Our Sensory Filters
The world is a varied and glorious place. Those people who populate it are similar to one another externally, still with wonderous variety. Yet, it is how we take the world in through our five senses and how we process this input that makes each of us unique.
“People taste what they wish to taste. And in most cases what they are told to taste.”
It is said the world is split between those who enjoy the taste of cilantro and those who don’t. This is not personal preference, or acquired taste, but a trait encoded in our genetic structure. I find cilantro unpleasant, like licking a bar of soap. I can eat something with cilantro without ill effect, it just isn’t a taste that is enjoyable.
This genetic influence is a minor issue when it comes taste buds and the world of cuisines. Much of what people will push between their lips and tongue has to do with foods to which they have been exposed and are accustomed. Some foods are comfort foods, others a daring adventure. Variety within what we eat can be summed up by the choice between an Almond Joy or a Mounds bar: “Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t.”
Yet, if you don’t know what an almond tastes like you won’t like it until you try it.
“People smell what they wish to smell. And in most cases what they are told to smell.”
This is trickier. The sense of smell is more linked to attraction or repulsion. Strange smells are not generally a source of pleasure. But, individually and culturally we can become what the television commercials warn is nose blind. To protect us from offending others or perhaps more in attracting others to us we spend fortunes on household deodorants and perfumes. Even our trash bags that hold decaying garbage are designed to avoid assaulting the noses of guests in our homes. We are all pheromones and masks. I have no great lesson to impart here except to suggest you ride the Paris Metro at four times over the course of a hot day: six am, noon, six pm and midnight. The same Metro car will have a distinctly different aroma each time, trust me.
“People hear what they wish to hear. And in most cases what they are told to hear.”
When it comes to using our auditory sense the first thing that may come to mind is music and music is a significant cultural form. Music is a human construct. However, music is its own world, in which we are carried away from the day-to-day. We live in a day-to-day world that is rarely silent. If we stop and listen, we will hear ice melting, apples falling onto the ground, mice in the walls. Usually we turn that out, plug earbuds in and choose to listen to something else. Or, we just elect to not listen because we have trained ourselves to not hear. The world is filled with sound and we choose what we hear.
“People touch/feel what they wish to touch/feel. And in most cases what they are told to touch/feel.”
The sensation of touching and feeling are personal, primal, and not as open to cultural influence. We humans use our entire bodies to give us information about our immediate environment. It is the sense that is least open to cultural activity or communal expression. Hearing has music, scent has perfume, taste has cuisine, and sight has an array of visual forms of expression. Perhaps the sense of touch is the most personal and leaves itself to be expressed in poetry or prose. We each sense the world on our own from moment to moment. How do we share a sensation, if we do care to share it? I feel hot. I feel cold. I feel that I should go see a doctor.
“People see what they wish to see. And in most cases what they are told to see.” Erin Morgenstern
All along I have been paraphrasing this quote from Erin Morgenstern to point out the same concept: our five senses feed us information and much of it is masked or ignored. That is simply because we each would suffer from sensory overload if we did not screen or block all the input. We have limited time and attention. This is particularly true with our sense of vision.
We are constantly assaulted visually from a world that wants us each to look here, then look there. Maybe everything is sitting still…. our attention is caught by the object that twitches. Perhaps the world is a flutter and what grabs our attention is the thing that sits still.
In this world where everything runs and jumps and swats you in the face or thumps in your ear canals, I paint very big canvases that are not a captured image of the world, not a still frame from a film. I paint a swimming pool for you to dive into and splash around. I paint a canvas into which you may escape.
Trust your eyes.
Wish to see.
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