Recognizing Realizations

Recognition is the identification of a single past knowledge or experience. Recognition does not have to be dramatic, for we recognize people, places, and things everyday without surprise. Realization, however, is a collection of recognitions that is usually characterized by what I like to call, “the wow factor.” A realization comes at the crossroads of many past recognitions.

The chronology of recognizing and realizing presents itself in nearly every detective story. Consider the series Monk. Detective Monk enters a crime scene and fills his memory with facts and images that may prove helpful in the future.  As he investigates the crime, Monk recognizes people, items, and irregularities that lead him closer to the truth.  Once all the right pieces fall into place, Monk realizes who committed the crime in a moment of epiphany as he dramatically says, “Here’s what happened.”

Impressionist art follows this same pattern. At first the viewer recognizes colors, then perhaps some shapes begin to emerge.  It is not until all of the individual pieces are recognized that the viewer can realize what the image is as a whole. Consider the painting Soleil Levant by Claude Monet (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/first/impression/impression.jpg). First the viewer recognizes the sun from its shape and color, then the boats and people inside them. Finally after some time, the viewer can fully understand that they are looking at the sun rising over a marina. Keep in mind that the only reason the viewer is able to understand the images in the painting is because he/she has seen them in past experience, as both recognizing and realizing rely on this.  But what is really interesting is that once the big picture is realized, the mind begins to recognize other pieces in the painting that it may not have previously noticed.