Everyday we encounter lot of pictures. Pictures appear in television, cinema, newspaper, magazine or the Web. Pictures are used to convey emotions and messages. Except a few, most of us take things for granted and spend our scarce resource (thinking) on odd or rare events. For example until Sir Isaac Newton, the falling of apple from a tree was considered the norm and people simply consumed the fallen apple. Likewise viewing pictures are taken as a very usual thing and we skirt to think about it. In this post, the discussion will be on the “Role of pictures in our life.”
It will better to define first and then get into the essay. Pictures can be classified eye-captured pictures, device-captured pictures and synthetic picture. If I physically visit the Amazon jungle and enjoy the beauty through my own eyes then I call it eye-captured picture. If I see the Niagara Falls in a movie or television or magazine then I call it as device-captured picture. A picture that is created by artistic rendition with or without computers is called as synthetic picture.
Two hundred years back pictures mean almost eye-captured pictures only. Rich people only had the opportunity to own synthetic pictures (paintings). Commoners who live in big cities like Rome would have enjoyed the Michelangelo paintings in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Colour photograph started appearing after 1861. It helped to capture portrait of a person or natural landscape with less effort and time. Earlier times painters performed this task. Thus human painter was substituted by colour camera. But it was no way an easy task produce multiple copies. First colour illustrations appeared in newspaper in 1934 in UK. To have a glimpse of old colour photographs refer [1]. Colour television emerged in the year 1960 in USA. After 1980 World started seeing lot of device-captured pictures. I can fairly assume everyone see TV for two hours per day. The amount of pictures in print medium (newspaper, magazine) is relatively less. On the Web, picture is more than print medium but lesser than the TV. Let us conclude in a day average device-captured pictures viewed is for two and half hours (two hour tv plus half an hour Web and print). Within a span of two hundred years, the time spent on device-captured pictures rose from near zero to 150 minutes.
A cursory glance of “150 minutes of device-captured picture viewing” looks like a trivia. At most it may amuse people and make people feel proud of technological superiority. Broadcast media (TV and movie) is a medium that transcends the distance. For example seeing a war, seeing piranha fish present in Amazon rivers, and seeing skiing in Alps mountain range with naked eye is a rarity for a common man living in India. Thus one is able to have a near real experience in battle field, jungles and sky scrapers without moving from their physical place.
A coin has two sides. Likewise the ability to “transcend distance and take part important events in world” has profound positive and negative effects. Without picture, visualizing Amazon jungle with textual description is nearly impossible. Our knowledge has tremendously increased with the rise of access to pictures. People in India know very well about US President Barack Obama, Osama bin Laden, Bruce Lee, Hollywood celebrities, Kangaroo, Niagara Falls, and Eiffel Tower all because of pictures. Learning medicine, architecture, archaeology and many fields become easier because of availability of pictures. Forensic experts are able to identify criminals without physically visiting the crime spot. Surveillance camera captured pictures which help us to prevent crime as well as to capture the criminals.
The negative sides are “we are conditioned to see what we want to see” and the gap between device-captured and eye-captured pictures is very high. When viewing a TV and movie, we see the world through the eyes of content creator (director of movie). In one sense our freedom is lost. As watching movies acts as a medium of escape, we voluntarily subject our-self for loss of freedom. Thus it becomes easy to mass brain-wash the so called modern man than their ancestors. Next, a person in India via TV can live in America for few hours per day. So the distinction between real and reel shrinks and confuses person's thinking ability.
The important point is we see extremes in device-captured images. First principle of journalism states that “If a dog bites a man then it is not news and if a human bites a dog then it is news.” Mathematically it means lower the probability of occurrence, higher the probability to be published. That is why we see six-pack males like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, handsome Leonardo DiCaprio and beautiful hour-glass females. Fig.1 contains the still from the movie Titanic and it is very romantic. Seeing this kind of romantic encounters with naked eye is almost impossibility. Thus for 150 minutes we see what is not possible to see with naked eye.
 |
| Figure 1. A romantic scene from the movie Titanic Courtesy: Internet |
Studies have established long hours of TV viewing affects children's ability to learn, their retention capability and socializing skills. The impact of camera-captured pictures in humans has to be documented with scientific data. Seeing a picture is not an independent task of eye alone. It is an outcome of close coordination between eye and brain. Thus it will be better to say “We Perceive” than “We See.” When we encounter optical illusions our brain fails to interpret the incoming visual signal from the eye properly. When ever meditation or prayer is performed, we normally close our eyes. This helps us to cut down the distraction as well as reduce the work load of brain. Seeing something actually makes our brain to give priority to process on the incoming visual signal. That is why when we sit in a park or watching TV makes us to feel as if we are getting rid of our problems. Actually, the brain starts to process visual signals rather than pondering on the problem.
We have a high intake of processed food (fast food) compared to our ancestors. Wide spread prevalence of life style diseases like diabetes, obesity are linked to processed food. Similar in lines we have high intake of camera-captured pictures compared to our ancestors. Will it creates any problem for us?
- Eye-captured, Camera-captured and Synthetic pictures
- Camera-captured images are different from eye-captured pictures
- Camera-captured picture from 18th century, transcends distance, captures extreme events
- Amount of camera-captured pictures is 150 minute per day and 200 years back almost zero minutes.
- With camera-captured images voluntary brain-washing is carried out.
- Cognitive load on brain due to camera-captured pictures is high.
- Camera-captured picture = Fast food
Source
1. Colour images from 1930s unveiled – Daily Record [Available Online] http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/colour-images-from-1930s-unveiled-1276428
Acknowledgement
Grammatical correction was carried out by a final year engineering student.
