Perceived orientation, spatial layout and the geometry of pictures

The purpose is to discuss the role of geometry in determining the perception of spatial layout and perceived orientation in pictures viewed at an angle. This discussion derives from Cutting's (1988) suggestion, based on his analysis of some of the author's data (Goldstein, 1987), that the changes in perceived orientation that occur when pictures are viewed at an angle can be explained in terms of geometrically produced changes in the picture's virtual space

OPTIMIZING THE PERCEPTION OF REALITY AS A PRECURSOR FOR HUMAN EVOLUTION; AUGMENTING AND MIXING INFORMATION DOMAINS IN A SINGLE STREAM OF COGNITION

Human vision is like a set of pictures moving through time. By analyzing individual frames, it is possible to find spaces of lower and higher priority, distant views and closely located objects. Regions of perceivable space are easily modifiable so that one can individually customize what one sees. Head mounted display technology, currently under development, allows for the modification of our vision, thus replacing the visible world with the artistically imagined or overlaying real time data over perceivable space. The future of perception omits distance – allowing contextual data to come through our vision, providing a digitally controlled perception system in a place of our natural one

Keterpenjaraan perempuan dalam ruang kota di dalam Lost in translation (2003) dan The good girl (2002)

The urban space offers more challenges to the female self. Two motion pictures, Lost in translation (2003) and The good girl (2002), depict the issue of gender and space by conveying the city as prison for the female characters. This article analyses the urban space and argues that in the two movies, the female characters struggle and eventually create meaning in the urban room. Applying feminism and urban geography in analysing the position of female characters within the city, the paper finds that the two films offer their perception on, and solutions to, the imprisonment of women by the urban environment which is stereotypically masculine

Understanding pictures : a study in the design of appropriate visual materials for education in developing countries.

The human resources approach to national development has challenged educators to find ways of communicating with village people that do not rely on the written word. Pictures are being used increasingly as a way to deliver messages to illiterate groups. Recent cross-cultural research has shown, however, that many of the assumptions made about the kinds of information that can be delivered through pictures needs to be re-examined. Part I of the study sets forth the rationale for using pictures in nonformal educational settings and examines two current approaches to the problem of picture perception. The constructive theory maintains that pictures are inherently ambiguous and require active interpretation on the part of the viewer. The registration theory suggests that pictures give information which derives from the ecology of light. In this view, the recognition of graphic depictions is considered to be a fairly passive matter and a gift allowed to us by the environment. The evidence of cross-cultural research in picture perception which fives support to each of these positions is reviewed. Part I also discusses cross-cultural studies of intelligence and examines a body of literature which demonstrates that the intellectual demands of village life are often such that they do not stimulate some of the higher cognitive processes identified by Piaget. The author takes the position advanced by Piaget and Vygotsky that the development of conceptual awareness advances from an intuitive level to one of conscious understanding. Bruner\u27s thesis concerning three modes of learning is also discussed. The traditional modes of learning in village settings are enactive (learning by doing) and iconic (learning by modeling). Symbolic learning which is learning by being told, usually takes place out of the context of ongoing action and, as such, is a radical departure from traditional practice. Like written language, pictures provide a form of symbolically coded experience, and in many cases the learner must be consciously aware of the cures of pictorial expression and how they are used, in order to properly decode their meaning. Part II details an empirical study carried out in Nepal with four samples of adult subjects: villagers with no schooling, villagers wit some primary or secondary schooling, workers in a furniture factory in the capital city of Kathmandu, and students at Tribhuvan University\u27s Institute of Engineering. A series of sixteen experiments was carried out. The abilities tested were the recognition of depicted objects, the understanding of spatial relationships in concrete situations, and the comprehension of pictorial space. In an effort to avoid introducing arbitrary graphic conventions, photographs and line drawings based on photographs were primarily used as the pictorial stimuli. The recognition of familiar objects in pictures was found to be a great deal easier than the comprehension of pictorial space. The village samples showed a generally poor understanding of euclidian and projective relationships both with regard to real objects and in interpreting pictures. The furniture factory workers and the engineering students performed at higher levels on all experiments, showing that environmental influences or specific experiences of some kind are important both in the development of spatial abilities and in the understanding of pictorial space. On the other hand, topological relationships in pictures were easily grasped by almost all of the villagers. The author concludes that perspective information was understood at only an intuitive level by the majority of the villagers tested and could not be consciously applied to the interpretation of spatial relationships in pictures. Projective information was consistently interpreted topologically by most of the village subjects. The author suggests that the recognition of familiar objects in pictures is largely an ability which does not require special learning, but that the interpretation of pictorial space is an active process which calls for conscious awareness of projective principles . Recommendations for the design of visual materials for use in nonformal educational settings are made

Perceiving pictures

I aim to give a new account of picture perception: of the way our visual system functions when we see something in a picture. My argument relies on the functional distinction between the ventral and dorsal visual subsystems. I propose that it is constitutive of picture perception that our ventral subsystem attributes properties to the depicted scene, whereas our dorsal subsystem attributes properties to the picture surface. This duality elucidates Richard Wollheim’s concept of the “twofoldness” of our experience of pictures: the “visual awareness not only of what is represented but also of the surface qualities of the representation.” I argue for the following four claims: (a) the depicted scene is represented by ventral perception, (b) the depicted scene is not represented by dorsal perception, (c) the picture surface is represented by dorsal perception, and (d) the picture surface is not necessarily represented by ventral perceptio

Liable to Change

Liable to Change is a body of paintings in which I explore diverse approaches to the representation of visual space. Depictions of space and movement change throughout the pictures by combining various artistic conventions, such as trompe l’oeil realism and non-objective, geometric abstraction. Oil paint, resin, beeswax, and other materials create built-up surfaces which contain the history of their making. Interaction between various finishes and light on these surfaces changes based on the viewers\u27 proximity to the painting. Images of monkey bars, lattice, golden ratio and flower of life patterns provide a structure through which line, form, and space are represented. The disruption of logic created within these structures serves to provide multiple ways of viewing the paintings. These compositions also provide opportunities to visualize the mutability of perception and logic. Through relating my experience of third-person memory following a fall, proximity in space and time is shown to shift and change the perception of an event. This freedom of navigation within the picture plane can be interpreted as a metaphor of wide access to information on the internet. The ability afforded to the masses to assemble their own understanding of cultural memory is blurring the binary construction of collective memory. In this way, the basic principles of fuzzy logic provide a new perspective in visualizing issues surrounding present-day collective memory construction. Through this body of work, I am not addressing physical disruption on the surface of the canvas, as well as disruption of perception systems. My depictions of destabilized perception systems stand as a metaphor for an unstable/unregulated information hub—the internet—and the fallibility/malleability of human memory

Sculpture and Space

What is distinctive about sculpture as an artform? I argue that it is related to the space around it as painting and the other pictorial arts are not. I expound and develop Langer's suggestive comments on this issue, before asking what the major strengths and weaknesses of that position might be

Zeitkippen : Begleitpublikation zum Film C 13075

If we see a film, we experience the passing time in two ways. On the one hand, it is conveyed as the time in which the film action takes place – felt as “lived” time. On the other hand, via camera travels and movements of objects vertically to the picture plane, time is perceived – in a much more indirect way – as a vehicle for representation of spatial depth. It is this link between space and time where the method of “time tilting” introduced here sets in. When a film scene is “time-tilted”, one of the spatial dimensions (here the horizontal direction of the picture plane) is interchanged with the time dimension: In a first step, the pictures of the scene are digitalized. Then, the thus gained pixels of all pictures of the scene are arranged into a three-dimensional data field. Finally, a new series of pictures is read out, along one of the two former picture axes, which is then shown as a scene of moving pictures. The resulting film will present optical phenomena which are, on the one hand, aesthetically appealing and, on the other hand, informative for film analysis. First examples demonstrate how the procedure operates on basic movements in space as well as on camera travels in space.Bei der Vorführung eines Films wirkt die ablaufende Zeit auf den Zuschauer in zweierlei Weise. Zum einen als die Zeit, in der die Filmhandlung stattfindet und die als gelebte Zeit empfunden wird. Zum anderen, sehr viel indirekter, als Vehikel zur Darstellung von Raumtiefe durch Kamerafahrten und Objektbewegungen senkrecht zur Bildebene. An dieser Verknüpfung von Raum und Zeit setzt die hier vorgestellte Methode „Zeitkippen“ an. Beim Zeitkippen einer Filmszene wird eine der Raumdimensionen (hier die Horizontale der Bildebene) mit der Zeitachse vertauscht: Im ersten Schritt digitalisiert man die Szene. Dann fügt man die Bildpunkte (Pixel) aller Szenen bilder in ein dreidimensionales Datenfeld. Schließlich liest man entlang einer der beiden ehemaligen Bildfeldachsen eine neue Bildserie aus, die man als Bewegtbild-Szene vorführt. Dabei entstehen einerseits ästhetisch ansprechende und andererseits filmanalytisch auf schlussreiche optische Phänomene. Erste Beispiele zeigen, wie sich das Verfahren auf grundlegende Bewegungen im Raum sowie Kamerafahrten im Raum auswirkt

The Spectator in the Picture

This paper considers whether pictures ever implicitly represent internal spectators of the scenes they depict, and what theoretical construal to offer of their doing so. Richard Wollheim's discussion (Painting as an Art, ch.3) is taken as the most sophisticated attempt to answer these questions. I argue that Wollheim does not provide convincing argument for his claim that some pictures implicitly represent an internal spectator with whom the viewer of the picture is to imaginatively identify. instead, I defend a view on which the external spectator simply imagines herself interacting, psychologically and otherwise, with the depicted scene. I explore some of the consequences of the two positions for pictorial aesthetics, arguing that the view I favour is at least as competent as Wollheim's at accommodating those phenomena we have any reason to think hold