In a world where we’re being constantly manipulated by real news, fake news, stats, facts, headlines, and social media, how do we begin to perceive reality, let alone judge what or how we think about it? Since the beginning of time, artists have played with perception. In this immersive talk, Annabel will lead you through some of the most mind-bending, surprising, and entertaining ways in which artists from Michelangelo to Salvador Dali have manipulated vision, perception, and meaning. Helena will explain how the brain ‘sees’ information, how everything the brain makes sense of is a relative judgment; why we are susceptible to visual illusions, and how we never really see the truth. This talk will:

• Look at some of the most exciting, mind-boggling works of art history
• Explore how easily our brains are manipulated
• How we see in patterns, visually and verbally
• Explain why speedy judgments are likely (cognitively speaking) to mislead us
• Look at strategies to challenge our perception of what is right
• Provide simple methods to manage the way we receive information