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I chose Clarisa’s looking outwards from week 2, because I can relate to her fascination with virtual reality after experiencing it for the first time recently. I think the project she chose, Memo Akten’s Fight (2017), is really amazing and I agree with Clarisa in that the most interesting aspect is its variability- no two people will see and interpret the visuals in their brains the same way, though the images stay constant with each showing. I think it is important, however, to highlight how the artist achieved this effect by utilizing his knowledge of psychology and the binocular rivalry phenomenon. While looking around, the viewer’s brain chooses which aspects of the two images shown become dominant or suppressed, presenting the viewer with an animated patchwork of the two images. Even more amazing is the message that the picture we see in our minds is not a clear representation of the outside world, but of simulated world constructed based on our expectations and prior experiences.
(the link to the work)
(the original looking outwards post)
(the simulation of the mixing of the two images within the brain)
fight_snippet_4 from Memo Akten on Vimeo. (a clip of the two images shown in the VR)