Looking takes time.

My first contact with visual communication was through a Photography class I took back in 2000. While we learned about apperture and field depth I could not help notice that most of class was looking at pictures one after the other. When asked about it, both professors turned to the time we take to look at things. It’s not enough.

Learning from looking is ridicoulosly time consuming. I’ve never given this much thought until recently. My wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy 4 weeks ago, and looking at him, is almost all I can do when I’m arround him.

Looking takes time if you do it right. Your eyes are prepeared by nature and evolution to work in close partnership with your brain to disregard most of what they experience.

That’s why repetition. That’s why simple symbols. That’s why you are not remembering your whole Art History course from last summer. A painting from Giotto, a photograph by Brassai, your baby’s new feet. You are not taking it in at a glance.

I dare you to the following excersice. Find a stock of pictures by any author. try to get at least 10 images. Make sure you need nothing else then a click or a tap to go through them (you can start here if nothing else is available). Take the collection on three laps: the first one as fast as the images can load; a second one with one second separation and a third one, looking untill you want to go to the next one. Enjoy, there will be no second time you do this.

I would love to hear how you felt about it.