Wednesday, September 16, 2009

After watching a clip from the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy", it got me thinking about how we recognize things automatically from their design.






I know that this is a clock face because of my experience with other clock faces. I also know that this one is missing numbers and places. But what would an African bushman think about this? Would he think it was decorative due to the colors and pattern? Or perhaps ceremonial? Would he have an practical purpose for the clock? Would he even know it was a clock? The answer to these questions is most likely no. But if we explained to the tribesman that it was a clock and we used it to tell time, would this clock become is go-to preconception of what a clock looked like? Probably. The design would become a learned design and no longer be foreign.

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