Sunday 2 October 2011

The perception of art and the science of perception

Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XVII
Burlingame, California
Session 8: Art Theory, Perception, and Rendering
Date: Thursday 26 January
Time: 8:30 AM - 11:40 AM
Session Chair: Huib de Ridder, Technische Univ. Delft (Netherlands)
The perception of art and the science of perception (Invited Paper)
Paper 8291-35

For many centuries artists have studied the nature of visual perception and how to convincingly render what we see using a variety of media. The results of this prolonged investigation, during which knowledge and insights were handed down from generation to generation, can be found in all the countless artworks deposited in museums and galleries around the world. Works of art represent a rich source of ideas and understanding about how the world appears to us, and only relatively recently have those interested in the science of vision started to appreciate the many discoveries made by artists in this field. In this talk I will discuss some of the key insights into vision and perception that artists have revealed through their inquiries, and show how they can help current thinking in science and technology about how best to understand the process of seeing. In particular, I will suggest that some important artistic ideas continue to present fundamental challenges to conventional ideas about how reality is represented.