It’s all about perspective and perception - Jakob von Uexküll

I am reading A Foray into the World of Animals with A Theory of Meaning by Jakob von Uexküll. Catalogued as a biophilosopher, Uexküll is known for developing the concept of the “umwelt” - generally described as the idea that animals live in individualized micro-realities based on their abilities to become aware of different elements within their environment. Although the theory has received criticism for its tendency to create isolationist views and experiences of the world particular to each animal, the perspective it brings forth is incredibly interesting.

In my humble opinion, the work is amazing. It stimulates my thinking and slows down my pace of reading, in part so that I can carefully comprehend the concepts and their repercussions for animal-centered design, and so that I can make it last longer.

Let me give you an example. In the section on Perception of Time, he describes time as “a sequence of moment changes from environment to environment, according to the number of moments that the subjects experience in the same amount of time;” and moments as “the smallest indivisible vessels of time because they are the expression of indivisible sensations, so-called moment signs.” Each species perceives moments and thus time differently. For example, human moments happen at 1/18th of a second - meaning that we group inputs into groups of 18 and perceive them as one. “Eighteen vibrations of the air are no longer perceived distinctly but rather heard as a single note.” Hence, any moment that happens slower or faster than 1/18th of a second has to be quickened - i.e., time-lapse photography, and those that happen too fast have to be slowed down - i.e., slow motion. Snail moments, on the other hand, happen at a rate of 3-4/second, meaning that they happen as if stretched out and thus should feel faster.

Think about this for a moment (not a pun) …. our perception of temporal information - both the speed of motion we experience within our environments and our qualitative perception of the passage of time, is based on the physiological makeup of our sensory organs. In addition, a 2013 study showed that our metabolic rate and body size also impact how we perceive time, with those species able to perceive time at the finest resolutions tending to be smaller and have faster metabolisms.

So what does this all mean? It means that we live in multi-species environments, where each being is having their own experience of the world both as a specific species, and as individuals, because even though our physiological characteristics determine what species we fall into, the range of resulting capabilities or states vary within them, for example differing qualities of eyesight. Hence, when we design for animal users, we should take into account the pervasiveness of the environment onto their experience, wether they are naturally occurring - for example the sound produced by other animals such as birds chirping and singing, or human-made - for example the white noise or noise masking in office environments.

So for example, in an environment such as a dog training facility, we should design the space and the elements within it to respond to human and canine physiological needs, while taking into account how these artifacts, materials and spaces will be perceived by animals and humans based on their concept of Perception Time. Hence, if we want to experiment if the calming effects of sound masking work for dogs as well, we would need to adjust the frequencies not only to human speech but to canine vocalizations. The next question might be … which vocalizations? Here I would then go back to our understanding of the meaning behind dog vocalizations and types of barks and try to target the frequencies of those that denote the presence of omething threatening such as continuous rapid barking in medium-ranged pitches. Now to solve for the difference in pitch among breeds … this is where technology can really give us a hand!

I’ll leave it at this for now. Future posts will most certainly cover other aspects of Uexküll’s work. But for now hope we have left you wondering, pondering, and being amazed by animals and excited by all the possibilities and work that still needs to be done in animal centered design!