Thus far, my studio practice has explored how to viscerally make sense of the world, challenging perception and engaging complex ideas through intuition. I push for ways to align someone’s self-concept with their surroundings and hopefully instil courage and action. Evoking Insight through Interactive Illusions: Exploring the Impact of Attentional Shifts on the Realisation of Predictive Perception in Art is an interdisciplinary study that I conducted earlier this year, taking this exploration further by combining art, philosophy and visual cognitive neuroscience.  

Insight is a phenomenon that I believe lies at the core of our concept of Self. In this study, I explore how these insightful “Aha!" moments induce a powerful alignment between our internal mental models and our external reality. This allows us to refine our understanding of both ourselves and our environment, fostering a more nuanced sense of self that can actively participate in shaping our lived experience.

For this study, I designed an “interactive illusion” to explore potential links between visual complexity, active perceptual problem-solving, and the occurrence of insight and enhanced self-awareness. In other words, I looked at how the body’s visual system interprets what we see, and how this interpretation might influence the clarity of our thoughts, our understanding of the world, and ourselves.

I guided participants through a looking meditation with either the illusion (a detailed, perceptually ambiguous and visually complex work with layers of hidden imagery), or a control artwork (visually simple*, consisting of two fields of colour), while their brain activity was monitored using a Muse device. The Muse 2 headband is a wearable EEG device that captures brainwaves like alpha, beta, theta, and delta waves, each associated with different mental states and normally used to help the wearer get real-time feedback while meditating. 

I found that the illusion led to higher levels of excitement and mental engagement in viewers than the control artwork, which induced more states of calm sedation. This suggests that engaging with visually complex art might stimulate our brains in ways that promote active thinking and problem-solving. Intricacy in visual art seems to keep our minds more alert and engaged, potentially enhancing our capacity to gain satisfying new insights or perspectives.

While this small study offers promising initial insights, more research is needed to confirm these findings. Still, it suggests that engaging with visually complex art might have potential benefits for self-awareness and personal agency. As a first scientific exploration, it opens interesting avenues for further investigation.

The full write-up of my study can be found here. 

*Which by absolutely no means implies that it is conceptually less rich or valuable, of course.