Here are some comments I made about Alison's Week 9 response that also have something to say about the points you raise. It is true that we rely very much on motion clues to orient ourselves with respect to various three-dimensional phenomena, and exploratory motions on our part can dispel illusions frequently. But it is not always so. I was in Providence yesterday to pick up some photographs, and a half block away, I saw a strange protuberance from a brick wall of a building, which upon closer examination was just a painting. But the illusion was strong until I was almost on top of the image, and it was only when I really looked at it from the side that I could appreciate how effective it was. It is at the corner of Basset and Hospital, by the way, not too far from the Point Street Bridge.
By the way, I tried to fix up a few points in your html. If you use the "save as" command in Word and then pull down the menu at the bottom to select "text only with line breaks", then it get's rid of some of the funny characters, especially if you go back and retype your apostrophes. I still can't see how to get rid of the garbage line at the beginning or the "u" at the end. Maybe David A. or Jeremy will have an idea? You might ask them.
Comments to Alison:
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.