In preparation for our upcoming residency at STRUT Dance in Perth Something Machine (Pansun Kim, Genevieve Osborne, Milena Twiehaus and I) met at Tanzfabrik Berlin this week to continue working on THE 2ND EXCESSIVE RUDENESS. As part of our research into the theme of observation we started collecting a whole bunch of (more or less) related facts:
OBSERVATION is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the recording of data via the use of scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during the scientific activity. Observations can be qualitative, that is, only the absence or presence of a property is noted, or quantitative if a numerical value is attached to the observed phenomenon by counting or measuring.
OBSERVATIONS is a collaborative coffee table book with photography by Richard Avedon, commentary by Truman Capote and design by Alexey Brodovitch. It features a slipcase with color, all-capitalized lettering; the book itself is further housed in a clear acetate/glassine slip cover and is printed with the same bold design as the slipcase in black-and-white. Simon & Schuster published the work in 1959 having it printed using the photogravure method in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The OBSERVER’S PARADOX can be defined as the double-bind researchers find themselves in when what they are interested in knowing is how people behave when they are not being observed; but the only way to find out how they behave is to observe them. To overcome the observer’s paradox sociolinguists often spend long periods of time working and/or living with the people whose speech they are interested in, and they hope that by doing this they will eventually achieve insider status themselves. This is known as participant observation.
The human senses do not function like a video camcorder, impartially recording all observations. HUMAN PERCEPTION occurs by a complex, unconscious process of abstraction, in which certain details of the incoming sense data are noticed and remembered, and the rest forgotten. What is kept and what is thrown away depends on an internal model or representation of the world, called by psychologists a schema, that is built up over our entire lives. The data is fitted into this schema. Later when events are remembered, memory gaps may even be filled by "plausible" data the mind makes up to fit the model; this is called reconstructive memory. How much attention the various perceived data are given depends on an internal value system, which judges how important it is to the individual. Thus two people can view the same event and come away with entirely different perceptions of it, even disagreeing about simple facts.
THE OBSERVATION is a song by Donovan from his 1967 album Mellow Yellow:
On the sidewalk the people are hustling and bustling,
They ain't got no time so they think on the thing
That will fill in the space in between birth and death.
Who're they kidding?
On the TV the people are mumbling and grumbling,
They ain't got no hope so they give out the news
That the world's got the blues, S.O.S. S.O.S.
Bless my soul.
In the movies the people are identifying
They ain't got no season to split for no reason
And so they get by on the great community lie.
On the sidewalk the people are hustling and bustling,
They ain't got no time so they think on the thing
That will fill in the space in between birth and death.
Who're they kidding?
Who're they kidding?
SURVEILLANCE is the monitoring of behavior, activities, or other changing information for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting people. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment (such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras) or interception of electronically transmitted information (such as Internet traffic or phone calls). It can also include simple no- or relatively low-technology methods such as human intelligence agents and postal interception. The word surveillance comes from a French phrase for "watching over" (sur means "from above" and veiller means "to watch") and is in contrast to more recent developments such as sousveillance.
VISION SCIENCE is the scientific study of vision. Vision science encompasses all studies of vision, such as how human and non-human organisms process visual information, how conscious visual perception works in humans, how to exploit visual perception for effective communication, and how artificial systems can do the same tasks. Vision science overlaps with or encompasses disciplines such as ophthalmology and optometry, neuroscience(s), psychology (particularly sensation and perception psychology, cognitive psychology, linguistics, biopsychology, psychophysics, and neuropsychology), physics (particularly optics), ethology, and computer science (particularly computer vision, artificial intelligence, and computer graphics), as well as other engineering related areas such as data visualization, user interface design, and human factors and ergonomics.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING is learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others. Through observational learning, individual behaviors can spread across a culture through a process called diffusion chain. This basically occurs when an individual first learns a behavior by observing another individual and that individual serves as a model through whom other individuals learn the behavior, and so on.
Albert Bandura's SOCIAL COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY states that there are four stages involved in observational learning:
- Attention: Observers cannot learn unless they pay attention to what's happening around them. This process is influenced by characteristics of the model, such as how much one likes or identifies with the model, and by characteristics of the observer, such as the observer's expectations or level of emotional arousal.
- Retention/Memory: Observers must not only recognize the observed behavior but also remember it at some later time. This process depends on the observer's ability to code or structure the information in an easily remembered form or to mentally or physically rehearse the model's actions.
- Initiation/Motor: Observers must be physically and/intellectually capable of producing the act. In many cases the observer possesses the necessary responses. But sometimes, reproducing the model's actions may involve skills the observer has not yet acquired. It is one thing to carefully watch a circus juggler, but it is quite another to go home and repeat those acts.
- Motivation: The observer must have motivation to recreate the observed behavior.
PEOPLE WATCHING or CROWD WATCHING is the act of observing people and their interactions, usually without their knowledge. It involves picking up on idiosyncrasies to try to guess at another person's story. This includes speech in action, relationship interactions, body language, expressions, clothing and activities. Eavesdropping may accompany the activity, though is not required. For some people it is considered a hobby, but for many others it is a subconscious activity they partake in everyday without even realizing. People watching is not to be confused with naturalistic observation. Naturalistic observation is used for scientific purposes, whereas people watching is a casual activity, used for relaxation or inspiration for characters or characters' mannerisms in their own creative works. Proper people watching should follow society's expectation of privacy and be ethical, without degrading the subjects.
WAYS OF SEEING is a 1972 television series of 30-minute films created chiefly by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. It was broadcast on BBC Two in January 1972. The series was intended as a response to Kenneth Clark's Civilisation series, which represents a more traditionalist view of the Western artistic and cultural canon. The series was adapted into a book of the same name, consisting of seven numbered essays: four using words and images; and three essays using only images. The opening to John Berger’s most famous written work offered not just an idea but also an invitation to see and know the world differently: “The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled”.
The VISUAL CORTEX of the brain is a part of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe. Visual nerves run straight from the eye to the primary visual cortex to the Visual Associtaion cortex. Visual information coming from the eye goes through the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus and then reaches the visual cortex. The part of the visual cortex that receives the sensory inputs from the thalamus is the primary visual cortex, also known as visual area 1 (V1), and the striate cortex. The extrastriate areas consist of visual areas 2 (V2), 3 (V3), 4 (V4), and 5 (V5). Both hemispheres of the brain contain a visual cortex; the visual cortex in the left hemisphere receives signals from the right visual field, and the visual cortex in the right hemisphere receives signals from the left visual field.
Header photo by Milena Twiehaus