The Perception of Pictures (PDF)

Durer's Devices: Beyond the Projective Model of Pictures is a collection of papers that discusses the nature of picture making and perception. One paper presents a perceptual theory of pictorial representation in which cultural and historical options in styles of depiction that appear to be different are actually closely related perceptually. Another paper discusses pictorial functions and perceptual structures including pictorial representation, perceptual theory, flat canvass, and the deep world. One paper suggests that perception can be more a matter of information "make up" than "pick up." Light becomes somewhat informative and the eye, correspondingly, becomes less or more presumptive. Another paper notes that human vision is transformed by our modes of representation, that image formation can be essentially incomplete, false, or misleading (primarily as regards dramatic performance and pictorial representation). One paper makes three claims that: (1) the blind have untapped depiction abilities; (2) haptics, involving the sense of touch, have an intuitive sense of perspective; and (3) depiction is perceptual based on graphic elements and pictorial configurations. The collection is suitable for psychologists, physiologists, psychophysicists, and researchers in human perception or phenomenology.