Is Seeing Believing? Teachers Notes Is Seeing Believing? has been developed by Tate with support from the Wellcome Trust as part of Tate’s Wondermind project. Wondermind is a website about art and neuroscience that includes games, interactive films and opportunities for discussion and debate. Aimed at children aged 8 to 12 who may not normally engage with biomedical science, the project will introduce key neuroscience concepts in brain development, illustrating them with works for the Tate collection and images inspired by Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Developed to pick up on some of the themes explored through Wondermind, the resource can also be used more generically in the classroom or in-gallery with any exhibition or display. Is Seeing Believing? is designed to provide you and your pupils with an opportunity to explore and investigate just how trustworthy our vision is. The activities have been developed to encourage pupils to spend more time looking and treat looking at artwork as a form of enquiry. There are many parallels between artists and scientists and their practices. The format, layout and language of these activities deliberately blend artistic and scientific modes and practices of enquiry. The activities are aimed broadly at Key Stages 2 and 3 with scope to focus or expand in a way appropriate to your group. There are two sketchbooks for you to download for your pupils, for classroombased and gallery-based experiments. Each provides spaces for pupils to draw, explore ideas and note results. Ideally, the gallery sketchbook is designed for use in a real gallery space but if this impossible to arrange, you could create your own gallery environment by projecting or sticking some images of artworks onto a wall. Tate Online has hundreds of images you can use at www.tate.org.uk. Please note, that only pencils can be used in Tate galleries. Three themes are explored through the experiments: Visual perception, selfperception and memory. The following notes duplicate some of the introductions to these themes found in the sketchbooks. They also give some pointers to introducing the topics as well as details of what materials and equipment might be needed and how long each experiment should take. Instructions for each experiment can be found in the sketchbooks and these notes provide information on where to find them. For further resources visit Tate Kids www.tate.org.uk/kids and Tate Schools and Teachers www.tate.org.uk/schoolsteachers.

Is Seeing Believing? Teachers Notes

Visual Perception Our large brains have developed/evolved alongside our excellent eyesight. A lot of our brainpower is devoted to processing visual information but a lot of the time our brains can be tricked by our eyes – when we watch moving images on the TV or DVD for example. The images are not actually moving but are made of thousands of flickering still images, our brains join them together into one moving image. The following activities are designed to explore visual perception and how we can be tricked by simple optical illusions.

Visual Perception Experiments A Trick Of The Eye: Optical Experiments (p2 of Classroom Experiments) This is a set of simple optical illusions to demonstrate how easily our eyes can be tricked. Materials: Pencil, Paper. Time: 5 minutes Slow Motion (p6 of Classroom Experiments) Materials: Old-style TV monitor, large rubber band, broken into long length, Time: 5min Explanation: Moving image on a TV is a series of still images changing at 50 times per second, or a frequency of 50hz. When we pluck the rubber band, it vibrates at a fast rate and gradually slows down. Chances are that it’s vibrating at around 50hz at some point, which means it will appear to be moving in slow motion when viewed in light vibrating at a similar frequency. Simple Flip Animation Experiment (p3 of Classroom Experiments) Materials: Card, scissors, pencil, string. Time: Around 30 minutes Make A Thaumatrope (p4 of Classroom Experiments) A more advanced animation experiment. Materials: Card, scissors, pencil, string. Time: 30 minutes

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Is Seeing Believing? Teachers Notes Expanding and Shrinking (p7 of Classroom Experiments) This is an excellent experiment that will make things magically shrink, expand or undulate. If the experiment doesn’t work try the same experiment by looking at these videos of spinning spirals. http://youtu.be/BF7bNe1il0M http://youtu.be/0Ta2C3Tt7Mc Materials: Card, Pencil, sticky-tack Time: 20 to 30 minutes WARNING: The spinning patterns may cause dizziness to some individuals. If the disk is uncomfortable to look at then do not continue with the experiment. Create An After Image (p7 of Gallery Experiments) Imprint an after-image on your retina and see it superimposed on the gallery wall. Materials: Pencil, Paper. Time: 10 to 15minutes

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Is Seeing Believing? Teachers Notes

Self Perception: How Do You Think You See Yourself? Artists don’t always draw exactly what they see. They try to look at the world differently, sometimes illustrating how others think and feel about things. For example, you could draw your self as you might see yourself in a photograph or you could draw how you feel about yourself. The way our brain perceives or thinks about our body is sometimes different to the way it actually is. The following activities are designed to provide an interesting insight into selfperception, as well as investigate hand-to-eye coordination, and develop observational skills. Following the instructions will result in a set of drawings that can be compared across the class for discussion. Emphasise the point that this is not about doing a ‘good’ drawing – this is a scientific experiment!

Self Perception Experiments How Do You Think You See Your Self? (p9 of Classroom Experiments) A great fun exercise in drawing, good for freeing up drawing skills and making students think about what they are looking at when they draw. Materials: Pencil, paper, lightweight garment to cover the page [jumper, shirt or teacloth]. Time: 15 to 20 minutes Drawing With Your Mind’s Eye (p3 of Gallery Experiments) Similar exercise to above which will make students look more closely at artworks and provide a good basis for discussion afterwards. Materials: Pencils and paper. Time: 20 to 30 minutes Left and right-handedness (p8 of Classroom Experiments) Another great activity for freeing up drawing skills. Chose an artwork and try to draw it with your other hand – the hand you don’t normally draw with. Materials: Pencil, Paper. Time: 5 to10 minutes

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Is Seeing Believing? Teachers Notes

Memory

Our brains are so quick we often don’t realise what information it records and what it misses. Try these experiments to see how different we are. Different people will notice different things depending on their interests. The following activities are designed to explore long and short-term memory and provide a starting point for discussion about personal responses to artworks.

Memory Experiments: For the following experiments you may want to select a work in the gallery yourself for your group to work from. You may also need a watch or timer. Memory Match (P2 of Gallery Experiments) Materials: Pencil, Paper. Time: 10-15mins. Staring Contest (P5 of Gallery Experiments) Materials: Pencil, Paper. Time: 10-15mins.

Is Seeing Believing? has been developed by Antony Hall www.antonyhall.net with support from Deborah Riding, Programme Manager: Research, Schools and Families at Tate Liverpool.

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