Many feel a human to human connection to the representale of
a female in this Modigliani painting, even though it clearly
is not realistic.
An interesting cognitive question is why do humans have such
strong reactions and human connections to unrealistic art. For
example, why do viewers become emotionally attached to cartoons
characters as if the ink sketches are flesh and blood people?
Why do viewers become scared, even haunted, by a movie monster
they know doesn't exist? Why do humans become enthralled by distorted
figures in art, scenes that aren't remotely realistic? Why do
viewers have psychological reactions to the abstract?
This page lists numerous cognitive reasons behind our reactions
to the unrealistic in art. The reasons are presented in assorted
order and you are welcome to mix and match and add new ideas
as you please.
Visually distorted and incomplete objects are a normal
part of our everyday vision
In real life, humans constantly interpret and identify objects
and qualities that are masked, hidden, obscured and distorted.
Information is always hidden from the viewer, and such interpretations
are required for humans to be able to know what's going on. Limited
and distorted information also helps us judge qualities, such
as distance-- an object that appears small and hazy we judge
as far away. The same object big, clear and detailed we judge
as up close. That dog A is overlapped (partially hidden from
our view) by dog B tells us that dog A is behind dog B. Stones
rippling show the hiker that the stones beneath the brook's water.
This natural and often non-conscious ability to translate
the distorted, hidden, masked objects of real live is applied
to the distorted and hidden in art. And, as visual illusions
show, human's real world perception can be as imaginary as art.
This photograph of fog is not unlike impressionistic
or even abstract art. From the most basic qualites-- contast,
shapes, hints of shape-- we perceive people walking, a path,
snow, nearby trees. As fog is a relatively uncommon experience,
it is not uncommon for people to misjudge size and distance when
in it. A house can appear larger and further way that it really
is.
This Monet painting is similar
to the fog photo
The face in the Francis Bacon painting
(left) is disfigured, but so is the woman's by glare in the photograph
(right) and Jimmy Cagney's by shadow (below). Fantasy and reality
are not so far apart as far as visual distortion goes.
Rocks visually distorted by brook
water.
Single qualities can be powerful
Even if other qualities are unrealistic, incongruous or unrelated,
single qualities can evoke perceptions psychological reactions
in the viewer. Whether it's applied to a car, flower, t-shirt
or sculpture, the color candy apple red evokes similar reactions
in many viewers. The color black has associations no matter what
is colored black.
Irrelevant to other details, the colors produce different interpretations
of the birds.
Motion by itself often produces distinct perceptions in the
viewer. A blurry object that passes by the corner of your eye
will make you jump. A computer screen dot that is animated to
move like a fly will strike the viewer. The dot may not resemble
a fly, but the movement makes the computer user think 'fly.'
Our reactions to such movements are instinctual.
In non-representational art, a single or a few qualities can
evoke mood, depth, size, or other meaning in the viewer. Realism
is not required.
Non-conscious processing of information
Much of our optical interpretation is done instantly and non-consciously.
Whether the visual or auditory information it receives is real,
artificial, natural or man made, parts of brain automatically
process the colors, shapes, apparent textures, patterns. Our
brains automatically detect movement both in a running rabbit
in the back yard and Bugs Bunny on the television. Even if a
work of art mystifies the conscious, parts of the non-conscious
mind are busy processing and interpreting information. In the
mystifying, abstract image, the viewer can still get the sense
of depth or mood or movement. The abstract artist is often striving
for these types of subliminal meanings.
Encountering and tackling the new and strange is normal
and natural
All humans regularly encounter and try to figure out the new.
Cavemen came across strange new animals, people, landscapes and
weather phenomenon. We learn new customs, meet new people, learn
new facts and concepts. Due to conditions, it often takes a while
to identify objects we know about. For example, from far away
we may not know what the shadowy figure is, but by turning up
the lights and changing our viewing angles we see it is a crumpled
dish towel on the sill. In the real world and art, it is natural
to encounter the new, the strange and try and figure out what
its going. Both in life and in art, we get a good feeling when
we figure out or learn what it is we are looking at. Many people
enjoy jigsaw puzzles, word jumbles, Magic Eye pictures and mystery
novels.
Identification of objects and/or meaning is part of the aesthetic
experience of art. People often become frustrated by abstract
art when they can't form an identification. ("What am I
supposed to be looking at?" "It makes no sense to me?"
"I don't see anything."
Symbols
Humans are naturally in tune to symbols. Symbols are something
that represents something else. Our words are symbols for objects
and ideas. The letters d-o-g represent the fuzzy animal. Color,
shapes and sounds commonly symbolize other things. The sound
of a gong invokes a grand entrance. Even some non-human species
have symbols. The sound of a bell symbolized food to Pavlov's
drooling dog. My dogs could let you know what "walk,""snacks"
and the click of the leash represent.
Thus, art can be filled with images that are unrealistic but
symbolize real things. Even abstract art has colors, shapes and
designs that can symbolize. The associations can be instant,
conscious and subconscious. In cases, the symbols are become
so ingrained that the symbols seem to be the thing it represents.
Numerologist wrongly equate numeral
symbols (1, 2. 3,...) with the absolute numbers they represent.
Symbols involve genetic biases and tendencies, but are also
learned, cultural and personal. The color yellow can symbolize
different things to different cultures and in different contexts.
All of the preceding images have objects or qualities that
symbolize something to the viewers.
The rules of the game can become second nature
In real life there are many strange rules that become second
nature through repetition and social reinforcement. Similarly,
with repetition many of the conceits and aesthetics of different
art forms and they come second nature. Conceits can include a
sit-com duration (10 minutes would seem too short, three hours
too long), paintings being rectangular and hung from the wall,
that animals can talk in cartoons, tones and structures in music.
At first, a conceit may be foreign, but with time you don't give
them a second thought.
Speculation and theory
Humans know they don't know everything or have minds advanced
enough to know everything. They know many things, many concepts,
are beyond their understanding. Intellectually, emotionally and
spiritually they know there is more possibilities than exists
in our day-to-day go-to-work lives, different ways to look at
things. Many dream of new lives, different lives, other scenarios.
We have learned new things in the past, and know we will discover
knew things in the future. Both the creation and interpretation
of art involves speculation of the possible if not actual, the
theoretical, things that may or may not exist, the figurative.
Many of our natural feelings, perceptions and reactions are
irrational. In the real world, we have irrational fears, cognitive
biases, etc. That we perceive the objects in art irrationally
or illogically is no different than we irrationally or illogically
perceive the objects in daily life.
Humans are psychologically influenced by exaggerations
If a human is influenced by a quality, magnifying the quality
often influences that much more. If muscles on a man represent
strength, more muscles represent more strength. In the extremes,
we get characters like Hercules, Superman and the Incredible
Hulk. Superman and the Hulk may not represent anything on earth,
but the meaning of the muscles is clear. If a Gorilla is scary
due to its size and strength, then King Kong is that much scarier.
Humans always make 'whole' perceptions from limited information
That a human can take a limited or distorted view in art and
project it into something large is natural. In nature, many of
our visual illusions are caused by this subjective projection.
Natural limitations in visual perception
Human eyesight has limitations, including imperfect depth perception,
blind spots, limited color detection. Humans also have limited
visual experience, experience helping create out perceptions.
These optical limitation are seen in the real world (misjudging
depth, visual illusions in new landscapes, etc), but also in
art (perceiving depth in a 2D photo). We may accept falsehood
in a sketch or novel, as we are inexperienced with the subject.
I've never been to Boston, and have no idea if the street scenes
in Cheers are accurate. I live in Seattle and can tell you that
some of the shown city scape don't exist.
With both reality and art, the viewer's perception is in
part formed by cognitive biases. Emphasis, patterns, and
even many identifications are subject to the viewer. Our identification
of a horse in a cloud (patttern bias)
is as much fantasy as art. In art and nature, we often perceive
what we expect to perceive. The perception is as much a representation
of the viewer as the subject, See also: comparison
bias, subjective identification
Who says the realistic is so realistic?
One person's realism is another's propaganda
The image may be photographic, but it's at least 50 percent artifice
Does this formal photographic portrait show the siblings as they
really were away from the camera? Probably not. A song might
represent her personality far better than this 'realisistic'
depiction.
The unreal can seem a closer representation of the real
than the real
Much inner psychology can be better communicated through fiction
than realism. Emotions are often better represented by the abstract,
expressionist, the fantasy that is music. The below Munch painting,
The Scream, represents inner toil in a way that a snapshot photo
and words couldn't. Art often invokes our dreams and irrational
emotions, ideas and speculation.
Much information triggers automatic perceptions. When
you listen to sounds, including music, you have visuals and narrative
associations in your mind. Music might remind you of a memory,
evoke a landscape or make you picture the band playing.
Why do movie goers get genuinely scared, even physically
jumpy, by a movie that they know is just a fantasy movie, that
they paid tickets for or turned on the television to see and
stars actors they know from other movies?
There are a vast numbers of reasons for this, and the following
are just a few factors ... All movies involve visual illusion,
with the viewer's mind misinterpreting a succession of still
images as real, continuous movement ... The horror movies play
on our natural biases and reactions (dark is ominous, sudden
movement and surprise, etc) and real or imagined fears ... It
plays on our speculative and theoretical nature (It couldn't
happen. Or could it? Could that happen in my neighborhood, my
house?) ... The often impossible exaggerations (biggest shark
ever, hideously ugly creature, 8 foot rather than 5 foot monster)
actually increase or psychological sensations. The exaggerations
are speculative ... The viewers adapt to the movie, its language,
losing themselves in the story. This type of adaptation and focus
is natural. A darkened theatre aids this focus ... We know the
rules of the game: movie pacing, dialogue, the presence of music,
other conceits. Horror movies both follow and break our expectations
... The human can't focus on many things at once. The human mind
doesn't have the capacity. This explains why the viewer can lose
himself in a move, literally forgetting where he is, for a period
think the projection is real. ... Movies play on our imaginative
nature. Directors know the unseen can be scarier than the shown
Our reactions to movies tells a lot about how humans process
information psychologically and physiologically, as the movie
is just a projection of light and the viewers themselves know
this. If the movie is made right and plays on the viewers optics
and psychological biases, a viewer can't help but get scared.
