For the visual example, look at how I put together a shape made entirely from 1/8-circle arcs (Figure I-1).

Figure I-1. One arc and an arc pair.

From these and some small circles I put together the next shape, which looks a bit like an owl’s face (Figure I-2). At this point, notice that I have biased your future perception of these shapes. One of the points in this discussion is the bias created by my giving you the name of the shape early on.

Figure I-2. Arcs forming a face.

Putting two owl heads together produces pictures that might look like lima beans, faces, an apple core, or some other shape that you choose to name (Figure I-3).

Figure I-3. Apple cores?

Finally, I build the picture I had in mind (Figure I-4). What do you see in it? How do you parse it into distinguishable sections? Do you see eye shades, embryos, or lima beans? Do you see two yin-yang shapes?

Figure I-4. Complex circle.

Actually, I had in mind two overlapping yin-yang shapes (Figure I-5). Nothing in my intention had to do with arcs, owls, apple cores, or embryos. All of those were secondary effects, artifacts that showed up when I combined the two yin and yang icons, one mirrored and rotated from the other, and parsed the picture according to a different pattern.

The point of my presenting the images in a different order is to illustrate three things:

· Any complex shape can be parsed according to different patterns.

· Our perception about "what is there" proceeds in different directions depending on how we separate elements.