Roaming Point Perspective: A Dynamic Interpretation of the Visual Refinements of the Greek Doric Temple

Abstract

Writers, artists, and mathematicians since Vitruvius have attributed the use of the visual refinements as a means by which the Greek builders optically corrected the form of the Doric temple. This study proposes an interpretation in which the visual refinements of the Parthenon are considered from a non-stationary, or “roaming”, point of view. The mathematics of this type of visual space reveals a dynamic zone in which objects visually increase and decrease simultaneously, a behavior consistent with conditions addressed by the visual refinements of the Parthenon.

The Greeks created a plastic system by forcibly affecting our senses. … They employed the most delicate distortions, applying to their contours an impeccable adjustment to the laws of optics. Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture

Michael C. Duddy is a founding principal of Designgroup International, an architectural practice with offices in New York and Shanghai specializing in urban mixed-use buildings. He is currently researching aspects of the history of the relationship between the built environment and the disciplines of epistemology and metaphysics. He is a guest critic at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.