Abstract
The following article seeks to traverse the eastern and western approaches to the study, use and practice of writing and art. To this extent, the first aim is to discuss the two types of cognition in relation to writing. Secondly, the article tries to show that the change in medium, from voice-to-ear to eye-to-paper made it possible to converge the practice of storing information with the practice of artistic expression. In this view, the evolution of art and writing relied on human perception and may have been influenced by a variety of factors, one of which the tendency to converge on a specific point on a horizon. The third and final aim of the article is to address the notions of perception and cognition in relation to Romano-Latin writing traditions of the early Middle Ages. Ultimately, the article seeks to establish a connection between the Romano-Latin writing tradition and its derivatives, on the basis of several properties of visual perception and cognition.
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Ulrich (2011, pp. 101–102) presents a more aesthetics-oriented approach to perception and suggests that it incorporates numerous psychological processes that usually take place simultaneously, while the attributes of the object observed are being analysed. This multitude of mechanisms depends on time, with attributes like capturing light and motion (captured rapidly), or shape, symmetry, and temperature (taking more time). What is more, there is a distinction between aesthetic and analytical response, yet the boundary between the two relies, again, on the time it takes to observe a given object. If the aesthetic response to an object is positive, it will be more likely to initiate a positive analytical preference.
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Aitchison (1992, p. 46) suggests that there may exist a correspondence between the style of reading and the ability to decipher writing. Reading aloud or silently, as well as reading quickly or slowly—all of these instances may relate to the amount of conversion taking place, when individual letters are assigned their sound variant, while words and meaning are put together.
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For a more detailed description of typological terms see: Solomon (1994, p. 89).
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Mianowski, J. (2019). The Convergence of Art, Perception and Cognition with Western and Eastern Writing Traditions. In: Mianowski, J., Borodo, M., Schreiber, P. (eds) Memory, Identity and Cognition: Explorations in Culture and Communication. Second Language Learning and Teaching(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12590-5_14
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