The Eyes Have It

Available for over a year

A journey into the human multi-sensory experience, with philosopher Barry Smith and sound artist Nick Ryan. In this episode, we dissect the sense which dominates most of our experience, colours our perception of the world, and takes up around a third of the processing power of our brain: Vision. For thousands of years people thought we had 5 senses, now it's believed we have up to 33. In this new series, philosopher Barry Smith and sound artist Nick Ryan take us into the extraordinary world of sensory perception. Barry Smith asks why our sense of vision is so much more important than the others; or at least, why it often feels that way to us. He explores some visual illusions which demonstrate that seeing is not always believing, and asks whether what we see can influence something so fundamental as who we think we are. Producer: Emily Knight.