Comparing Artistic and Geometrical Perspective Depictions of Space in the Visual Field

Abstract

Which is the most accurate way to depict space in our visual field? Linear perspective, a form of geometrical perspective, has traditionally been regarded as the correct method of depicting visual space. But artists have often found it is limited in the angle of view it can depict; wide-angle scenes require uncomfortably close picture viewing distances or impractical degrees of enlargement to be seen properly. Other forms of geometrical perspective, such as fisheye projections, can represent wider views but typically produce pictures in which objects appear distorted. In this study we created an artistic rendering of a hemispherical visual space that encompassed the full visual field. We compared it to a number of geometrical perspective projections of the same space by asking participants to rate which best matched their visual experience. We found the artistic rendering performed significantly better than the geometrically generated projections.

Arm Chair Perspective Preferences

“…For some subjects this is irrelevant, for others curvatures look offensive and evoke an instant rejection. Such findings directly relate to various observations in art historical research (Panofsky, 1925;Pepperell and Haertel, 2014;Baldwin et al, 2014).…”

Imaging human vision: an artistic perspective

“…The act of depiction entails at least four ontological states: Depiction, therefore, entails both objective and subjective states that relate in a certain sequence. 2 The nature of these ontological states is complex and beyond the scope of this paper to decompose in detail. 3 It is enough here to point to their existence in order to explain how artistic and technologically generated depictions function (see Figure 1).…”

“…The principles of linear perspective, first formalised by Leon Battista Alberti [1] in 1435, determine how light rays projecting onto a plane lying parallel to the viewer create a pattern or image (illustrated in 1 A painting of sunflowers by van Gogh sold for the then record sum of $39.9 million in New York in 1987 (New York Times, 4 th April, 1987). 2 Note that the ontological states described here do not imply a fundamental discontinuity between external reality and internal perception [24]. 3 There is a huge literature on the philosophy of depiction, too wide-ranging to summarise here.…”

“…The scope for portraying subjective experience has traditionally been much greater for painters with their freedom to manipulate appearances than for photographers and other users of imaging technology who have, until now, relied on devices that conform to the logic of linear perspective. 16 Giving prominence to the subjective aspects of vision has been one of the most important 13 For further accounts of how a painting represents a first-person subjective viewpoint and how this differs from the standard picture created by a linear perspective device see [2]. 14 Paul Cézanne remarked: "To paint from nature is not to copy an object; it is to represent its sensations."…”

3D modeling and motion parallax for improved videoconferencing

“…By observing fundamental features of visual experience, such as the size, shape, and distribution of objects in the visual field, they have established that pictures generated by artistic methods can outperform ones generated by conventional geometric techniques in terms of representational accuracy [10].…”