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Transcript
MIKE: Right now, we are having a workshop on perception. The purpose of this workshop is to improve how we see things. And we’re gonna start with a short video.
VIDEO 1: The Door Study.1 This video shows a participant from a 1998 study by Daniel Simons and Daniel Levin. Watch what happens as the unsuspecting pedestrian provides directions. The young man on the left is one of the experimenters. He has approached the white-haired man and asked for directions. Watch closely as two people carrying a door pass between them, and the first experimenter is replaced by someone else. [Laughter in the room] Like many of the people in this study, the pedestrian was entirely unaware that he was talking to a different person. Approximately 50% of the people approached in this study didn’t notice when the person they were talking to was replaced by someone else.
[Laughter]
MIKE: Surely not me. [Laughter] Most of us think that we perceive a lot more than we do. Our eyes take in—and ears—a lot more data than we can process.
I read a story about a wife who would put her husband’s things on the stairs, so that when he went up to their room, he would see them and put them away. But he would walk right past them, leaving them for her to take care of. Her resentment grew until she finally blew up at him. And in the ensuing argument, he professed that he had never even seen them. [Chuckles] She thought he was deliberately ignoring them, but he hadn’t even noticed they were there.
A lot of information comes in one ear and out the other. My siblings and I learned this quickly when we were children. Mom would ask us to do things, and we just did not hear her. [Chuckles] It wasn’t just willful disobedience, though there was some of that. But there were other times when we just didn’t hear her, even though we were clearly in range. And, we definitely would have heard her if she had used the key words, “ice cream”. [Laughter] Too often, she failed to use those important words. [Laughter] But, the second thing we learned as children is that we were still responsible to do whatever Mom asked us, even if we didn’t hear her. And Dad taught us that lesson. [Laughter] So, we did learn to pay attention to our parents’ voices, at least sometimes.
The problem of perception is even more pronounced when we’re distracted or concentrating, no surprise there. That’s the point of the video with the basketball players passing a ball and a gorilla. How many of you have seen that video? Okay, maybe half of us? It’s a video that asks the viewers to count the number of times the participants pass the ball, and then a gorilla walks through. And like that video, about half the people don’t even see the gorilla. Let’s watch that one now.
VIDEO 22: The Monkey Business Illusion. Count how many times the players wearing white pass the ball. [Video plays] The correct answer is 16 passes. Did you spot the gorilla? For people who haven’t seen or heard about a video like this before, about half miss the gorilla. If you knew about the gorilla, you probably saw it. But did you notice the curtain changing color [Laughter erupts] or the player on the black team leaving the game? [Laughter in the room] Let’s rewind [more laughter] and watch it again… [rewinding sound effect] Here comes the gorilla, and there goes a player, and the curtain is changing from red to gold. [Audible “Wow”] When you’re looking for a gorilla, you often miss other unexpected events. [Laughter in the room] And that’s the monkey business illusion.
MIKE: Why are we doing a workshop on perception at this conference?
Well, the goal of the consultation is to hear God. We could go into the consultation with our mind made up: “I’ve heard it all before. I know the issues and what needs to be done.” If we do that, we will hear the things said in the sources that relate to what’s on our mind and our concerns, but we could easily miss the gorilla in the room, or a sister quietly dropping out of the conversation, or the still, quiet voice of the Lord.
But that’s not what we want. We want to hear the Lord. We’re praying for the grace to see and to hear, but there’s also things that we can do to help. Jesus expects us to do our part. He says, “Keep watch.” He asks us to seek, so that we can find.
The exercise we’re going to do was developed at Yale to help medical students increase their observation skills. A two-year study revealed that students who went through this workshop increased their ability to detect details by 10%. And that’s a significant improvement when you’re trying to detect cancer on an image. They learned to see more than they could see before, and the training was so successful that it spread to other fields where perception is important. It’s now used to train the New York Police Department, the FBI, and other agencies.
The FBI said that one of their agents training in this workshop helped him [sic] sharpen observations of office layouts, storage lockers, decks, and file cabinets containing incriminating evidence while he was undercover, and the information he provided led to detailed search warrants that ultimately led to thirty-four convictions, and government seizures worth up to $100 million.
So, for this exercise, we’re going to look at a painting, and it has two parts. The first is to describe what you see, and the second is to explain its meaning at the time it was made.
The first step is the most important—describe what you see. We don’t want to jump to conclusions, so hold off on forming firm opinions. Slow down. Allow more time for perception.
For example, an opinion might be, “That’s a cranky old person.” Hold off on that. Instead, say what you see: “He has no hair on his head. He’s hunched over. He’s always frowning. He has wrinkles on his skin.” Maybe he’s sick, and not cranky.
Or, another example of an opinion that you might give of a painting is, “She’s happy.” Well, how do you know? Instead, first just describe what you see. “She’s smiling. Her head is lifted up.” Maybe she’s pretending. So, that’s the first step. Hold off on jumping to conclusions and instead, just describe what you see.
And then the second step is giving conclusions. What do you think is going on here? What’s your conclusion about it? What’s the artist trying to get you to conclude? The artist draws our eyes to one part and then another, gives objects different sizes and prominence. Those are all clues that the artist is giving us to his or her meaning. You could ask, “Is this a portrayal of a historical event or figure? About what time period?”
The reason we’re using art for this exercise is because artists were very careful about all of the details they put in. They put thought into every part. It’s like a story frozen in time. And, the artworks have been studied so thoroughly that we have an answer key, [Laughter] so we can make our best guess, and then we can learn more information about it to see how’d we do. [sic]
Every table has a pile of worksheets that you can pass out now. It says, “Perception Exercise” on the top. It’s in blue… We’ll go over this now. You can reference it while we do this exercise together, but you can also take it with you if you want to do this exercise yourself back home.
So, step one, as I said, is describe the image. Don’t jump to conclusions. Then, below step one, you’ll see a list of elements that could guide you as you’re looking. So, if you say two or three things and now say, “What next?” you could refer back to this and it’ll give you some things to look for. “What gestures are they making? Expressions on their face?” Etc. So, you can read through that.
There is also at your table—we’re gonna do this once, all of us together, and then we’ll do it a second time at each table. So, at your table is an envelope. There’s two envelopes, but the one that says number one has some copies of this at it [points at the projector], so if you’re having a hard time looking at the screen, you can take one of the… There’s, I think, four per table. So, not enough for everyone, but you could share. There’s a piece of paper in there that has a description. Don’t read that yet. Just look at the pictures.3
So, Tom. Tom is gonna go around, and what we’ll do is, we’ll just start at one table and we’ll go across, and each table can provide three or four observations, and then we’ll go to the next. So, I’ll give—we’ll take a minute so that everyone can look at it, and figure out what you want to say, but that’ll allow you to listen to the other tables so when it gets to your table you can say something new. So, I bet the later tables are gonna want to read through these clues because a lot of the more obvious things will be said early on. Okay, so let’s take a minute to look…
MIKE: So, not everyone at the table, but this table can give us three or four observations, not conclusions.
MAN’S VOICE 1: It appears the back wall is dripping with an ooze.
MAN’S VOICE 2: The skeleton holding a goblet, it looks like… fruit and pie.
MIKE: Say it a little louder.
MAN’S VOICE 2: Oh. Is this on? Oh. The skeleton holding a goblet, and fruit plates and pie.
KEVIN RODRIGUEZ: Everybody’s looking at the skeleton.
MIKE: All right. Next table.
LIZ SLATTERY: It looks like each person at the table has someone behind them influencing them.
MARY FRANCES LOUGHRAN: There’s an empty chair in the front, in the foreground, with some linen of some kind on it.
BETH BULGER: Everybody is really sumptuously dressed.
MIKE: Next.
WOMAN’S VOICE 1: There are grimaces, mouths opened, hand on chest.
MIKE: Nice.
WOMAN’S VOICE 2: The mouths of several of the characters have like, a frown on them or a downward turn, and the two men in the back, their hands are showing resistance, and as if the very far back man looks like he’s startled in some way, that his arms are flailed back.
MIKE: Yeah, next table.
PHYLLIS VAREVICE: The woman sitting next to the skeleton is wide-eyed.
LUCY CUNNINGHAM: A piece of the pie is missing.
PAT RYNDA: There’s a man very faintly in the background on the left.
PAUL KANE: The missing piece of pie is not on anyone’s plate. [Laughter]
BOB MAGILL: The woman in green is pointing to the other woman’s heart and not looking at the skeleton.
MAN’S VOICE 4: There’s medieval period clothing, and it appears to be a banquet, and the looks on the faces are one of fear. [sic]
MAN’S VOICE 5: The man on the left, it appears to be his right hand at first, but it is in fact his left hand on the right side of the body. … The man on the left, who has the knee that looks like it has armor on it, the hand has the thumb on the wrong side for the right hand. It is, in fact, his left hand, or it is a left hand on the right side of his body.
MAN’S VOICE 6: The skeleton is leaning in as though speaking.
MIKE: Let’s move to two per table now. Yes, keep, move a little faster.
EMILY BOWAR: No one is touching the food.
NANCY GRAMS: This might have just been said, but the skeleton’s mouth is open as if it’s talking.
DAVID ZIMMEL: The man in the yellow has a fencing sword on his hip.
MAN’S VOICE 7: The woman in green has a hand around, or arm around the woman in red.
MIKE: Okay, let’s—we’ll stop there. And at each table, we’ll move on to question two. So, with your table, discuss your conclusions. What do you think is going on here? What’s the artist trying to convey? We’ll take about five minutes…
MIKE: Okay. Is there one brave table that would like to share their conclusions? Any takers?
JOSH CANEFF: So, we think that the skeleton is actually a guest at the table that was sitting in the empty chair and left to go get something and came back as a skeleton and everyone is frightened of that transformation.
MIKE: All right, thank you. I bet every table had a different interpretation.
Here is some more information about the painting.
“It is titled, Death Comes to the Banquet Table. It was painted in 1635 by Giovanni Martinelli. The genre of—it’s part of a type of painting called Memento Mori, which means, “Remember you must die”. The symbolism reminds us of the preciousness of life. This painting depicts a dinner party disrupted by the sudden appearance of a skeleton, Death, who reveals an empty hourglass to one of the revelers.” [Crowd oohhs]
Yeah, the reproduction isn’t great. Apologies for that.
“The featureless black of the background serves to obscure the skeleton and further accentuates the vibrancy of the diners’ fine clothes and abundance of food on the table.
“It is in the subtler details, like the pie sitting in front of the victim, where Martinelli reveals the moral lesson of his painting. The pie is the fullness of life, from which the young man has only experienced a sliver. The pie’s missing piece is situated between two glasses of wine, one red, one white. The red wine, symbolizing church communion sacrament, is elevated and isolated on a separate tray, while the white wine, symbolizing earthly concerns, lies closer to the pie sliver, revealing Martinelli’s moral that the victim’s short life was lived pleasurably on earth, but neglectful of spiritual concerns.” [Laughter]
At least, that’s someone’s interpretation of it. [Laughter]
Okay, now at your table, you’ll find another envelope with a new work of art. There should be one for every two people. And so, you can repeat both steps one and two just with your table. So, spend five minutes on each question–just, “What do you see?”, and then draw conclusions.4Â
MIKE: Okay, is there a volunteer to present your table’s conclusions? Yes? You’re on.
LINDA CONEY: We think it’s a money-lender and the big, fat, smug guy is gonna be collecting, and the other one with the red beret is just writing down what is owed. The little guy to the front has—it looks like maybe a bag of money, and he’s nervous. And he’s expecting—he’s hoping that he won’t—he’s talking a little bit about trying to excuse himself. The other two are waiting in line. There’s a scale for their turn, but they don’t wanna hear too much. They’re trying to be invisible. And there’s a scale in the front—that red thing we think is a scale to weigh things. So, that was… Anybody else had anything else on that?
MIKE: Nice, thank you. [Clapping] Okay. Drumroll, please.
“The title of this piece of art is, The Lawyer’s Office [laughter] by Marinus van Reymerswaele.”
Forgive me for that.
“Painted in 1545. A lawyer with his arm and hand raised is seated at the left. His clerk, writing, is in the center, while three other men fill the right side. The one in front empties a bag of money. The criticism of greed was a popular theme in 16th century Netherlandish painting. Paintings like this one were used to satirize the legal profession, which was already being criticized for its avarice. This artist’s reputation is based upon this type of satirical genre painting. The documents in the background of this painting refer to an actual lawsuit began in 1526, but not resolved until 1538, by which time the property in dispute had been destroyed by storms.” [Laughter]
Wow. Okay. Let’s take two minutes to just reflect on the exercise and write down, or just call to mind what are your takeaways from this exercise. What did you find helpful? Was there anything that surprised you? Anything that you learned that might be helpful for the consultation?
[Recording ends.]
Endnotes
1. Video 1 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWSxSQsspiQ. Return to text.
2. Video 2 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY. Return to text.
3. An image of the first painting can be found here. (Be careful not to read the description before doing the exercise, though!) https://noma.org/object-lesson-death-comes-to-the-banquet-table-by-giovanni-martinelli/. Return to text.
4. An image of the second painting can be found here: https://noma.org/collection/the-lawyers-office/. Return to text.
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