Episode #81: Resident Philosopher Anatoly Nichvoloda in conversation with talkPOPc founder and Resident Philosopher Dr. Shottenkirk on art's basis in science

Timestamps:01:20: The relationship between Art and Epistemology. How does cognition work? How is Art a way for cognition to work?02:15: The Smirking Mona Lisa. The peripheral perspective, rods, fovea and perceiving contrast04:20: The sensors in the cornea. Color perception, detail, and Da Vinci's use of contrast built into his art and the fleeting smile of the Mona Lisa06:20: The problem of zoom without peripheral information. The way for the brain to filter out less important information. Saccadic movement in the savannah07:35: We're not meant to stare. Even dogs get it.10:35: Compiling and adding up information. What's relevant to our attention? Constant computational processes through prediction.12:50: We predict things, the search light of focus, but it's hierarchical. Bokeh and the blur of background as a metaphor. We like Bokeh because our attention works the same way15:20: No divide between perception and cognition, the idea is that we're cognitive creatures. The world is a construct and we constantly re-make it.17:55: Neural nets as the parts that deal with pattern recognition and statistics. Where the magic happens is de-coding. We predict what the world will look like and keep a copy of it. An algorithm of thinking19:50: Pattern recognition. We can follow without explicit recognition. Rule following is pattern recognition. 21:25: Rules built on structure of implicit behavior that we don't think about. Otherwise, we'd be overwhelmed24:25: Art as a unique concept for humans. Animals don't "do" art. When we can focus, Art activates all our systems, or at least brings them to the forefront.26:35: Art notices. It points out what's interesting and helps us respond. Art tells a story and lifts the veil to show something interesting about you. 28:50: Art is that thing that makes you stop in your tracks. It makes you pay attention and try to figure things out. The genius of an artist is to notice it and build it into their art. 30:50: Why the color red bothers us.Support the showWebsite: talkpopc.orgInstagram: @talkpopcEmail: [email protected]