Do you have any useful methods for seeing?

It’s common in an art class to turn an object or a photo upside down in order to truly see what you are looking at so you can draw or paint it more accurately. Rather than draw a “face”, we are able to see the lines and shadows.

Most of the time we don’t really see the light, color, and even the true shape of an object because we see a concept. There is a tree, which is made up of trunk, branches, and leaves. There is a car, which has 4 tires. There is a person’s face.

But I’m sure we’ve all experienced a time when the most common and familiar have appeared foreign and new. Sometimes just staring for an extended time at something seems to allow the conceptual model to fall away and the object becomes light and color, and it’s possible to view it in a whole new way.

Other than drugs (or sleep deprivation, in my case), do you have a technique that you occasionally use to see – really see – things from a new perspective? I had a practice a few years ago using my phone where I would take photos throughout my day of the ordinary from a perspective that I have yet to observe it. It forced me to seek out new perspectives, and before long I found that I was seeing familiar objects for the first time.

Do you have any techniques you use to see?