For some reason that I don not completely comprehend, I am not able to open your file for week 9 so that I can drop my comments into the end of it. If I could, I would insert a line
Your comments about perspective are well taken and I hope that we will get into some good discussion about them in class this week. I too find it fascinating that there is a unique point in three- space where a viewer can stand to get the full effect of a picture in three-point perspective, but it is still true that there are group tours in most galleries, so I'm not sure how many viewers get the full effect. I do find it interesting when a gallery sets you up so that you almost automatically find yourself drawn to the right position, and I find it frustrating when the opposite happens (as it does often in the Hirschorn (sp?) Museum in Washington DC, with its curved walls.)
It is possible to make a four-point perspective view of a hypercube, but it is as difficult to imagine what it would be like to see it really as it is to think of the effect on a Flatlander of viewing a perspec- tive painting while being on the plane of the painting. I wonder if the effect, whatever it is, is more pronounced if the flat viewer is situated directly below the optimum point in three-space?
Good questions.
Prof. B.