A Preliminary Inventory of the Transformations of Scientific Imaging

Imaging technologies “transform” an object of study into something we can visually perceive in the form of an image. In science and medicine, imaging technologies enact a large variety of transformations, sometimes changing the spatiality of an object of study (e.g., making a small thing big enough to see, bringing close something far away, etc.), or changing its temporality (e.g., providing a picture of a single moment). I make use of the postphenomenological philosophical perspective, and in particular the work of its founder, Don Ihde, for guidance in exploring the different ways that imaging technologies transform our world in the process of rendering it available to visual perception. The main project of this paper is to develop a provisional categorization of a large variety of image transformations common to science and medicine.

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A PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ALHAZEN'S OPTICS

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy ◽

10.1017/s0957423905000172 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 189-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

NADER EL-BIZRI

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

History Of Science ◽

Philosophical Perspective ◽

Science And Art ◽

Textual Transmission ◽

History Of ◽

Archival Documentation ◽

Internal Coherence

Although numerous studies have been conducted on the Optics (Kitāb al-Manāzir) of Alhazen (al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, d. 1040 C.E.), and on its reception, assimilation and maturation within the course of development of the perspectivae traditions in the history of science and art, ambiguities do hitherto still surround the epistemological and ontological entailments of his theory of visual perception. In addressing this question, our inquiry herein is principally philosophical in scope and our textual reading combines exegesis with hermeneutics. While we observe the delicate procedures of historiography and philology, we do not unguardedly assume that they are exhaustive of all rigorous methods of thoughtful investigation. Moreover, in heeding the internal coherence of Alhazen's text, we do not simply lock his views within reductive contextual chronologies, or readily confine them to epochal matters of textual transmission. Our endeavour is therefore not exclusively set in view of serving the purposes of archival documentation, even if we preserve a thorough and sound sense of historicity. We ultimately recognize the philosophical pertinence of numerous subtle leitmotifs within Alhazen's thinking that speak to us in an effective timely manner, which is significantly relevant in its attuned bearings to the thrust of phenomenological theories of perception.

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Particularity and Proliferation of Stroboscopic Elements in the Visual, Performing and Cinematographic Arts

Theatrical Colloquia ◽

10.2478/tco-2020-0009 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 135-146

Author(s):

Răzvan-Constantin Caratănase ◽

Răzvan-Petrişor Dragoş

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Visual Arts ◽

Short Circuit ◽

Video Camera ◽

Gestalt Psychology ◽

Visual Identity ◽

Single Moment ◽

Sufficient Distance ◽

The Spectator ◽

Creative Vision

AbstractIn the work “Art and Visual Perception. A Psychology of the Author’s Creative Vision” by Rudolf Arnheim, following some researches/studies of Gestalt psychology applied in the field of visual arts and/or cinematography, the author states: “It is unlikely that any stroboscopic “short-circuit” will occur as long as objects appear on the screen at a sufficient distance from each other.” An observer-spectator only pays attention to what he/she receives. A speedy stream indicates unity. It is precisely for that reason that the vehement and effective ways are indispensable in order to render indisputably the intermittency-discontinuity. The stroboscopic dynamics overlooks the physical source of the visual tangible material. In that case, the visual identity does not start to be problematic as long as an element-object keeps staying in the same place without any inversion or transposition of its appearance - for example: the video camera that does not change its position but registers the building. For the same reason, we have the actor/actress who crosses the screen keeping his/her con-similarity (just walking down the path) without substantially changing his/her size or shape. The nature of the issues only appears under visual circumstances when they invoke/guide where it does not exist or vice versa. Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964): “In order to perform the movement, static painting must resort to symbols and conventions. It did not go beyond fixing a single “moment” in the sequence of moments that make up a movement; all other “moments” before and beyond the fixed movement are left to the imagination and fantasy of the spectator.”

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