Seeing
Exhibition Overview
June 29, 2002-January 31, 2003

The illuminating insights into the complex process of interpreting our world through our eyes, our brains and our own subjectivity are presented in over 70 exhibits in Seeing, organized by subject areas as follows.

Light and the Eye
Consider that the images formed by light on the backs of our eyes are flat, upside-down, distorted, full of holes, out of focus and obscured by dark networks of blood vessels. It’s amazing that we see at all! Light and the Eye deals with the anatomical and physiological features of the light-sensing eye. As the over fifteen exhibits in this area suggest, our eyes, even in the initial stages of vision, are not just passive cameras. The Eyetracker follows the motion of your eyes as you study images, showing our continual scanning of our world—and how we each focus on different aspects of the same scene. At Red/Green Goggles, saturate your right eye with green light and your left eye with red light. Then look at the world by blinking one eye and then the other—friends go from rosy good health to sickly, to the say the least, as you learn about how your eyes respond to colored light. And the Fovea Remover shows how a brief flash of light can eliminate your ability to see details—temporarily, of course!

Seeing Color/Seeing Motion/Seeing Depth
The eye and brain together perform amazing feats. Sometimes you see color where there is only black and white, or black and white where there is color. Sometimes you see three dimensions where there are only two. Using one eye, you may even see two dimensions where there are three.

Seeing Color, Seeing Motion, and Seeing Depth contain more than 25 exhibits demonstrating how our visual system does not simply record the light that enters our eyes—it interprets the light, in often surprising ways. At Colored Rooms, illuminated rooms appear to be the same, but when identical objects are placed inside, they seem to have strikingly different colors. Silage Beach shows how an environment in motion can cause us to perceive that we are moving—even if we’re standing still. At Dancing Dots, you encounter colored circles on a piece of paper. When the paper is moved, one of the dots appears to slide on the page while the others move along with the paper as expected. Seeing Yellow presents two different mixtures of yellow light, which appear to be identical. Your visual system cannot tell them apart, but a two-color filter reveals a striking difference. Disappearing Act illustrates how easily objects can blend into their backgrounds—until they move.

Seeing In Context, Paying Attention
We don’t see in piecemeal; we always see individual things within a larger environment—like a bright white moon against the black night sky. In fact, the moon is dark gray and only appears bright white because of its context against the black sky. The exhibits in Seeing In Context, Paying Attention bring home the way that everything in a scene— noticed or not—affects our perception, and illustrate the powerful role of attention in what we see. For instance, would you believe that you might perceive a round object on the wall as a clock, and the same object, when on a table, as a plate? Or that there could be more light coming from a chunk of coal in sunlight than from a normal sheet of paper? Bright Black explores the powerful roles of context and illumination in how we judge brightness. At Shadow Colors, find out that shadows may seem to be colors they’re not—even though shadows have no colors at all. These exhibits also illustrate how our brains make choices about what to see. At The Disappearer, clearly visible objects on a round platform disappear before your eyes when the background begins to rotate. Similarly, find out the shocking truth about all that you can NOT see at Basketball. Without giving away what researchers have learned about how easily we can miss even obvious things, suffice it to say that at this exhibit, following the ball is not always the best advice—even if most basketball players are noted for their visual acuity.

Interpreting Images
Interpreting Images reverses the old phrase Seeing is Believing to create the equally accurate Believing Is Seeing. This section explores the roles of ambiguity, culture, and belief in the process of vision, highlighting the profound subjectivity of seeing. For example, Blank Comics are comic strip frames with no dialogue. Insert your own dialogue, and learn the way visual cues cause us to interpret images—and how different people see very different events in the same scenes. Perspectives takes this idea one step further, as it lets you be a "director," putting scenes together in different ways to change the meaning of a complex social event. As you choose different sequences of camera shots of the same scene, discover how such choices impact what viewers see, and therefore understand. This section will also include the Seeing Gallery, a space devoted to artworks illustrating the infinite ways we can interpret images. The Gallery's rotating exhibitions will feature everything from artworks by visually impaired artists to experiments in multimedia.

Other Features of the Collection:

Seeing Station
Supervised and small group activities include the use of lasers to study optics, state-of-the-art medical technology providing views inside the living eye, and demonstrations of how card tricks are based on expectations and attention. Visitors can also experiment with how the eye and brain work together to create illusions.

The Eye Curiosity Shop
Explore the kitsch and culture of the eye. Many cultures have viewed the eye as the window to the soul. The concept of the Evil Eye has appeared in many cultures over the centuries, and representations of eyes signifying wisdom or protection from evil abound. In this country, the eye appears on everything from the dollar bill to advertising campaigns for mascara and monster movies. Here, visitors can explore the vast range of depictions of eyes, a range which illustrates the enduring importance humans have always placed on seeing.

Works by Artists

Bill Bell’s Between the Lines, Gerald Marks’s Professor Pulrich’s Universe, Bob Miller’s Sun Painting and Paul Kaiser’s Inkblot Perceptions. (See other press release for details).