Agent X

Agent X lives in my house.  He fixes my computer, leaves his dirty socks in the middle of the hall, loses days to the world of videogames, and wakes up early every morning to take out the puppy, letting me sleep in.  He also drives me crazy with his fashion.  It’s not that he possesses a fashion sense that is overly expensive to maintain, nor does he suffer from the lack of fashion sense that can often mark an individual as fodder for high school tormentors.  Rather, his sensible Everyman sense of fashion, marked occasionally by whimsical t-shirts, includes a preference for blue and green shirts.  The trouble is that, while Agent X can clearly identify bright greens and blues, he tends to perceive many olive tones as brown, many turquoises and blues only tinted with green as being wholly green, and many dark blues he mistakes for black or dark grey.  As far as fashion goes, this is not especially concerning, but at times, his perception of color gives rise to confusing and interesting situations.  Luckily, the charm of wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day isn’t as essential for adults.

In How Images Think, Ron Burnett discusses the concept of perception, how perception is different than seeing.  The way an individual perceives an image results from the interplay of biological, cultural, and personal (esp. memory) factors which converge together.  Perhaps collide is a better term here.  There is not gentle mingling, and while some of the information affecting perception do synthesize together, some also data could be considered overwritten or increased in influence. 

            For Agent X, the biological input that interprets color is different than what falls along conventional, or normal, lines.  What color blindness brings into relief is more subtle than the difference between those who suffer color blindness and those who do not.  Every individual interprets color differently.  Every lens of every eye is unique; every individual’s ability and range to input information is different.  The cones and rods within the eye which determine color also affects the range of colors and shades it is possible for any individual to see.  Every individual’s eyes are different, so every individual’s biological input of color information is different.  What this means is that perception is not only a factor of opinion but of data input information.   

            This raises the question as to how the concept of communication could differ if more people realized that some things we list as matters of opinion are matters of biology?  It is not Agent X’s opinion that his St. Patrick’s Day shirt it green while my opinion is that it’s blue: to his eyes, the shirt is green; to mine, it is blue.  This is not a matter of opinion, but it is a matter of perception.  How might communication be reevaluated if perception was understood as a matter of more than interpretation but of actual data?