The function of stereotypes in visual perception.

Abstract

Human vision is a product of both physiological and cultural dispositions. This cultural study investigates the role of cultural dispositions in visual perception. In particular, the study focuses on the role of stereotypes, which are involved in recognition. I propose that stereotypes are essential for basic functions of perception and human perception. However, stereotypes also introduce significant limitations on human experience. The fact that stereotypes are abstract simplifications of realities is not the limiting factor, since scientific and cultural progress continually refines stereotypes. The very principle of the stereotype appears to introduce the limitation, because the process of forming stereotypes requires both temporal and functional fragmentations of the continuum of our perception. This fragmentation can be a cause of sensory overload, a postmodern condition that generates cultural, perceptual and behavioral problems. To address this problem, I propose a cultural modification to our modality of perception. The modification shifts the emphasis of our perception from the recognition of stereotypes to the recognition of flows, processes and durations. References to the work of Henri Bergson and Martin Heidegger provide the philosophical basis for this modification and several empirical and experimental examples illustrate such modifications in practice.