Last week’s class really interested me as it made me realize the importance of perception in different fields. What I mean by that is that the mention of synesthesia by Professor Sommers Smith and how she ‘sees’ music as colors gave me a very different view of how something can be viewed. If I feel like a piece of music is ‘darker’ because of its rhythm or tone, someone else might feel it to be more joyous because he or she ‘views’ it as a color associated with a lighter mood. Therefore, even if you feel like a piece of art is very straightforward or evident you might not be taking into account the different things that could lead an individual to be influenced in a certain way. In that way, it seems that science would be easier because it is not like scientific facts can be interpreted. While you can form theories about why such and such phenomenon is taking place and what it means, you can actually argue about the facts that are witnessed.
When describing the process by which the human brain translates what is going on inside the brain, Professor Sommers Smith was explaining a known process modeling how the nervous system translates observations into ‘electric currents’. What we however do not know, is how the observation of a phenomenon is translated differently depending on the individual. I am going to use a very renown example lately, but the statue of the sleepwalker that has been placed in the patch of land facing the Lulu has generated many different kinds of emotions from different people, when really we all see the same thing. I think it is very interesting that a immobile statue, a representation that has nothing to do with actual emotions can generate so much discussion and feelings. Perception in this case is really key; symbols can be found in unexpected environments, which brings me back to my earlier point that there is no way to predict a generalized opinion or vision.
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