This course is designed for graduate and undergraduate students from different fields and is aimed to provide knowledge on perception through experiments on perception and demonstration of different perceptual phenomena. The experiments on perception will be performed and discussed in relation to contemporary artworks to understand the intertwined history of art and psychology.
In addition to experiments, we will discuss concepts stemming from different disciplines that changed the understanding of perception in art, philosophy, phenomenology, neuroscience, and psychology. The reading materials include texts written by James J. Gibson, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Francisco Varela, and recent papers from scientific journals. The participants will develop and present projects that are related to the topics of the workshop.
Yutaka Makino was born in Tochigi, Japan in 1976. He studied Earth science, computer music and visual arts in Japan, the Netherlands and the USA. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Fukuoka, Japan. On the basis of research into areas such as phenomenology, experimental psychology, psychoacoustics, neuroscience and systems theory, Makino probes the processes of perception in experimental setups. His performances and installations provide acoustically and visually conditioned environments that make processes of perception tangible to the perceivers and provoke reflection on the acts of perception and the perceivers’ behavioral responses to the environment.
He exhibited and performed in numerous institutions and festivals: Akademie der Künste, daadgalerie and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Japan Society New York, Donaueschinger Musiktage, MärzMusik, CTM Festival, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Sónar, Sonic Acts, among others. He has received prizes, fellowships and residencies, such as Prix Ton Bruynèl, the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin Program, Villa Aurora Los Angeles, McDowell Colony, Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs, Pola Art Foundation among others. He is an associate professor at the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University, Japan.