Dear Yoad,
As I have mentioned before, any concept of perception that assumes sensory data must "connect" to meaning can NOT be associated with Gibson. Your description repeats an antique understanding dating from the 1830s; it does not reflect Gibson's more-recent theories of "ecological perception," which were developed in opposition to the scenario that you mistakenly attribute to him.
The essential accuracy of Gibson's theories of direct perception can be seen in the field of "cognitive engineering," where they are applied to the design of complex controls for aircraft and nuclear power stations. As we know, engineers are pragmatists, interested only in theories that give practical advantage, and they employ Gibson because his insights work. An easy-reading general introduction to this area can be found in Kim Vicente's The Human Factor (2003) -- see pages 48-49 if you don't want to read a whole book. The type of "situated cognition" described by Charles Burnett is a central tenet of cognitive engineering, which understands that perception is fast and subtle in conveying information, where cognitive processing is slow and awkward. A dial needle hovering over a red zone reads instantly, while a display that requires mental calculation of adjacent numbers is both slow to use and prone to error.
Ali Ilhan is completely correct in identifying socio-cultural factors as an under-explored topic in Gibson's original ouevre. This is not to say that it has been neglected since then. Developments of Gibson's theories continue today, as when the scholarly journal Ecological Psychology last year devoted an entire issue to discussion of The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems (1966). There is also writing on "social affordances," defined as changes to the environment that affect the ways in which people relate to each other, as when, for example, furniture in a mental hospital is arranged in either a "sociofugal" or "sociopetal" configuration (Osmond, 1957; see also Overhill, 2015).
By the way, you are also mistaken in assuming that "socio-economical stuff" rests on "using language." On this point, I recommend you dip into some of the Sage handbooks on topics like qualitative research, sociology, or gender. These are instructive for beginners, and might help you clarify a difference between verbal and non-verbal knowledge; a distinction that is of course critical for designers working in non-verbal cultural expressions.
I personally might consider socio-cultural influences in the context of learning: as something that changes who people are, and therefore their potential relationships with the world. Learning to ride a bicycle changes the rider, and also her or her relationship with the city, as formerly-distant locations become closer. There is an interesting article by James and Eleanor Gibson in Psychological Review (1955) in which they discuss whether perceptual learning is a matter of intellectual enrichment or sensory discrimination; noting that people who repeatedly handle similar materials begin to discern differences, even without any formal (i.e. verbal) instruction to guide them.
The issue of learning might reflect on Klaus Krippendorf's essential point that affordances are hard to predict in a culturally- and technologically-varied world. As education changes some people only, it becomes still more difficult to predict reactions among varied users, each of whom might notice a different affordance in the same artifact. Gibson noted a similar point when he observed that "to perceive an affordance is not to classify an object." The "throw-ability" of a rock does not rule out its affordance of other functions, like pounding or wall-building (1986, p. 134).
The difficulty of the task of designing visible affordances cannot be underestimated. While Gibson does not offer any immediate solutions, he may provide a theoretical starting point to serve as a foundation for designerly exploration.
Heidi
PS:
Q: Why do cowboy boots have pointed toes?A: For climbing chain-link fences.
From: Yoád David Luxembourg <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2018 7:26 AM
Subject: Re: Gibson, Perception and Some Ignorant Questions
Dear Ali,
The perceptive works to identify sensed data according to structures,
and then based on personal experience connect the structure to meanings
and affordances.
that, as far as i remember, means that Gibson's theory is very limited
to understand how the perception of physical ecology works.
All the rest socio economical stuff depends on concepts that humans
realize by using language.
the only aspect which may link SE background and Gibson's theory might
be visual audio or other sensual impairment of the perceptive system as
in blind and deaf or otherwise paralyzed people.
Best,
*Yoad David Luxembourg *
BA (DAE <http://www.designacademy.nl/>,2004), MA (MAHKU
<http://www.mahku.nl/>,2006)
Ph.D (University of Porto <http://www.up.pt/>, 2015)
Creative Direction at Elementum by Daniela Pais
<http://www.luxuryistohavesimplethings.com/>
LinkedIn <http://nl.linkedin.com/pub/yoad-david-luxembourg/5b/95a/69a>
Website <http://yodalux.wordpress.com>
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