Design, Emotion, Perception and Illusion (Lecture Notes)

This lecture explored the reasons behind why we should create the work that we do. It is important to remember that all work should include a reason behind it.

What reaction will my audience have to this piece of work?

Is this the emotional or visual reaction that I want them to have?

Example of a Colour Blind Test

http://colorvisiontesting.com/images/plate%209%20%20%20%20%2057.jpg

The above example is a practice used by Optometry to identify whether or not a patient is colour blind. Some people may not be able to see the number '57' in the centre of the circle as their eyes are unable to process that information. However, the intended reaction by the designer of this image is that their audience should be able to clearly identify the number in the circle.

Perception

Perception refers to the brain first receiving a piece of information from one or more of our senses and then the action of  making sense of that information. For example, the above Colour Blind Test image is essentially a pattern of orange and red circles inside a larger circle made up of small green circles. However our brain receives this information from our eyes, organises the pattern into a meaningful shape and tells us that the pattern inside is the number 57. 

Expectation of Perception

The expectation of perception is very important, particularly with images created to provide an optical illusion. For example do you see two faces in the above image, or a vase? This works by our brains filtering out certain pieces of information in order to channel our perception of an image in a particular direction.