Do some brains have blind spots?

So the sun is out and I've been sitting in the back garden to draw whilst continuing to think about the theme of 'where does empathy for Others reside?' Drawing in bright sunlight often leaves afterimages on the paper, dark shapes on the white page. Depending on the exposure the Bain tricks our eyes and we can read these afterimages as either positive or negative image phenomena. The explanations for this are not clear but researchers believe its something to do with 'retinal inertia'. Another great word, retinal, our vehicle for seeing, inertia, a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged. Our eyes are the second most amazing and complex organ after the brain, and they are the only part of the nervous system exposed to the external environment. Our vision, what we see, is mediated and processed via the eyes. I think this needs thinking about a little more to make some links?

I started to question whether some people have dark/black/blind spots or blockage in parts of their cerebral cortex, bits just not connecting, broken pathways, or under used linkages that have withered away (where they ever there?). Different types exposure, creating different images. Great word reside, as makes reference to where one lives, as well as where something is located. Reside and location are also useful terms when thinking about geography, place, mapping and borders. Also very helpful for the exhibition theme in Dark Days, Light Nights.

So back to the drawing I thought about blotting out the area in the brain where empathy resides, using a large black spot. A blind spot. So I'm drawing away and I realise the blanked spot looks like a football, as the drawing beneath of the brain comes through it forms the patterns of a ball. Serendipity. Maybe. So then I'm thinking about football, its been on my brain since the Sky Blues won the league two play off final. I'm making connection to regions, nations, identity, loyalty, sport and politics and football. Football has historically been linked to right wing, violence, bigotry and conflict. Don't know, not sure about this direction, seems like a different map being drawn here. Anyway any thoughts please share.