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About ERA



"Unless we can meaningfully plot our way out of our heads we are not doing physics" John Jupe

Experiential Research Atelier (ERA) encourages research focused on perceptual awareness, consciousness and how we engage with our environment. Our purpose is to provide the means by which collective insights can be modelled for social advantage through technology.

We are looking for collaborative research partners to tackle specific research questions and to provide support to others in their like-minded projects.

General introduction
Traditionally many disciplines have attempted to approach the 'realm' of perceptual awareness using the scientific tool set of third person objective experimentation. The hope being to ‘observe’ and monitor remotely the state of 'awareness' through experimental processes dependent upon instrumentation. We maintain that in isolation this ontology is not fit for purpose and serves to reinforce the science/art divide and so frustrate meaningful progress.

Science manipulates things and gives up living in them. It makes its own limited models of things; operating upon these indices or variables to effect whatever transformations are permitted by their definition, it comes face to face with the real world only at rare intervals. Merleau Ponty

More recently key scientists have responded to the challenge developing psychophysical methodologies capable of approaching aspects of our relationship with the real. We see these disciplines and practitioners as natural collaborators moving forwards.

No device will reveal perception in any guise…The mind is far from being a product of the brain. It derives from the interaction of the embodied brain and the world. Prof Jan Koenderink

Bridging the gap between forefront research and technological application

The phenomenon of vision is ‘prior to’ science, as is audition and perceptual awareness in general. Vision occurs to us as sentient beings and not to our instrumentation. If we are attempting to explore the subjective realm of perceptual awareness it is essential to gather a reliable body of intuitive insights from those that work in the experiential realm to set along side, guide and inform the scientific experimentation.

Intuitive record (art work such as paintings) can form a direct connection to our relationship with the real reflecting important aspects of perceptual structure that can be meaningfully manifested as stimuli and therefore be approached experimentally. These perceptually structured systems can subsequently be prepared as technologies and commercialised.

ERA will develop and address relevant research questions with its partners seeking funding from research bodies and industry partners as required. ERA will publish its research through the PAC web site and other publishing houses.


ERA is collaborating with Frank C Langbein, School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, on Vision Space rendering. This has supported the development of rendering algorithms, also by incorporating geometric modelling and computer vision techniques. Current efforts are focusing on a real-time rendering system to enable formal evaluation and further development of Vision Space, with the aim to obtain third party funding to support this activity.

 

Art

Demos

ERA form button

Research into visual awareness is reliant on the further development of our intuitive exploration of phenomenal field. Visual artist have strategies for pursuing this agenda that require support, recognition and classification.


Pine tree near Aix en Provence, 1995-97
Paul Cézanne, Oil on canvas,
the Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia

AppleMark
The White Table Cloth, 1924
Pierre Bonnard, Oil on Canvas
Credit: Photo © Christie's Images

 

 

Library

Ecology of vision
Abstract | Full

Living without pictorial geometry
Abstract | Full

Muller cells & mechanobiology
Abstract | Full

Perceptual condendation in contextual field
Abstract | Full

The Experiential Ontology
Abstract | Full

Retinal processing: A theoretical proposition for retinal detection of a field potential unfolding from the light array to form the basis of spatial and orientation awareness within the phenomenon of vision
Abstract | Full

Having the Courage of Your Perceptions
Abstract | Full

Replicating our understanding of vision in images

Abstract | Full

PT Use of Vision-Space ERA

SIGGRAPH

Joe Baldwin's evaluation work

Theoretical overview What does perceptual structure indicate with respect to cultural development, the maintenance of social orders and communication between world-views?
Abstract | Full


 

 

 

PAC

 

 

Perceptual Technologies