Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Apparent Motion

When Max Wertheimer described the Phi Phenomenon he was making an important perceptual observation.  His observation of apparent movement created by seeing images in succession embodied the Gestalt principle that 'the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts'. 
This holistic concept not only applies to our vision but also to our other senses.  In all areas of the study of perception it becomes apparent that the input from any of our sense receptors goes through many processes before it becomes something meaningful.  Here is one of my favorite clips that illustrates this concept very well.  Notice how the still images come to life and begin to move as the zeotrope spins.

3 comments:

  1. I watched this video and thought it was pretty cool. I liked at the end with the red and white pins and how it was sort of like a wave of the pins and then the picture slides, also. It was like watching a mini film because they all moved and had different pictures on them and as they moved, it looked like the people in the pictures were moving too

    ReplyDelete
  2. This video was really interesting, it's really cool what people can do but just making objects and the making them spin and it looks as if they are moving very interesting on how it is done. It's just crazy what people can accomplish now of days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" is one of my favorite quotes. It shows that you have to look at the big picture to get the whole story which could apply to many life experiences. The video demonstrated this idea well.

    ReplyDelete