Medialness and the Perception of Visual Art

In this article we explore the practical use of medialness informed by perception studies as a representation and processing layer for describing a class of works of visual art. Our focus is towards the description of 2D objects in visual art, such as found in drawings, paintings, calligraphy, graffiti writing, where approximate boundaries or lines delimit regions associated to recognizable objects or their constitutive parts. We motivate this exploration on the one hand by considering how ideas emerging from the visual arts, cartoon animation and general drawing practice point towards the likely importance of medialness in guiding the interaction of the traditionally trained artist with the artifact. On the other hand, we also consider recent studies and results in cognitive science which point in similar directions in emphasizing the likely importance of medialness, an extension of the abstract mathematical representation known as ‘medial axis’ or ‘Voronoi graphs’, as a core feature used by humans in perceiving shapes in static or dynamic scenarios.We illustrate the use of medialness in computations performed with finished artworks as well as artworks in the process of being created, modified, or evolved through iterations. Such computations may be used to guide an artificial arm in duplicating the human creative performance or used to study in greater depth the finished artworks. Our implementations represent a prototyping of such applications of computing to art analysis and creation and remain exploratory. Our method also provides a possible framework to compare similar artworks or to study iterations in the process of producing a final preferred depiction, as selected by the artist

La figure bidimensionnelle et les principes de son extension dans le plan

Cette thèse traite de la forme visuelle. Nous y étudions plus spécifiquement la configuration des figures bidimensionnelles, c’est-à-dire les caractéristiques de disposition des éléments concourant à fixer son aspect. Nos observations ont pour but d’isoler dans la forme perçue les diverses contraintes spatiales susceptibles d’en affecter les organisations dans le plan. \ud De ces contraintes d’extension émergeraient des figures de base, peu nombreuses, agissant comme des repères dans une grille de reconnaissance des formes. Selon notre hypothèse, la catégorisation perceptive à l’aide de types morphologiques et d’indices structuraux expliquerait—au moins en partie—les processus d’appréhension des formes. Nous comptons identifier les classes dominantes de ce répertoire par l’étude et la systématisation des comportements spatiaux.\ud La thèse s’adresse à tout individu qu’intéressent les fondements de la communication par l’image. Comme notre projet porte sur les attributs physiques et esthétiques de la forme beaucoup plus que sur sa fonction iconographique, le lecteur doit s’attendre à une démarche centrée sur les procédés d’expression plastique. Les formes seront analysées comme des sources d’information objectives

Mereology of Visual Form

Abstract. Visual forms come in countless varieties, from the simplicity of a sphere, to the geometric complexity of a face, to the fractal complexity of a rugged coast. These varieties have been studied with mathematical tools such as topology, differential geometry and fractal geometry. They have also been examined, largely in the last three decades, in terms of mereology, the study of part-whole relationships. The result is a fascinating body of theoretical and empirical results. In this paper I review these results, and describe a new development that applies them to the problem of learning names for visual forms and their parts.