kasturi

BEFORE SIGHT BECOMES PERCEPTION

Kasturi Shah 

This piece visualises the timeseries of US COVID19 cases by painting a metaphor between the temporal accumulation of cases and the manner in which the visual information contained in my painted scenes from the pandemic is revealed. It uses the fundamental components of visual cognition -- edges, brightness, darkness, shape, speed and colour as well as each viewer's associative recall experiences -- to ask a question about the human perceptual system that has a strong parallel to the emergence of public understanding on the coronavirus pandemic: for how long can we occupy that mist-filled moment before seeing becomes perceiving? Immerse yourself in this world by taking an interactive tour with audio (CLICK HERE and select the gear menu to turn audio + ambient noise on) and by exploring the materials on this page!

Experiencing how our perceptual system orients 
                             itself when confronted with a 
complicated, multi-faceted visual stimulus
whose meaning changes 
                                               as the            observer 
                                                                                                                                             moves.
How do edges            C

                                     R

                                       Y

                                        S

                                         T

                                          A

                                         L

                                        L

                                       I

                                      S

                                     E      into a depth object?

How do beams of light       reveal       a scene?  Alter a scene?          Erase a scene?

                                                   Occupying that moment before seeing becomes perceiving.
                                                            That moment when coherence emerges from the mist.