint smell, nor sound and limited by two-dimensional painting surface.
I’ve read I read a lot of scientific studies, articles and books to aid in my knowledge and understanding though I’ve found that the study of animal perception is still very much evolving.
The paintings are imaginary, and don’t represent what science has discovered regarding animal visual abilities. I used science as inspiration and a starting point. Science is always changing and evolving, and new studies are always being done. The reality is we know very little on how animals view the world.
dogs are predators
Series 1: dogs
The paintings in Series 1, have been created utilizing a limited palette of blue, yellow and purples to represent how dogs might view the world. Unlike humans, who possess three cones for color perception, dogs have two cones, sensitive to blue and yellow wavelengths. Dogs can detect some ultraviolet light as well. Scientific understanding suggests that dogs see the world in shades of blue, yellow, and gray with reds appearing as muddy yellow and greens as white. Perhaps, dogs might have other visual abilities we’re unable to perceive, like seeing energy fields or auras. I’ve diverged from science to represent what I imagine a dog might see.
Unfortunately, I’m unable to paint smell nor sound. From our own observations and from science we know dogs have extraordinary sense of smell and superior hearing ability compared to ours. There is also some research to suggest dogs have infrared sensors in their noses, but the precise function and purpose of these sensors remain unresolved. Because dogs are smaller generally so their eyes than we are point of view place.
The reality is every animal on this planet perceives the world in totally different ways from our own. What does the world look like through their eyes? How do their senses diverge from our own? How is their experience different from our own? To truly understand an animal, it is critical to understand what their point of view is and how they might perceive the world.
animals considered prey animals
Series 2: Cows and Donkeys
For the paintings I was fascinated with the idea that prey animals have this wide range of vision that extends to about 350°. Although approximately 65° is binocular vision where they will have the sharpest area. I did not show that in my paintings. The remaining 285° is monocular vision so they see the world differently from each eye. Horse people like me know this to be a fact because we’ve experienced it. We know that we need to show a horse objects on both eyes otherwise they might spook at an object with one eye but not with the other.
These animals have two-color, or dichromatic vision. Like dogs, they have two color receptors for blue and yellow. We have three, red, green and blue. They might see color like a color-blind person. But, I wonder, are prey animals capable of seeing green? Why not? green is the color of their food and green is everywhere. Why wouldn’t they be able to see vivid shades of green. Colors are created in the brain so perhaps they see things wildly different from what scientific studies have concluded. But, I’m only speculating. It is true that they have a more limited color perception than us, but they have other visual gifts we don’t have. They see ultraviolet light and they see much better in the dark. They have huge eyes used to pick up the slightest movement.
They see what we cannot even imagine
Series 3: Birds
It is difficult to conceive what it would be like to have four-dimensional color vision. Birds “have this depth of richness that we can’t begin to imagine,” says Richard Prum, of the University of Kansas. “When my ornithology students ask ‘What does this color look like to a bird?’ I have to answer, ‘You will never know, you cannot know.’ It’s like asking what the music of bats sounds like.
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/854/233996
It’s not just difficult to visualize how a bird might see the world, it’s impossible. Science has developed some cameras and calculations that supposedly visualize birds additional color abilities but the images tend to look flat and wrong. If we could really see how birds see I imagine a sharper, more vivid, and truly amazing world. Seeing any images on a monitor also degrades the images further.
I’m exploring the concept of bird vision but starting simple to see where it goes. Please refer to the science section for additional information and direction. This will be exciting!
Roadrunners: Brown birds, like a roadrunner could perhaps look really colorful to another roadrunner. They might not be brown at all. I painted the roadrunners in imaginary colors. The reality is we are incapable of seeing how they might see themselves.
Vultures: How does a bird experience the air and sky? What if they are aware and could see air currents and wind?