Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life
Amabella Tevebaugh
In her fascinating book, Visual Intelligence: Sharpen your Perception, Change your Life, Amy Herman describes how visual intelligence can be learned like any other skill with daily practice. While working at the Frick Gallery in New York City as an art historian, Herman created a course called The Art of Perception, designed to train FBI agents, cops, CEOs, ER docs, and others to perceive and communicate better through closely observing famous paintings. This seminar teaches skills important for all of life; how to identify the most important information, as well as the threats and possibilities in every situation. These skills can change our lives for the better, and even save money, reputations, and lives.
Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life
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Well, like photographer Dorothea Lange, I believe the camera is a tool that teaches us how to see. The practice of presence and composition using visual design principles has helped me learn to see and make better photographs. Yet, Herman invites us to go further. She asks us to not just see, but to observe.
We can practice the art of close observation while photographing by pausing and focusing on these details before clicking the shutter. Write down or make a mental note of all of the objective details of the scene. Now, look more closely. What did you miss the first time? Move around and look at the scene from different angles and perspectives. Does this bring up new details you missed from another vantage point?
Next, prioritize the essential elements of the scene to determine what should be in the photograph and what should be left out. To include unnecessary elements only distracts from your subject or message. While this process may seem laborious, the practice will eventually become quick and intuitive.
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At this point you may be wondering where the relationship between these seemingly unrelated question exists. As it turns out, these questions have more in common upon a second, or third glance. Finding the commonality might just take some practice.
Visual Intelligence by Amy Herman helped me reassess the ways I observe the realities of everyday life. It provided me with a framework for how I might consider the observation of art as a tool to sharpen my perception of the world and to see opportunities (and threats) that others may not.
In order to articulate the takeaways from this book to myself, I felt compelled to put them in writing. I also included an assortment of images that is not necessarily in the book, but rather from some of my favorite modern & contemporary artists.
According to her bio, Amy Herman has spent more than a decade teaching doctors to observe patients instead of their charts, helping police officers separate facts from opinions when investigating a crime, and training professionals from the FBI, State Department, Fortune 500 companies, and the military to recognize the most pertinent and useful information in their professions.
Visual Intelligence provides concrete lessons on how to objectively observe the world through art. Though art is the medium around which the lessons are structured, the anecdotes and exercises translate more to "real life" than they do to merely viewing a piece of art. This book is not about becoming an art historian, nor does it require any background or existing appreciation of art (though it certainly helps).
This section is about seeing what matters most within a distracted world. It also introduces the concept of learning how to better assess real-life situations by learning how to observe works of art. This section also addressed overarching concepts around seeing detail while not losing sight of the big picture and understanding how our perceptual filters may impact our ability to remain objective.
This section centers around how the objective, clear, and concise articulation of observed situations. Articulation involves not only the content but also the delivery of a message. The secret sauce, Herman suggests, to be sure messages are received by their audience is what she calls the three Rs: repeating, renaming, and reframing.
I believe there is great value to exercises in articulation as this book presents, especially when it comes to communicating hard truths by being objective and by avoiding the cloud of emotion in order to say what you see and not what you think. A key takeaway from this section is also the focus on being precise and specific when articulating a message.
Throughout Visual Intelligence, the reader will encounter numerous full-color images of fine art from many centuries and in assorted media to support the exercises put forth in the text. The balance of stories, images, and practical exercises facilitates the author's thesis that if you can change your perception, you can change your life.
All views, thoughts, and opinions expressed above are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of any entity with which I am affiliated. All rights to images in this article remain with the copyright holder.
Pursue what you are passionate about. It is never too late to do something you love. Because there is no such thing as seizing the moment, you have to make the moment. This is the life of art historian Amy Herman. Amy is the President of The Art of Perception and the author of Visual Intelligence. She uses works of art to sharpen observation analysis and communication skills. In this episode, she joins Tony Martignetti to share how she found her passion for art. Learn how to achieve self-realization and how to engage with the people of your life by tuning into this conversation.
In her highly participatory presentation, she demonstrates the necessity first to visual literacy and how the analysis of works of art affords participants an innovative way to refresh their sense of critical inquiry and skills necessary for sharper performance and effective leadership. The program has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CBS Evening News, Smithsonian Magazine and many others, as well as her TED Talk A lesson on looking, which went live in December 2018. Her book, Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life was published in May of 2016 and was on The New York Times and Washington Post's bestsellers list, as well as on my list of the bestsellers. Her new book is due in December 2021 and is called Fixed.: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving. She has another book due in 2022, which is called Smart: Open Your Eyes to Boost Your Brain, which is geared towards young adults. I am overcome by how prolific you are, Amy. I am thrilled to welcome you to the show.
I had to read your full bio because I'm overcome by the impact that you have on the world. The work you do is impactful in general but it's what we need as we start to become more in touch with each other and reconnected. I've been in touch with your work for a while but I think it's now time for your work to be seen by many others.
What drew me to you are these elements of your eclectic past, art history, lawyer and your ability to also play in the business world too with different people in different places. Some of the things that I've appreciated about my past too are not being in one box and being able to navigate the world of art, business, science and see how they all interplay.
I want to get this party started and let's stoke the fire. What we do on the show is we help you to share your story of transformation, how you got to where you are now, making such a huge impact. We do it through what's called flashpoints, points in your story that ignited your gifts into the world. What I'd like to do is give you the space to share that. You can start with wherever you like, stop along the way and let's see what's showing up. Without further ado, my friend, Amy, please take it away.
I want to ask the question to take you back a little bit. If you were to look at your childhood, A) Would you think that you'd be dabbling in the world that you're in right now, and B) would your family have ever imagined that you're doing what you're doing now?
Something about the way that you're describing this makes me think about what is the pattern that people need to think about where there are things that are showing up in their mind, constantly, the things that they can't get out of their head, as they're going through their day job and patterns that they've maybe stuck in, that's sticking in their head, how can they weave that into their day job or connect the dots between what their chosen path is and the thing that won't get out of their head?
If something is living rent-free in your head, make the most of it. When your day is over, take 1 or 1/2 an hour every day and pursue it online. One of the examples I'll give you is my world came to a hard stop in March 2020. When the pandemic hit, I couldn't fly anymore. All of a sudden, all the museums around the world up their ante. They put their collections online in ways that nobody would have ever thought of. Every day when I wasn't out there traveling, I go to a different museum and looking at collections that I was never able to see before. It was mind-expanding. When people have passions that are separated from their day job, find a way. If you're passionate enough, you don't have to work it in to monetize it right away. That's steps away, but find a way to pursue it, learn about it and be creative. When the opportunity comes along, you'll know it and seize the opportunity.
That's always a tough question because it changes by the day. There are so many. Part of me wants to be in a European museum that's been around for 200 years and drink in the work that I haven't been able to see. Part of me wants to be in Queens in New York, in Long Island City, in Noguchi Museum, the purest of sculpture. Its indoors and outdoors. It rains on the sculptures. It's the purest form of art. There are no labels. It's you and the art. It split. Part of me wants to run to London and go to the National Gallery, Portrait Gallery and go to the Tate and drink it all in because I feel like I haven't seen it in person. Part of me wants to be in this small intimate atmosphere, just me and the art.
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