The letter ‘S”, like “M”, is one of the most used letters in the English language. The three Hebrew characters depict the multiplicity of the letter “S. This composition arranges pictures in a spiral shaped form of the letter “S”. The mathematical progression of a spiral is described as the ratio 1.667 in the Fibonacci series: (1,1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 . . . ).  Rembrandt’s Philosopher contemplating in a lighted spiral stairwell, and The Golden Stairwell of Burn-Jones’s Pre-Raphaelite painting repeat this motif. Escher’s print, Relativity shows multiple stairwells intersecting multiple dimensions.

The articulation of limbs and speech, as well as the multiple strata of knowledge are suggested by Eadweard Muybridge’s Walking Man. This photograph also recalls Christian Metz’s “chain of mirrors” metaphor to describe film, and discloses photography’s early hunger for motion film. The figure “S” is suggested in the pose of the girl reclining in Watteau’s drawing Flora. The photograph at the top by Don Carson depicts a dancer in a blur of movement, as both, the longing to escape form, and the ultimate ineffability of experience.

According to neuralgic research, sensation is transformed into knowledge through movement or action. Critical theory has turned to questions of sensation as the mediation of knowledge. Ann Marie Seward Barry’s Visual Intelligence proposes that eyesight is insight. Through analysis of the biology of sense development she argues that basic intelligence is grounded in modes of perception aligned with conception. Many biologic studies now indicate that the human faculties of perception grow into maturation. Seeing, hearing and the other senses are therefore, not only culturally constructed but, they are also learned behaviors.

Barry cites cases of blind from birth subjects who later acquire sight through medical intervention. These subjects are unable to consistently perform visual tasks without constant relearning. Scientists now conclude that sight or visual intelligence is acquired in the formative years disproving prior assumptions about the human visual faculty. This neuralgic research elucidates an important factor in the nature nurture question, although perceptive faculties are inborn they are cultivated. Human development precludes certain necessary periods for the cultivation of these faculties in the infant and child. Linguist, Noam Chomsky identified a similar principle for speech acquisition beyond the age of puberty.

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