Narrative comprehension, memory, motion, depth perception, synesthesia, hallucination, and dreaming have long been objects of fascination for cognitive psychologists. They have also been among the most potent sources of creative inspiration for experimental filmmakers. Lessons in Perception melds film theory and cognitive science in a stimulating investigation of the work of iconic experimental artists such as Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Maya Deren, and Jordan Belson.

Pioneer avant-garde filmmaker, poet and artist Jonas Mekas (born 1922) was the barometer of the New York art scene in the 1960s and ‘70s. His interviews with Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Susan Sontag, John Cassavetes, Carolee Schneemann, Yvonne Rainer, Claes Oldenburg, Kenneth Anger and Michael Snow, among many other avant-garde artists and filmmakers for his weekly column in the Village Voice between 1958 and 1977, are gathered here for the first time in this substantial publication.

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The heart of Friedl Kubelka’s photographic work (who as a filmmaker goes by the name of Friedl vom Gröller) is constituted by portraiture – whether she captures friends, acquaintances, family members, filmmakers, artists or simply clients, each for the most part gazing directly into the camera. Since 1972 to the present, Kubelka has also placed herself in front of the camera for her project Jahresportraits (Year’s Portraits) in which she mercilessly documents the process of aging. It has become the structural credo of Kubelka’s artistic practice to juxtapose the individual photograph with many other photographs.