Blind Spot: Scotoma

As I mentioned in my email to the class, I did a project sophomore year on the existence of blind spots where the optic nerve exits the retina. The reason we don't see our huge blind spots is because of our binocular vision. I've always enjoyed optical illusions and tricks and I think this one is particularly cool. Ackerman's interesting look into the senses and especially exploring how our embodiment is flawed, (synesthesia, anosmia, etc.) is particularly apt to this experiment. As Reynolds points out of Smithson's work on p. 160,  “All of these visual convergences depend on memory to fill in these perceptual gaps or blind spots, a holding in the mind of the image of an object as it appeared from a previous position, either in the air or on the ground, while experiencing the same object from a new or different position.” (160) Binocular vision is especially interesting in our study of ubimage, where cameras act as our singular vision tools, in ways both more advanced and more primitive than our own eyes. We often can take a picture and be disappointed that it cannot capture everything that our eyes can see. But a camera has no blind spot. It will reveal everything. Reynolds goes on to say, "Smithson was fond of creating ‘enantiomorphic situations’ to reveal the blind spots embedded within a number of descriptive models of perception...[which] disrupt facile relationships between thought and perception, and ... open up gaps in or reveal limitations to mental and perceptual experiences of time and space.” (196). Blind spot is such a strong metaphor that we can adapt for our purposes because being or becoming blind is terrifying for someone with sight. After all, according to Ackerman, "Seventy percent of the body's sense receptors cluster in the eyes."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotoma