Stimulatory overdrive: A re-evaluation of the blasé outlook within contemporary society

Abstract

The herring gull is a bird species with a red dot on its beak. Its chicks are fully dependant on their mother for the first phase of their life, and resultantly develop a clear instinct towards the beak of their mother as this is their known source of sustenance. Interestingly enough the chicks respond with the same excitement when an object is brought about which only assimilates the beak, characteristically with the red dot. Studies showed that the chicks reacted just as much towards simply a stick with a red dot on it, and even more so to a stick with several dots or a larger red dot painted on. Qualities which in fact are never seen in the exact same manner on their mother’s beak from which the actual desired food would be brought. Despite the contrast between a herring gull chick and a more developed, presumably intelligent, human being, the anecdote conveys an important principle of the visual arts. As the chicks are deluded by the familiar yet amplified stimulus, so does the human mind build excitement and apparent interest for that which is the most visually stimulating, irrespective of the true understanding of the perceived subject. This same ideology has several instances where it is exploited in the built environment of today.