Event overview
Second Whitehead Lecture of the 2018-19 season.
Abstract:
The discovery of perspective projection during the Italian Renaissance led to ability to create realistic 2-dimensional images (paintings) of 3-dimensional scenes. However, artists like da Vinci bemoaned the fact that the contents of a perspective painting, however well executed, lacked the sense of spatial realness: the impression of visual solidity, tangibility and immersiveness characteristic of real objects and scenes. Since Wheatstone’s invention of the stereoscope in 1838, it has been widely believed that the underlying cause of this phenomenology of realness (a.k.a. stereopsis) are the binocular disparities that objects in real scenes generate at the retinae. In this presentation I will argue for an alternative view that the phenomenology of realness is not primarily linked to binocular disparity, but to the brain’s derivation of the egocentric scale of the visual scene. I will present a range of theoretical arguments as well as psychophysical and neurophysiological data in support of this alternative view. This view not only provides an explanation for why binocular disparities yield the most vivid impression of stereopsis, but also why the impression of stereopsis can be attained in the absence of binocular disparity. Importantly, it provides an integrative understanding of the perceptual differences in viewing real objects, stereoscopic images and pictorial images. I will discuss the implication of this work for 3D film and VR technology.
Short Bio:
Dhanraj Vishwanath is a lecturer in perception at the University of St. Andrews. He originally trained in Architectural Design at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He obtained his PhD in Cognitive Psychology at Rutgers University, NJ and was a NIH postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. His main empirical research interests are in 3D space perception, visuomotor control (eye movements) . He has a special interest in foundational and philosophical aspects of perception, perceptual phenomenology as well as the links among perception, art and design. He has published and lectured widely in all these subjects.
Profile at St-Andrews: https://tinyurl.com/y8ltkb7r
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct 2018 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
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