The problem of viewpoint II: Constraints on the structure of the pictorial percept

Abstract

The veridicality of percepts in the context of real-world viewing makes it easy to overlook the profound gap between the visual stimulation and the resulting visual experience. The non-veridical nature of pictorial percepts forces us to address this gap more directly. Here, I try to show that the structure of the pictorial percept reflects pressure to symmetrize not only the shape of the object, but also a. the relationship of the object to the environment and b. the relationship of the viewer to the the environment, via perceptually-imposed coordinate systems. These systems ultimately (evolutionarily) derive from real-world environmental and anatomical constraints, but are not directly tied to them. Rather, they are embedded in the physiological process instigated by the visual stimulation. I analyze the structure of the relevant coordinate systems and demonstrate their mutual interactions and effects with some cases in point, to be supplemented by a more thorough set of examples in a subsequent publication in this series.