Perception Is the Pattern
I’ve been following the work of artist Faig Ahmed for over a decade. He takes traditional, centuries-old textile patterns and completely distorts them into surreal, melting, pixelated sculptures.
It’s a stunning blend of tradition, function, and unexpected disruption.
I recently visited an exhibition featuring his work, Collective Pattern, which dives into the physiological and psychological mechanisms of perception by asking a fundamental question: "How do we perceive art?"
To answer it, researchers rigged up a data-driven headset to measure visitors' brain activity in real time as they viewed his rug installations. They measured and captured a full spectrum of physiological inputs using EEG, ECG, EMG, and eye-tracking technologies.
The resulting data waves ended up looking strikingly like the intricate weavings of the carpets themselves. It showed that the interaction between the viewer and artwork is completely unique to each individual.
The exact same piece of art generated entirely different neural and cognitive experiences across different demographics, specifically revealing distinct visual processing patterns between men and women
In our everyday lives, it's easy to fall into the trap of assuming that if our message is clear to us, it will land the exact same way with everyone else. It doesn't.
Your audience is never a monolith. An investor, product engineer, and first-time customer are all looking at your corporate tapestry through entirely different neural and experiential lenses.
Here's how you can ensure your narrative actually lands:
- Understand your audience's baseline before you try to disrupt or innovate. You should recognize the foundational patterns your audience expects.
- Tailor for perception by speaking directly to what the audience cares about. Executives want to know the strategic ROI; operational leads want to know about efficiency. Focus on impact, not just how you got there.
- Respect the evolution. How someone reacts to your brand or message today will change over time, and great leadership leaves room for the audience to grow alongside your body of work.
Function and visual impact must work together. You can deliver the exact same slide deck or speech to ten different people in a boardroom and understanding how each individual brain in that room is actually processing it is a great advantage.
Princeton University Art Museum
Comments
Be the first to comment.