BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Visual experience\, topology and the perception of art - Shabnam Kadir (University of Hertfordshire) DTSTART:20240403T103000Z DTEND:20240403T112000Z UID:TALK213757@talks.cam.ac.uk DESCRIPTION:The brain has access to visual information via a variety of ne ural codes\, e.g. there are cells tuned to edge orientation\, spatial freq uency\, edges\, corners\, contrasts and colour. Higher cortical areas of t he brain are thought to then further process visual information as well as integrate a visual scene with other senses and the conscious mind. How th is visual information is combined with experience to form a holistic exper ience that elicits an emotional response of pleasure\, distress and/or oth er forms of meaning is an active research question. The human perception o f art and the question of what constitutes art touch upon all these elemen ts of perception and integration. We shall show how topology provides a vi tal new lens in examining these questions.\n \;\nWe discuss recent wor k where methods from applied topology\, namely persistent homology of cert ain cubical complexes\, are applied to images produced by both a human art ist and a neural network shown in two exhibitions in Torun\, Poland. The i mages shown in the two exhibitions were matched for certain information-th eoretic pixel-based characteristics. Experimental measurements of EEG\, tr acking of eye movement\, as well as conscious perception/appreciation of t hese paintings were collected from a selection of visitors to these exhibi tions\, namely second-year art students. Our topological approach provided highly effective methods of disambiguation not only between artist vs. AI -generated art but also provided an easily computable\, information-dense method to quantify the characteristics of art produced by famous modern ab stract painters. We speculate on how aspects of our topological approach m ay be insightful to Gestalt psychologists and other theories of perceptual integration. \; LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR