Visual Intelligence
There are three classes of people:
those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Howard Gardner proposed in Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences that intelligence as ‘one thing’ is too limiting to account to the broader range of human abilities and capabilities. He separates intelligence in nine modalities (I’m sure that the list will continue growing):
- Linguistic intelligence
- Logical-mathematical intelligence
- Spatial (Visual) intelligence
- Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence
- Musical intelligence
- Interpersonal intelligence
- Intrapersonal intelligence
- Naturalist intelligence
- Existential or spiritual intelligence
Look Up by Iván Tirado
It is possible that the first group of people coming to mind when one hears ‘visual intelligence’ is artists. Not only people who can draw, paint, sculpt, or design have visual intelligence. Visual intelligence is extended to sports. Court vision in basketball is important to shoot and pass the ball. The same applies in football, baseball, and boxing. Dancers too require that sense of space when they perform. Even today’s video games require visual intelligence with those virtual words that make me dizzy about five minutes into the game.
I do believe that artists have visual intelligence indeed. I also believe that artists share bodily-knestetic intelligence too in order to transfer their vision into a tangible creation. Bodily-knestetic intelligence is not only for sports and dance. I believe we can call it ‘technique’. Artists also share logical-mathematical intelligence. Moreover, artists are also existential or spiritual intelligent. Why it seems like I’m focusing in artists and visual intelligence? Well, I am an artist. I also stink at music and most sports. The fact is that my favorite aspect of visual intelligence because it is not about what we see with the eyes.
Blind people develop visual intelligence to make sense of their environment. Is that perception of space that goes beyond the world we see. Visual intelligence can inform the other intelligences allowing us to become aware of a different kind of world. We can close our eyes and see it. Our senses become consumed with it. This intelligence allows the development of problem-solving skills, capturing and interpreting information, and perceived the world we see with the naked eye and the world not seen. Leonardo Da Vinci called it ‘the reflective eye’. Leonardo believed that ‘the artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of‘.
To Be Aware Is to See
I watched a commercial on television that really got my attention because I do the same thing. I’m not sure what the product was or what exactly the narrative was about but I found it very interesting. There is a guy taking a train ride looking at people, their expressions, the silent screen of their eyes, the happiness of the moment, the gestures of the hands, what they are wearing, and how they conduct themselves. As the man observes them he explains how he takes all this untold stories into his music. I believe it was music. Honestly can’t recall. However, this awareness is one of the most important characteristics for artists who want their art to be meaningful to people. If artists can ‘see’ people beyond the presence of a person standing or sitting there, they can take it to their art, and their art in return will take it back to the people. People then can connect with the art, the artist, and back to themselves.
To be aware is to see. Seeing in a meaningful way requires a higher degree of consciousness beyond the image transmitted from the eyes to the brain. To see is to connect to the world outside with watchful discernment. Requires for us to be alert and sensitive to the unspoken messages of the surroundings. That sensitivity comes from personal awareness. Without self-awareness we are disconnected from the outside world and we can distort or misinterpret external messages. Discernment leads to revelation. The revelation that allows us to see beyond what is in front of our eyes that transmitted into our art is capable of touching lives.
An interesting aspect of awareness is knowledge. If we add knowledge to what we see we can make objective interpretations based on facts. I mean objective as objective gets. We all know that a completely objective interpretation of the world around us is completely subjective based on our values, beliefs, and understanding. The sky can be blue for some but others can see it dark. Understanding why others see it differently than us is a result of knowledge which turns a subjective interpretation into an objective interpretation of the attributions behind it. We can be sensitive to that interpretation from someone else without surrendering our interpretation or our personal beliefs.