Art and Topology

Prof.

Marek

Kuś

Center for Theoretical Physics PAS

February 14, 2024 12:30 PM

I will present applications of topological data analysis (TDA) to study differences in the perception of painting images. A psychological and neurophysiological experiment we conducted showed that physiological responses, in this case eye movements, show variation depending on how the image being perceived was produced. In our experiment, we compared responses for abstract images painted by a professional artist ("real art") and computer-generated images using neural networks. Standard methods that examine statistical properties of the compared images (such as color distribution and intensity) did not indicate differences. The analysis of eye movements reveals, as expected, that observers focus on specific features within the image. It is reasonable to assume that our visual attention is primarily drawn to geometric/topological features. When we look at a picture, our initial perception encompasses structures composed of individual points (pixels), particularly geometric structures. We prioritize perceiving these structures rather than the most basic components of an image, such as individual points of a specific color.

This is a hybrid event:
Room D, the Institute of Physics PAS, Al. Lotników 32/46

Online: Zoom Link, (Passcode: 134595, Meeting ID: 823 8038 0442)