Last week, on Thursday, December 10, Attila Şenkon gave a talk in the Library Art Gallery entitled “Her Gün Perşembe Olsa” as part of our Turkish Writers at Bilkent series. Mr. Şenkon works as an architect in Bilkent University’s Construction and Maintenance unit, but is also a prolific author of novels and short stories for both adults and children, some of which have been made into films. In his talk, Mr. Şenkon described his love of reading and took the audience on a literary journey into the past, to the 1970s: he outlined his personal writing adventure, relating how he has brought his dreams from the past to the present.
The final Library Lunchtime Lecture will take place this week, on December 16. Our speaker will be Dr. Hüseyin Boyacı (PSYCH), who will give a talk on “Reality Constructed: How Does the Visual System Work?” Dr. Boyacı will explain that, while we perceive the world around us effortlessly, in fact this simplicity and triviality delude us into believing firmly that what we perceive is the absolute physical reality. However, for various reasons, what we perceive is only a useful interpretation of what is really out there. First of all, our vision is limited in its capacity to process the visual input impinging on our retinas: we can see only a limited portion of the electromagnetic spectrum; we have limited spatial acuity; and we are visually sensitive to only a limited range of speeds. Moreover, even within the limits of what we can see, all that the visual system can rely on is a pair of inherently ambiguous retinal images. In this talk, Dr. Boyacı will discuss examples that illustrate the difficulties the visual system faces when interpreting visual input, show behavioral and neuronal methods used to study how vision deals with ambiguities, and survey some of the important empirical findings and theoretical models in vision research. He will conclude by emphasizing the importance of studying vision as a model for better understanding the human brain. The lecture will be start at 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday, in the Library Art Gallery. It will be in English, and lunchtime refreshments will be provided. We hope to see you all there!