Looking into Pictures : An Interdisciplinary Approach to Pictorial Space

by Heiko Hecht, Robert Schwartz and Margaret Atherton (Eds.)

• ISBN13: 9780262083102
• ISBN10: 0262083108
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: MIT PRESS

Summary

The last half of the twentieth century witnessed dramatic changes in the theory of vision. In particular, the "eye-as-camera" metaphor that had long dominated the field no longer seemed tenable. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the metaphor has maintained its appeal in the study of pictures. In Looking into Pictures, philosophers, psychologists, and art historians explore the implications of recent theories of vision for our understanding of the nature of pictorial representation and picture perception. They examine the dual nature of picture perception, the fact that viewers must separate the visual properties of the picture itself from those of what the picture represents. Discussing the status of perspective, they ask whether perspective renderings of space are special or more accurate than those found in other types of pictures, and if so why. Finally, they consider the possible need to reconceive pictorial space and the implications of such a reconception for the study of picture perception.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
The Dual Nature of Picture Perception
In Defense of Seeing-In	p. 3
Conjoint Representations and the Mental Capacity for Multiple Simultaneous Perspectives	p. 17
Relating Direct and Indirect Perception of Spatial Layout	p. 61
The Dual Nature of Picture Perception: A Challenge to Current General Accounts of Visual Perception	p. 77
Perceptual Strategies and Pictorial Content	p. 99
The Status of Perspective
Optical Laws or Symbolic Rules? The Dual Nature of Pictorial Systems	p. 125
Perspective, Convention, and Compromise	p. 145
Resemblance Reconceived	p. 167
What You See Is What You Get: The Problems of Linear Perspective	p. 179
Pictures of Perspective: Theory or Therapy?	p. 191
The Nature and Structure of Reconceived Pictorial
Reconceiving Perceptual Space	p. 215
Pictorial Space	p. 239
Truth and Meaning in Pictorial Space	p. 301
Line and Borders of Surfaces: Grouping and Foreshortening	p. 321
Irreconcilable Views	p. 355
References	p. 379
Contributors	p. 405
Index	p. 407
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