The neurology of kinetic art.

All visual art must obey the laws of the visual system. The first law is that an image of the visual world is not impressed upon the retina, but assembled together in the visual cortex. Consequently, many of the visual phenomena traditionally attributed to the eye actually occur in the cortex. Among these is visual motion. The second law is that of the functional specialization of the visual cortex, by which we mean that separate attributes of the visual scene are processed in geographically separate parts of the visual cortex, before being combined to give a unified and coherent picture of the visual world. The third law is that the attributes that are separated, and separately processed, in the cerebral cortex are those which have primacy in vision. These are colour, form, motion and, possibly, depth. It follows that motion is an autonomous visual attribute, separately processed and therefore capable of being separately compromised after brain lesions. It is also one of the visual attributes that have primacy, just like form or colour or depth. We conclude that it is this separate visual attribute which those involved in kinetic art have tried to exploit, instinctively and physiologically, from which it follows that in their explorations artists are unknowingly exploring the organization of the visual brain though with techniques unique to them.

[1]  J Zihl,et al.  The "motion-blind" patient: low-level spatial and temporal filters , 1989, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[2]  John H. R. Maunsell,et al.  The middle temporal visual area in the macaque: Myeloarchitecture, connections, functional properties and topographic organization , 1981, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[3]  T. Albright Direction and orientation selectivity of neurons in visual area MT of the macaque. , 1984, Journal of neurophysiology.

[4]  S. Zeki Functional specialisation in the visual cortex of the rhesus monkey , 1978, Nature.

[5]  D. Pollen,et al.  Spatial and temporal frequency selectivity of neurons in visual cortical area V3A of the macaque monkey , 1988, Vision Research.

[6]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  A direct demonstration of functional specialization in human visual cortex , 1991, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[7]  S. Zeki,et al.  The Organization of Connections between Areas V5 and V1 in Macaque Monkey Visual Cortex , 1989, The European journal of neuroscience.

[8]  Richard S. J. Frackowiak,et al.  Area V5 of the human brain: evidence from a combined study using positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. , 1993, Cerebral cortex.

[9]  S. Zeki Uniformity and diversity of structure and function in rhesus monkey prestriate visual cortex. , 1978, The Journal of physiology.

[10]  D. Fender,et al.  The interaction of color and luminance in stereoscopic vision. , 1972, Investigative ophthalmology.

[11]  Marcel Duchamp,et al.  The Writings Of Marcel Duchamp , 1989 .

[12]  S. Zeki Representation of central visual fields in prestriate cortex of monkey. , 1969, Brain research.

[13]  S. Zeki,et al.  Colour coding in rhesus monkey prestriate cortex. , 1973, Brain research.

[14]  F. Popper,et al.  Origins and development of kinetic art , 1968 .

[15]  V. S. RAMACHANDRAN,et al.  Does colour provide an input to human motion perception? , 1978, Nature.

[16]  B. Cragg The topography of the afferent projections in the circumstriate visual cortex of the monkey studied by the Nauta method. , 1969, Vision research.

[17]  James T. Mcllwain Point images in the visual system: new interest in an old idea , 1986, Trends in Neurosciences.

[18]  George Rickey The Morphology of Movement , 1963 .

[19]  D. J. Felleman,et al.  Anatomical and physiological asymmetries related to visual areas V3 and VP in macaque extrastriate cortex , 1986, Vision Research.

[20]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Cortical connections of visual area MT in the macaque , 1986, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[21]  J. Lund,et al.  The origin of efferent pathways from the primary visual cortex, area 17, of the macaque monkey as shown by retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase , 1975, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[22]  B. Dow Functional classes of cells and their laminar distribution in monkey visual cortex. , 1974, Journal of neurophysiology.

[23]  P. Flechsig Anatomie des menschlichen Gehirns und Rückenmarks : auf myelogenetischer Grundlage , 1920 .

[24]  S Zeki,et al.  Parallelism and functional specialization in human visual cortex. , 1990, Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology.

[25]  D H Hubel,et al.  Connections between layer 4B of area 17 and the thick cytochrome oxidase stripes of area 18 in the squirrel monkey , 1987, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[26]  D. Hubel,et al.  Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex , 1962, The Journal of physiology.

[27]  E. Adelson,et al.  The analysis of moving visual patterns , 1985 .

[28]  R. W. Rodieck,et al.  Identification, classification and anatomical segregation of cells with X‐like and Y‐like properties in the lateral geniculate nucleus of old‐world primates. , 1976, The Journal of physiology.

[29]  S. Henschen ON THE VISUAL PATH AND CENTRE , 1893 .

[30]  R. Desimone,et al.  Selective attention gates visual processing in the extrastriate cortex. , 1985, Science.

[31]  John H. R. Maunsell,et al.  The projections from striate cortex (V1) to areas V2 and V3 in the macaque monkey: Asymmetries, areal boundaries, and patchy connections , 1986, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[32]  S. Zeki Colour coding in the cerebral cortex: The reaction of cells in monkey visual cortex to wavelengths and colours , 1983, Neuroscience.

[33]  S. Zeki Vision: The motion pathways of the visual cortex , 1991 .

[34]  C. Gross,et al.  Visuotopic organization and extent of V3 and V4 of the macaque , 1988, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[35]  K. Tanaka,et al.  Underlying mechanisms of the response specificity of expansion/contraction and rotation cells in the dorsal part of the medial superior temporal area of the macaque monkey. , 1989, Journal of neurophysiology.

[36]  D. J. Felleman,et al.  Receptive field properties of neurons in area V3 of macaque monkey extrastriate cortex. , 1987, Journal of neurophysiology.

[37]  M. Yukie,et al.  Direct projection from the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus to the prestriate cortex in macaque monkeys , 1981, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[38]  W. Fries The projection from the lateral geniculate nucleus to the prestriate cortex of the macaque monkey , 1981, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[39]  S. Zeki,et al.  Functional specialization and binocular interaction in the visual areas of rhesus monkey prestriate cortex , 1979, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[40]  N. Mai,et al.  Selective disturbance of movement vision after bilateral brain damage. , 1983, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[41]  M. Hawken,et al.  Laminar organization and contrast sensitivity of direction-selective cells in the striate cortex of the Old World monkey , 1988, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[42]  S Zeki,et al.  Conscious visual perception without V1. , 1993, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[43]  D C Van Essen,et al.  Functional properties of neurons in middle temporal visual area of the macaque monkey. I. Selectivity for stimulus direction, speed, and orientation. , 1983, Journal of neurophysiology.

[44]  S. Zeki,et al.  Cerebral akinetopsia (visual motion blindness). A review. , 1991, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[45]  C. Gross,et al.  Visual topography of striate projection zone (MT) in posterior superior temporal sulcus of the macaque. , 1981, Journal of neurophysiology.

[46]  J. Allman Maps in Context: Some Analogies Between Visual Cortical and Genetic Maps , 1987 .

[47]  P A Salin,et al.  Response selectivity of neurons in area MT of the macaque monkey during reversible inactivation of area V1. , 1992, Journal of neurophysiology.

[48]  John H. R. Maunsell,et al.  The connections of the middle temporal visual area (MT) and their relationship to a cortical hierarchy in the macaque monkey , 1983, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[49]  S. Zeki Functional organization of a visual area in the posterior bank of the superior temporal sulcus of the rhesus monkey , 1974, The Journal of physiology.

[50]  S. Zeki,et al.  The third visual complex of rhesus monkey prestriate cortex. , 1978, The Journal of physiology.

[51]  C. Gross,et al.  Afferent basis of visual response properties in area MT of the macaque. I. Effects of striate cortex removal , 1989, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[52]  S. Zeki Cells responding to changing image size and disparity in the cortex of the rhesus monkey , 1974, The Journal of physiology.

[53]  S. Shipp,et al.  The functional logic of cortical connections , 1988, Nature.

[54]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  The modular organization of projections from areas V1 and V2 to areas V4 and TEO in macaques , 1993, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[55]  N Mai,et al.  Disturbance of movement vision after bilateral posterior brain damage. Further evidence and follow up observations. , 1991, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[56]  S Zeki,et al.  Going beyond the information given: the relation of illusory visual motion to brain activity , 1993, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[57]  V. Hömberg,et al.  Cerebral visual motion blindness: transitory akinetopsia induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation of human area V5 , 1992, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[58]  S. Zeki,et al.  The Organization of Connections between Areas V5 and V2 in Macaque Monkey Visual Cortex , 1989, The European journal of neuroscience.

[59]  S. Zeki,et al.  Segregation of pathways leading from area V2 to areas V4 and V5 of macaque monkey visual cortex , 1985, Nature.

[60]  K. Yoshida,et al.  The afferent and efferent organization of the lateral geniculo‐prestriate pathways in the macaque monkey , 1981, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[61]  C. Baker,et al.  Residual motion perception in a "motion-blind" patient, assessed with limited-lifetime random dot stimuli , 1991, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[62]  S. Zeki The distribution of wavelength and orientation selective cells in different areas of monkey visual cortex , 1983, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[63]  R H Wurtz,et al.  Functional specialization for visual motion processing in primate cerebral cortex. , 1990, Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology.

[64]  D. Regan,et al.  Visual processing of motion-defined form: selective failure in patients with parietotemporal lesions , 1992, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[65]  L. Benevento,et al.  The organization of connections between the pulvinar and visual area MT in the macaque monkey , 1983, Brain Research.

[66]  K H Ruddock,et al.  Residual vision in patients with retrogeniculate lesions of the visual pathways. , 1987, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[67]  C. Galletti,et al.  Gaze-dependent visual neurons in area V3A of monkey prestriate cortex , 1989, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[68]  G. Riddoch DISSOCIATION OF VISUAL PERCEPTIONS DUE TO OCCIPITAL INJURIES, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO APPRECIATION OF MOVEMENT , 1917 .

[69]  B. Bosanquet Three Lectures on Aesthetic , 1968 .

[70]  S. Zeki,et al.  Convergent input from the striate cortex (area 17) to the cortex of the superior temporal sulcus in the rhesus monkey. , 1971, Brain research.

[71]  D. Hubel,et al.  Receptive fields of single neurones in the cat's striate cortex , 1959, The Journal of physiology.

[72]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Multiple visual areas in the caudal superior temporal sulcus of the macaque , 1986, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[73]  DH Hubel,et al.  Psychophysical evidence for separate channels for the perception of form, color, movement, and depth , 1987, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[74]  K. H. Britten,et al.  Neuronal mechanisms of motion perception. , 1990, Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology.

[75]  D. Hubel,et al.  Spatial and chromatic interactions in the lateral geniculate body of the rhesus monkey. , 1966, Journal of neurophysiology.

[76]  S. Zeki,et al.  Modular Connections between Areas V2 and V4 of Macaque Monkey Visual Cortex , 1989, The European journal of neuroscience.

[77]  P. Lennie,et al.  Chromatic mechanisms in lateral geniculate nucleus of macaque. , 1984, The Journal of physiology.