Visual indeterminacy is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a viewer is presented with a seemingly meaningful visual stimulus that denies easy or immediate identification (Pepperell, 2006). The Perceptual Phenomenon of Visual Indeterminacy Finally, I will consider some of the implications of this work for art–science interdisciplinarity in general. I will then describe some of the neuroscience that relates to the phenomenon, and the collaborative studies I have undertaken with neuroscientists and psychophysicists to investigate responses to such images. In setting out the background, I will describe how I became aware of the phenomenon of visual indeterminacy, how other artists have explored its effects, and how I have tried in my own work to produce images that are indeterminate. The paper will start by introducing the topic that was the subject of the collaborative investigations, which I term “visual indeterminacy.” This is an area of great significance in the history of art and, as I hope to show, is potentially of considerable neuroscientific interest also. As a result of this work I remain convinced not only that artists and scientists can work together effectively to create new, mutually relevant, knowledge but that it is very important they do. As will be seen, the process of working closely with scientists has raised a number of issues of the kind I believe many collaborators face when trying to work across two quite distinct traditions. First, though, I will discuss my own experience as an artist collaborating with scientists in the study of art. The challenges will be addressed later in this paper. Which is why the recent collaborative activity is to be welcomed, despite the great inter-cultural and methodological challenges it poses. The task of unpacking all this deposited artistic knowledge and reconciling it with our current scientific understanding of perception and cognition is vast. Through their investigations artists have left a permanent record of their findings in all the countless works of art in museums and galleries around the world. 2): “…most painters are also neurologists.” Cavanagh ( 2005), another eminent vision researcher, talked of “the artist as neuroscientist.” Given that for many centuries artists have been intensively studying the way the world is perceived it is perhaps not surprising they have come to understand certain features of the way, for example, we sense objects, color, form, or depth. One of the factors motivating this new collaborative spirit is the realization that artists have made certain discoveries about the way the human brain works that are only now being uncovered by scientists. Occasionally scientists have worked closely with art historians to share ideas and approaches (Freedberg and Gallese, 2007 Onians, 2008). The last decade or so has seen substantial interdisciplinary activity between the arts and sciences, with many scientists applying knowledge and methods from their own areas in order to gain new insights into how art is made and appreciated (Journal of Consciousness Studies, 1999, 2000, 2004 Zeki, 1999 Livingstone, 2002 Solso, 2003 Martindale, 2006). After reviewing this work, I will discuss the conclusions I have drawn from its findings and consider the problem of how best to integrate neuroscientific methods with artistic knowledge to create truly interdisciplinary approach. I will briefly review some of this work and show how my attempts to understand the science behind visual indeterminacy led me to collaborate with psychophysicists and neuroscientists. Visual indeterminacy is not widely studied in neuroscience, although references to it can be found in the literature on visual agnosia and object recognition. My own attempts to create indeterminate images will be discussed, including some of the technical problems I faced in trying to manipulate the viewer's perceptual state through paintings. I will look at the background to this phenomenon, and show how various artists have exploited its effect through the history of art. I have collaborated on several scientific studies into the effects of art on the brain and behavior, looking in particular at the phenomenon of “visual indeterminacy.” This is a perceptual state in which subjects fail to recognize objects from visual cues. In this article I will discuss the intersection between art and neuroscience from the perspective of a practicing artist.
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