Movements of the Mental Eye in Pictorial Space

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan J. Koenderink
Keyword(s):  
Physical Space ◽  
Physical Object ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Pictorial Space ◽  
Psychophysical Data ◽  
Pictorial Perception ◽  
Mental Object

When an observer is faced with a straight photograph, the observer can either look at the image or look into the photograph. This manner of observing photographs presents a difference that is crucial. In the former case, the observer is aware of the photograph as a physical object in a physical space while in the latter, the observer is aware of the pictorial object in a pictorial space. This chapter focuses on the current understanding of pictorial perception and the structure of pictorial space. Pictorial space is different from physical space in that it does not exist outside of the observer's awareness. It is a thread of consciousness and a purely mental object. In contrast, the photograph as a physical object is a mere planar sheet composed of pigments in a certain simultaneous order. The concepts of pictorial object and scene is not limited to the earlier existence of a physical space that figured casually in the present existence of the photograph. The theory of pictorial space is largely derived from psychophysical data. The measurement of it depends on the idiosyncratic movements of the mental eye. It is purely an ‘intentional entity’ that makes its elusive to physiological methods and susceptible to misconception.

Creative Labor, Mental Objects and the Modern Theory of Production

2020 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 458-484
Author(s):  
Alan Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Mental Objects ◽  
Theory Of Production ◽  
Mental Object

Recent decades have seen a proliferation of literature on creativity, with no consensus about what it consists of. Chinese and Russian contributions throw new light on these debates because of their concern with economic and human development. By integrating this with the widely-used concept of the “creative industries,” a rigorous concept of creativity rooted in the notion of creative labor is proposed. This can be defined as non-mechanical labor which, in conjunction with Information and Communication Technology (ICT), has produced a mass market in products embodying the use-value of distinctness. The creative industries then emerge as a branch of the division of labor making intensive use of creative labor in combination with mental objects, such as scientific and artistic products. Software, itself a mental object, is an “instrument of mental production” in these industries, helping explain their potential contribution to human development, and the obstacles to this potential imposed by the commodity form.

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