LottoLab projects: Synaesthetic Human perception Bumblebees Synthetic worlds Media: Books, television, radio, popular press
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The human visual mind, like all natural brains, evolved to makes sense from the senseless, to create meaning where there is none. There is no inherent value in the incredibly complex patterns of light that fall onto our eyes, and yet we see coherent forms and motions that enable us to survive.
The process of perception is in fact one of creation and interaction and therefore a physical representation of past ecology. Thus, our beginning premise is that the mind evolved to continually redefine normality, to find – indeed to create – the relationships in the sensory image that matter, and to imbue those relationships with value, which we then see.
Why We See What We Do: An Empirical Theory of Vision (Paperback)
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Illusions of light
Here we provide a set of powerful colour, motion and shape illusions created in-house. Much of our research is centred on understanding how and why we see illusions.
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Mother
We have developed a set of tools, that make use of and extend the popular Processing open-source multimedia programming environment. Together they will enable artists without the skills of computer programming to significantly influence the content of their visual performance, while also keeping the programming of new graphics algorithms accessible to those seeking greater creative freedom.
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Living narratives
This general image is the heart of ‘Living Narratives’ that will be both performance and experiment; that conceptualizes and tests fundamental ideas in neuroscience, complex systems, and art/theatre; that communicates and explores – in a deeply intuitive way – fundamental principles, and then applies those principles to reconsider theatre and theatrical narrative as process.
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Bing bong
We have developed the first iPhone game played in sound. The aim is to keep a ball from hitting the ground by either catching it or bouncing it on your paddle. Except in this game you can’t see the ball… you can only hear it.
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Fugitive moments
An interactive art installation created by Beau Lotto, Sarah Rubidge and Erwan Le Martelot exhibited at the Otter Gallery in Chichester in 2005.
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The Beacon
The Beacon is a 6 metre ‘Street Science’ installation of solar panels, glass and light erected on Old Street in London. The work is an experimental public structure that considers our dependence on the environment, not only for our survival, but also for who we are, even the colours we see.
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An experiment at the Serpentine
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Encoding brightness in the human cortex
Responses of human visual cortex to uniform surfaces measured with fMRI.
Haynes, J., Lotto, R. B. and Rees, G. (2004)
Responses of human visual cortex to uniform surfaces measured with fMRI.Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 101:4286-4291.
Download pdf
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The timing of cell death
The timing of cell death in the vision network is coincident with the end of the network’s formation. Target-Derived Neurotrophic Factors Regulate the Death of Developing Forebrain Neurons after a Change in their Trophic Requirements.
Lotto, R.B., Asavaritidrai, P., Vali, L. and Price, D.J. (2001)
Mechanisms regulating programmed cell death in the developing forebrain.Journal of Neuroscience 21:3904-3910.
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What are lightness illusions?
Corney, D. and Lotto, R.B. (2007)
What are lightness illusions and why do we see them?Public Library of Science Computational Biology 3:e180.
Download pdf
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Regulating cell death in the visual pathway
Regulation of cell survival in the developing thalamus: An in vitro analysis.
Asavaritikrai, P., Lotto, R.B., Anderson, G. and Price, D.J. (2003)
Regulation of cell survival in the developing thalamus; an in vitro analysisExperimental Neurology 181:39-46.
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An experiment into human perception in a space designed by Olafur Eliasson.-
Mother
We have developed a set of tools, that make use of and extend the popular Processing open-source multimedia programming environment. Together they will enable artists without the skills of computer programming to significantly influence the content of their visual performance, while also keeping the programming of new graphics algorithms accessible to those seeking greater creative freedom.
-
Regulating cell death in the visual pathway
Regulation of cell survival in the developing thalamus: An in vitro analysis.
Asavaritikrai, P., Lotto, R.B., Anderson, G. and Price, D.J. (2003)Regulation of cell survival in the developing thalamus; an in vitro analysis
Experimental Neurology 181:39-46.
Download pdf
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Encoding brightness in the human cortex
Responses of human visual cortex to uniform surfaces measured with fMRI.
Haynes, J., Lotto, R. B. and Rees, G. (2004)Responses of human visual cortex to uniform surfaces measured with fMRI.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 101:4286-4291.
Download pdf
-
The timing of cell death
The timing of cell death in the vision network is coincident with the end of the network’s formation. Target-Derived Neurotrophic Factors Regulate the Death of Developing Forebrain Neurons after a Change in their Trophic Requirements.
Lotto, R.B., Asavaritidrai, P., Vali, L. and Price, D.J. (2001)Mechanisms regulating programmed cell death in the developing forebrain.
Journal of Neuroscience 21:3904-3910.
Download pdf
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What are lightness illusions?
Corney, D. and Lotto, R.B. (2007)What are lightness illusions and why do we see them?
Public Library of Science Computational Biology 3:e180.
Download pdf
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Inducing perceptual rivalry and fusion
Fusion and Rivalry Are Dependent on the Perceptual Meaning of Visual Stimuli
Andrews, T. and Lotto, R.B. (2004)Perceptual rivalry is contingent on the perceptual meaning of stimuli.
Current Biology. 14:418-423.
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Why do we see only four colours?
A rationale for the structure of color space.
Lotto, R.B. and Purves, D. (2002)From the cover: A rationale for the structure of colour space.
Trends in Neuroscience 25:82-86.
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Explaining the Chubb illusion
An empirical explanation of the Chubb illusion.
Lotto, R.B. and Purves, D. (2001)From the cover: An empirical explanation of the Chubb illusion.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13:547-555.
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Explaining why we see the colour contrast illusion
An empirical explanation of colour contrast.
Lotto, R.B. and Purves, D. (2000)From the cover: An empirical explanation of color contrast.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 97:12834-12839.
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Explaining illusory perceptions of angles
Why are angles misperceived?
Nundy, S., Lotto, R.B., Coppola, D, Shimpi, A. and Purves, D. (2000)Why are angles misperceived?
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 97:5592-5597.
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The effects of colour on brightness
Lotto, R.B. and Purves, D. (1999)
From the Cover: The effects of color on brightness.
Nature Neuroscience 2:1010-1014.
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The Cornsweet illusion
An empirical explanation of the Cornsweet effect.
Purves, D., Shimpi, A. and Lotto, R.B. (1999)From the cover: An empirical explanation of the Cornsweet effect.
Journal of Neuroscience. 19:8542-8551.
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A Book entitled: Why we see what we do
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Using illusions to teach children
Using illusions to teach children about the science and art of seeing and conceiving
Lotto, R.B. (2007)Using illusions to teach children about the science and art of seeing and conceiving in Creative Encounters
Wellcome Books. In press.
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A step towards making visual music in real-time
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Mother: Making the Performance of Real-Time Computer Graphics Accessible to Non-programmers
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This book describes an empirical theory for why we see illusions.