Relation Between Human Perception and Mediation of Reality (Essay Sample)

RELATION BETWEEN HUMAN PERCEPTION AND PHOTOGRAPHIC MEDIATION OF REALITY
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The human perception is a complex cognitive process that involves memory as well as expectations to appreciate the object that is in the environment surrounding the person. It is through the cognitive process that one can differentiate different objects in the environment and in so doing; one can have a sensitive interaction with the world. However, it has argued differently. The person’s perception is limited to what one only sees which may not always be the whole picture which is the limitation of the mind. A photographic mediation can be summed up to be the changes made to a photograph to represent a reality that may not necessarily be true. Mediation entails producing a product that is made to someone else’s version of reality.
The human perception has been argued to have a vulnerable relationship with the environment. What one sees and perceives is different. Due to the processes that are involved in the information processing center, there is a reconstruction of that information together with prior historical information to interact with the external surrounding. The point being driven is that the information from the surrounding is not complete, and, therefore, the result which is a complete picture in the mind cannot be claimed to be the exact replication of the external environment. The reality of the environment is altered, and the same is replicated in the practices of photographic mediation.[Coleman, Stephen. "New mediation and direct representation: reconceptualizing representation in the digital age." New Media & Society 7, no. 2 (2005): 177-198.]
Making a picture involves the practice of cutting, which is through the process of mediation. Photography requires mediation at several levels may it be material, technical, perceptive or conceptual and in so doing, photography tends to highlight the difference between the photographed image produced and the object that it is said to represent. It all then poses the question of indexicality. The photograph image does not represent an object’s truth that is the exact replication of the object onto the picture. The indexicality and the iconicity of photography have been at the center of mediation. The digitization of photography further questions the indexicality of an image, when an image is expected to be a witness to reality. In so doing, the mediation of a picture is similar to the disregard of unimportant accidental information collected by the visual senses. The brain has a visual perceptual system that is highly complex and works to prioritize information and as such only the stable, relevant and meaningful is used while the rest is thrown away. The representation of the external environment is accurately wrong, which also occurs in mediation. The human perceptive is not only influenced by the historical information acquired, but it is also hierarchical which is similar to photographic mediation.[Couldry, Nick. "Mediatization or mediation? Alternative...