ABSTRACT

There are many examples of contemporary art that encourage perceptual multi-stability where instant recognition of a shape, object or scene, which is called coarse-grained vision (sometimes called a global view or whole-view) is held in tension with a fine-grained perceptual vision of the smaller details (a local or part-view). Apprehending a scene or an object proceeds from instances of general scanning and shape recognition to localized, more finely focused and temporally extended inspection that is accompanied by conceptual, cultural, and phenomenal elaboration. In this chapter, the author looks at how contemporary art disturbs normative psychological mechanisms, interrupting their seamless functioning with political and cultural interventions concerning issues of globalization. Artists use this perceptual multi-stability—the juxtaposition of coarse- and fine-grained vision—to provoke conceptual questions about the conflict between local cultural identity and globalization. Such work introduces discordant perceptual, political, and cultural problems that disturb the timeless ideals of visual harmony and formalism explained by perceptual psychology.