On the Problem of “Reverse Perspective”: Definitions East and West

Leonardo ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 464-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemena Antonova

The author considers the history of the theory of “reverse perspective” in the 20th century. She identifies six distinct views on reverse perspective, some of which are mutually exclusive. The first four definitions have circulated in both Western and Russian scholarship, while two further views proposed by Russian authors are little known in the West. The most useful contribution of Russian theory to the subject is the suggestion of a pictorial space fundamentally different from the three-dimensional space frequently taken for granted by Western viewers.

1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella V. Ridenour

30 boys and 30 girls, 6 yr. old, participated in a study assessing the influence of the visual patterns of moving objects and their respective backgrounds on the prediction of objects' directionality. An apparatus was designed to permit modified spherical objects with interchangeable covers and backgrounds to move in three-dimensional space in three directions at selected speeds. The subject's task was to predict one of three possible directions of an object: the object either moved toward the subject's midline or toward a point 18 in. to the left or right of the midline. The movements of all objects started at the same place which was 19.5 ft. in front of the subject. Prediction time was recorded on 15 trials. Analysis of variance indicated that visual patterns of the moving object did not influence the prediction of the object's directionality. Visual patterns of the background behind the moving object did not influence the prediction of the object's directionality except during the conditions of a light nonpatterned moving object. It was concluded that visual patterns of the background and that of the moving object have a very limited influence on the prediction of direction.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
McKenzie Bohn

Window displays in the fashion industry are unique sites of meaning that combine advertising and artwork in a three-dimensional space. The current body of research surrounding window displays approaches the subject from a marketer’s position and attempts to evaluate performance. This project shifts the focus to the artistic qualities of window displays as they are used by fashion retailers. The primary theoretical lens is gestalt theory, which has applications in both psychology and design. The specific windows examined are the Christmas windows at retailer Saks Fifth Avenue Toronto in December of 2018. An autoethnographic research design is employed, resulting in an exploratory empirical analysis that serves as an entry into an under-represented area of study: the fashion window as an art object. The key findings of the project are the application of gestalt theory to the design of the windows and the researcher’s observations to suggest an explanation of the public’s response to the displays.


Author(s):  
Austin M. Freeman

Angels probably have bodies. There is no good evidence (biblical, philosophical, or historical) to argue against their bodiliness; there is an abundance of evidence (biblical, philosophical, historical) that makes the case for angelic bodies. After surveying biblical texts alleged to demonstrate angelic incorporeality, the discussion moves to examine patristic, medieval, and some modern figures on the subject. In short, before the High Medieval period belief in angelic bodies was the norm, and afterwards it is the exception. A brief foray into modern physics and higher spatial dimensions (termed “hyperspace”), coupled with an analogical use of Edwin Abbott’s Flatland, serves to explain the way in which appealing to higher-dimensional angelic bodies matches the record of angelic activity in the Bible remarkably well. This position also cuts through a historical equivocation on the question of angelic embodiment. Angels do have bodies, but they are bodies very unlike our own. They do not have bodies in any three-dimensional space we can observe, but are nevertheless embodied beings.


1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 639-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mottron ◽  
S. Belleville

SYNOPSISThis study examines perspective construction in an autistic patient (E.C.) with quasi-normal intelligence who exhibits exceptional ability when performing three-dimensional drawings of inanimate objects. Examination of E.C.'s spontaneous graphic productions showed that although his drawings approximate the ‘linear perspective’ system, the subject does not use vanishing points in his productions. Nevertheless, a formal computational analysis of E.C.'s accuracy in an experimental task showed that he was able to draw objects rotated in three-dimensional space more accurately than over-trained controls. This accuracy was not modified by suppressing graphic cues that permitted the construction of a vanishing point. E.C. was also able to detect a perspective incongruency between an object and a landscape at a level superior to that of control subjects. Since E.C. does not construct vanishing points in his drawings, it is proposed that his production of a precise realistic perspective is reached without the use of explicit or implicit perspective rules. ‘Special abilities’ in perspective are examined in relation to existing theoretical models of the cognitive deficit in autism and are compared to other special abilities in autism.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
McKenzie Bohn

Window displays in the fashion industry are unique sites of meaning that combine advertising and artwork in a three-dimensional space. The current body of research surrounding window displays approaches the subject from a marketer’s position and attempts to evaluate performance. This project shifts the focus to the artistic qualities of window displays as they are used by fashion retailers. The primary theoretical lens is gestalt theory, which has applications in both psychology and design. The specific windows examined are the Christmas windows at retailer Saks Fifth Avenue Toronto in December of 2018. An autoethnographic research design is employed, resulting in an exploratory empirical analysis that serves as an entry into an under-represented area of study: the fashion window as an art object. The key findings of the project are the application of gestalt theory to the design of the windows and the researcher’s observations to suggest an explanation of the public’s response to the displays.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-93
Author(s):  
V. V. Feshchenko

Based on Yu. S. Stepanov’s conception of the three paradigms in the history of linguistics, philosophy and art (semantic, syntactic and pragmatic), this study highlights the three phases of the linguo-aesthetic turn in the theory of language and in the artistic language experiment of the 20 th century: formal-semantic, functional-syntactic and actional-pragmatic. Analyzed are the creative linguistic techniques used in experimental literary discourse throughout the 20 th century, predominantly in Russian and Anglo-American literature, and the linguistic procedures corresponding to these techniques, discovered in twentieth century linguistics as a path to new theories of language. The research material testifies to complex and productive interactions between experimental-artistic and scientific-linguistic discourses. The creative linguistic techniques of the literary experiment are consistent with the techniques of language analysis in the linguistic theories of the twentieth century.


1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Howarth

Anyone reading the literature on the history of graphs will soon realize that the use of graphie displays of any type was really quite unusual until the mid-ninetenth century and that those scientists who did make use of them are often familiar to us as creative thinkers in their own fields of endeavour. A ternary diagram (also known as a triangular diagram) is a particular type of graph which consists of an equilateral triangle in which a given plotted point represents the relative proportions (a, b, c) of three end-members (A, B and C), generally expressed as percentages and constrained by a + b + c = 100%. It has long been used to portray sample composition in terms of three constituents, or an observed colour in terms of three primary colours, because it is a convenient means of representing a three-component System in a planar projection, rather than as an isometric, or similar, view of a three-dimensional space. Recent papers suggest that its use is not as familiar to some statisticians as are other commonly used forms of graph. For example, although it was cited by Peddle in 1910 and more recently by Dickinson, it is not discussed in modern texts on statistical graphies nor in the key papers on the history of graphs. However, beginning with studies of colour-mixing in the eighteenth century, it has subsequently become widely used, particularly in geology, physical chemistry and metallurgy. In this paper, I attempt to document its gradual uptake as a standard method of data display and some of the scientific advances which its use has facilitated.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sietske Rijpkema

The earliest depictions of the Yogyakarta court consist of drawings from the 18th century, between 1771-83, drawn by the Danish artist Johannes Rach and his assistant A. De Nelly. Although both drawings appear realistic and have been used as a reference of the history of the court, they cannot be assumed to have (tried) to document the site in a neutral manner. Rach and De Nelly worked on commission and composed elements in views or landscapes to fit into prescribed composition, where perspective, deep space and dramatic plays of light dictate results. Missing buildings and unidentified structures could therefore be explained as adaptations the artists made to adhere to a specific composition. Visual analysis of De Nelly’s and Rach’s drawings show that their work is quite consistent with the visual idiom of European drawn landscapes. In addition, missing buildings, unidentified structures as well as odd activities of courtiers can be explained as added elements. Their purpose was to arrange the composition in three equal layers (foreground, main motif, background) supported by shading, axes to guide the gazer’s view, a central axis and mirroring elements to create a balance, and use perspective and overlaps to create an illusion of a three dimensional space. Keywords: Yogyakarta, court, architecture, 18th century


Author(s):  
Gerhard Oertel

Vectors, the subject of the previous two chapters, may be classified as members of a class of mathematical entities called tensors, insofar as they can be expressed in the form of ordered arrays, or matrices, and insofar as they further conform to conditions to be explored in the present chapter. Tensors can have various ranks, and vectors are tensors of the first rank, which in three-dimensional space have 31 or three components. Much of this, and later, chapters deals with tensors of the second rank which in the same space have 32 or nine components. Tensors of higher (nth) rank do exist and have 3n components, and so do, at least nominally, tensors of zero rank with a single, or 30, component, which makes them scalars. Tensors of the second rank for three dimensions are written as three-by-three matrices with each component marked by two subscripts, which may be either letters or numbers.


1931 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-45
Author(s):  
Anice Seybold

The idea of a fourth dimension seems to have about the same kind of fascination for the lay mind as the famous old problems of duplication of the cube, trisection of the angle, and quadrature of the circle had. Certain things which would follow if we could live in four dimensional space seem quite remarkable to one who has not given the subject enough thought to realize that the actual existence of such space would make it possible to draw four mutually perpendicular lines through a given point, whereas in three dimensional space we can draw only three. These apparent absurdities of four dimensional space appear absurd only when we try to make them conform to our three dimensional experience.


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