2. Literature review

Figure 3. Rendered image of a sky view (self-produced)

“We inhabit simultaneously two domiciles: the physical world of matter and sensory experience on the one hand, and the mental world of mental realities, imagination, ideas and intentions on the other. These two worlds constitute a continuum, an existential singularity.” (Velux, 2016, p.12).

In order to understand the experience of looking and the convoluted layers of experience it implies, Bruce Goldstein’s study of the visual system will first be introduced, deeply rooted in our predictive experience of everyday life. A link will then be drawn between his understanding of the visual processes and Lisa Heschong’s study on visual and perceptive experiences.

In “Sensation and Perception”, Bruce Goldstein explained the visual process using a linear chart (Figure 4) that begins with external inputs and concludes with perception and experience. This mechanism involves numerous concurrent brain activity paths. Shape, movement, size, orientation and color are all processed separately by independent systems that interact with one another. Despite significant breakthroughs in the understanding of specific neural processes and specialized brain regions, it is still unclear how individual processes are merged into a cohesive visual experience. In the context of visual perception offered by skylight windows, the proximal stimulus (daylight) considered in the following sections will be the sun and sky.

Theories linked to the first three layers of the visual process are briefly covered in the chapter “The predictive experience”, while theories and knowledge linked to the visual perception of the sky are unfolding in “The perceptive experience” chapter. The two mechanisms of recognition and action, will be covered in the further developed analysis of space and occupant experience with skylight windows.

Figure 4. Visual process by Bruce Goldstein (1991) and the adaptation of Goldstein’s stages for vision to the experience of looking at the sky