The Senses
We have more than 5 senses, and each sense is often multidimensional. In addition, the senses in some animals reach amazing levels such that those animals live in a world that must seem very different from ours. As a scientist I have been involved in visual, auditory, and vestibular research. As an artist, I paint visual images, but also still enjoy the feel of wet clay in my hands. As a traveller, the sights, sounds, smells, and taste of the world excite me.
Camouflage, Picasso, and Battleships
Camouflage reveals a striking intersection of biology, art, psychology, and warfare, tracing how principles of visual perception move from zebras and tigers to Cubist painters and World War battleships. Beginning with figure–ground illusions, countershading (as described by Abbott Thayer), disruptive patterns, and mimicry in animals, the presentation shows how breaking up outlines and manipulating shading interfere with the brain’s edge detection and shape-from-shading processes. These insights migrated into military practice: from khaki uniforms and French artist-led camouflage units in WWI to Norman Wilkinson’s bold “dazzle” ship patterns designed not to hide vessels but to confuse enemies about their speed, size, and direction. Modern camouflage evolved further through Gestalt psychology, multi-scale digital patterns like CADPAT, fractal analysis inspired by Jackson Pollock’s paintings, and experimental research on motion illusions. Ultimately, whether protecting a zebra from flies or a convoy from U-boats, camouflage exploits how perception works—proving that survival often depends less on invisibility than on confusion.
Cats, a Sensory Marvel
Cats are ambush predators and their senses are highly attuned toward hunting. Smell, hearing, and touch (via their whiskers) are superior humans. Although they can not see fine detail as well as humans they are better at detecting motion on in low-light situations. Domestication happened surprisingly recently in the Near East and cats spread rapidly, becoming almost as popular as dogs. And what is up with catnip?
Monkeys, Seeing Color Again
Most mammals get by with color vision that is more limited than that of fish and birds. So why did primates re-evolve better color detectors and why are new world monkeys an interesting intermediate phase.
Horses, Motion Perception, and Movies
Horses have shaped human culture, art, warfare, and even cinema, evolving from Paleolithic cave depictions to symbols of speed and power in classical sculpture and modern painting. Domesticated on the Eurasian steppe, horses transformed mobility through chariots in Assyria and Shang China, advanced riding gear like early saddles and Han-era stirrups, and the mounted warfare of steppe nomads from the Scythians to the Mongols. Artists across centuries wrestled with how to depict equine motion—from the Greek Jockey of Artemision to Gérôme’s dramatic chariot races—anticipating the study of motion that would later inform photography and film. The presentation also explores how horses see and move: wide monocular vision, a visual streak, sensitivity to motion, and physiological adaptations for endurance shape both their behavior and how riders and filmmakers frame them. Ultimately, the horse becomes a bridge between biology and imagination—an animal whose physical grace inspired technological innovation, artistic experimentation, and the cinematic fascination with movement itself.
The Shape of Illusions
Planned
Dogs, Wolves, and Noses
Planned
Planned