Pictures as strange objects of perception

Abstract

Pictures have a double reality — objects in their own right and representing quite different objects in a different space and time. We may call these Other Worlds of pictures.

The first artists were cave painters; though there were far earlier pictures of bird’s eyes on butterfly wings, produced by natural selection. For perception I distinguish ‘cues’ from ‘clues’. This is from innate knowledge, to knowledge learned by individual experience. Knowledge is key to perception — as perceptions depend on and also provide knowledge.

Trompe l’oeil is the most dramatic use of cues and clues; but the more realistic a painting the more dramatic are its illusions, especially associated with moving around the painting, or (most dramatic) a trompe l’oeil dome of a cathedral. There is an attempt to classify phenomena of illusions.

deceased May 17, 2010.