“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
-Lao Tzu

 

We live in an endless cycle of disruption and adaptation. Humans are perhaps one of the most expert species when it comes to the ability to hide this truth from ourselves, but every moment of every day is constantly changing and entirely unscripted. In truth, the only thing we can count on is that we can’t count on anything at all. In exceptional times like we are living in now, there is a tendency to wake up to this ever present reality, to look around and see that nothing we face from day to day is stable or under our control. Our reactions to this often uninvited revelation vary widely.

 

Dan Hill is an expert on facial coding and sensory logic. His book, First Blush: People’s Intuitive Reactions to Famous Art examines, among other things, how long the average viewer spends looking at a master work of art. The answer is four seconds of viewing, five seconds to look at the title and art description card and sometimes an additional second to look back at the art itself. The book is the largest study ever done in eye tracking in art as well as facial coding – i.e. the emotions revealed by facial muscle activity. One finding from this work is that the window of genuine response to a piece of art is within that initial four seconds. Hill says artists need to consider this and realize that reaching their viewer is akin to landing an airplane on a helicopter pad. Installation pieces tended to fare better in the study in terms of occupying people’s attention for longer. To hear more from Dan Hill and his fascinating research that has major implications for anyone creating or curating art, listen to the complete interview.

 

Fady Joudah is a poet and a doctor. He is currently a hospitalist and is trained and certified in internal medicine. Joudah once worked with Doctors Without Borders and he thinks perhaps this in part helped prepare him for medicine in the time of pandemic. When we spoke, the COVID-19 outbreak had not yet peaked in Houston, Texas where he lives and works. He questioned the current popular notion of medicine being “front line” and cited various examples of those who question the use of battlefield language in the medical field. He questioned why hospital janitors and nurse assistants are forgotten in this sort of rhetoric which uplifts doctors and nurses in a heroic manner. To hear more about his thinking on this as well as his poetry – Joudah is the author of four books of poetry – listen to the complete interview.