The input to visual processing consists of an undifferentiated array of features which must be parsed into discrete units. Here we explore the degree to which conscious awareness is important for forming such object representations,and for updating them in the face of changing visual scenes. We do so by exploiting the phenomenon of motion-induced blindness (MIB),wherein salient (and even attended) objects fluctuate into and out of conscious awareness when superimposed onto certain global motion patterns. By introducing changes to unseen visual stimuli during MIB,we demonstrate that object representations can be formed and updated even without conscious access to those objects. Such changes can then influence not only how stimuli reenter awareness,but also what reenters awareness. We demonstrate that this processing encompasses simple object representations and also several independent Gestalt grouping cues. We conclude that flexible visual parsing over time and visual change can occur even without conscious perception. Methodologically,we conclude that MIB may be an especially useful tool for studying the role of awareness in visual processing and vice versa.

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Art explores and expresses our aesthetic relation to our environment and ourselves. However, since the rise of photography, the value ascribed to art’s representative power has waned and in its place are explorations of the poetics of each piece, the way in which an object’s materiality intervenes in the space (and time) in which it is sited, authorship, the role of the viewer and so on. In 2D media, these subjects have been explored in many ways. Mark Rothko, concerned with the search for the sublime, created vast modernist works than aimed to stupefy the viewer into a response to the hidden ‘divine’. Picasso’s light paintings subverted the photograph’s modus operandi by generating an image over time, rather than in a single snapshot instant. Many artists working in video explore directly the way in which time and image can interact. These concerns offer themselves uniquely to the development of a ‘new ’ medium – an exploration of the way in which ambient information can be represented in a visual, 2D (or perhaps 3D) format. In technologically enhanced modern life, there are many pieces of information relating to the environment, the workplace, the tasks and requirements of users that we can collect, collate and represent- but how do we visualise them? In particular, 2D representations that are aware of individuals and alter their properties according to the relationships between them are interesting. We are not focused on providing a direct mapping between information and representation, but on the creation of a representation of what might be termed the ‘mood ’ of a place, and in the modifications that occur as users interact indirectly with the artefact. This brings the viewer into direct interaction with the artwork, something that has been carried out by digital artists within a gallery or studio environment, but which has not yet transgressed the boundaries of the gallery walls. This defines ambient art: representations of complex environmental and user information that reflect their surroundings as well as simply being displayed in them. This paper presents the rationale for exploring ambient art, details the basic technical infrastructure, and discusses our experiences with using the system.