Seeing Motion: A History of Visual Perception in Art and Science

Romana Karla Schuler

Published by De Gruyter 2016

Seeing Motion

A History of Visual Perception in Art and Science

Romana Karla Schuler

In the series Edition Angewandte

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110422993

Overview
Contents

About this book

The central focus of this publication is the synthesis of science and art in the field of visual perception, in particular how early 19th century perceptual research into illusions, kinetic illusory figures, and illusory movement influenced the apparative / machine, kinetic art of the 20th century and the computer-generated visual art of the 21st century.

Professional artists have traditionally used innovative, scientific inventions involving light and perspective for their work as well as making use of “visual aids”.

Since the beginning of the 1920s, artists like Marcel Duchamp have been experimenting with illusory movement. Based on these early ideas and artistic experiments, and due to its relationship with illusory space, there was a renewed interest in illusory contour, especially among representatives of kinetic art and op art.

Seeing Motion provides an historical overview extending from the theories of experimental visual perception research (Hermann Helmholtz, Ernst Mach, Sigmund Exner, Wilhelm Stern, Vittorio Benussi, Max Wertheim, George Stratton, Ivo Kohler) to apparative art (Alfons Schilling) and electronic-digital art (Jeffrey Shaw, Peter Weibel).

Unknown aspects of visual perception in art and the history of knowledge
Interesting presentation of experimental research & art
New theories on the history of the moving image

Author / Editor information

Romana Karla Schuler, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria

Reviews

Schuler's book is timely. She traces the historical convergence of art and science on the problem of the unreliability of visual perception and reveals how art and technology come to exploit the potential of illusion and deception. Of particular interest to the artist are examples of self-reflective investigative art in which comprehension of the illusionistic nature of the medium allows a philosophical understanding of vision perception simultaneous with perceptual immersion and suspension of disbelief. For both scientist and artist, and their audience this is an important book in providing an overview of the evolution of virtual phenomena in culture and implications for both realism and the nature of reality itselfSchuler's book is timely. She traces the historical convergence of art and science on the problem of the unreliability of visual perception and reveals how art and technology come to exploit the potential of illusion and deception. Of particular interest to the artist are examples of self-reflective investigative art in which comprehension of the illusionistic nature of the medium allows a philosophical understanding of vision perception simultaneous with perceptual immersion and suspension of disbelief. For both scientist and artist, and their audience this is an important book in providing an overview of the evolution of virtual phenomena in culture and implications for both realism and the nature of reality itself.

James McArdle, Amazon.com

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Table of Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
Preface. On Theories and Art in Visualizing (Apparent)-Motion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
PART 1. On the Study of Apparent Motion, Apparent Corporeality and Apparent Spatiality
Seeing as a Scientific Topic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
The Beginnings of the Study of Apparent Motion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
An Individual Way of Seeing: Jan Evangelista Purkinje Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
The Explanation of an Optical Illusion: Peter Mark Roget Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
The First Motion Picture Machine: Joseph Plateau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
The Phenakistoscope or the Stroboscopic Disk Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
Inventions with Stroboscopic Effects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
The Talbot-Plateau law of 1834/35 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
Gustav Theodor Fechner’s Subjective colors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
Four notes on Afterimages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Experiments on the Simulation of Riparian Illusion with the oppel Antirheoscope Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
Zöllner’s Illusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
Reflections on Zöllner’s Illusion: Wilhelm Filehne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Hermann Helmholtz and the new Physiological optics in the nineteenth century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Helmholtz’s Experiments on Visual Sensations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Ernst Brücke: The Advantage of Intermittent Retina Stimuli Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
Josef Czermak: Thoughts on Speed during Motional Illusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
The Influence of Psychophysics on Mach’s Experiments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
Mach’s Series of Experiments on light Stimulus on the Retina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Mach’s Experiments on Sensation of Movement and Afterimages of Movement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Studies in Movement: The Mach Drum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
Sigmund Exner: Explorations into Kinesthetics, Sensation of Movement and Apparent Motion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Two Sparks and One Apparent Motion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
Johann Ignaz Hoppe’s Attempts at Defining Apparent Motion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
The First Psychological Analyses of Stroboscopic Phenomena (1886) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
James McKeen Cattell: Visual Stimulation in Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
The First Monograph on the Perception of Movement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Alfred Borschke and Leo Hescheles: Movement Afterimages and Speed of Movement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
Adolf Szily’s Experimental Analysis: Moving Afterimage and Contrasts of Movement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
Szily’s Instrument Based Observations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
Adolf Basler: Memoranda on the Process of Movements of Afterimages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Vittorio Benussi: From Apparent Motion to Apparent Corporeality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Stroboscopic Apparent Motion (S-Movement), 1912 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Combinations of Apparent Motion (1918) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
Stereo Kinetics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Max Wertheimer: The Berlin Gestalt Psychology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
Wertheimer’s Phi-Phenomena (1910–1912) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
From Apparent Motion to a Repositioning of Psychology as a Whole Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
Application of a Theory for Types of Visual Perception Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Karl Duncker: On Induced Movements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Herbert Kleint: Simulation of a Tilted Room Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
The Inverted Image of the Retina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
George M. Stratton and the Experiment with Inversion Goggles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
Early Experimental Perception Research at the Innsbruck University: Franz Hillebrand, Theodor Erismann, Ivo Kohler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Theodor Erismann and Ivo Kohler’s Goggle Experiment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Consecutive Experiments with Inversion Goggles after 1955 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Resume of Part I Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
PART 2. From the Artistic Transformation to Immateriality
The Beginnings of Kinetic Art at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
From Schumann/Wertheimer Wheel-Tachistoscope to Duchamp’s Readymade Roue de bicyclette (Bicycle Wheel) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Influence of Perception Research on Art after 1960 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Artistic Research: Alfons Schilling, Jeffrey Shaw, Peter Weibel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Discerning Participatory capacity and Phenomenological narration: Jeffrey Shaw Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Addiction to new Images: Alfons Schilling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
From Perception Devices to Seeing Machines Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Visual Test Situations between Experiment and Theory: Peter Weibel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
The observation of observation in Peter Weibel’s Work Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Construction of Imaginary Spaces and observations in Apparent Spaces Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	244
Interactive Images and Dislocation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256
Interactive Plasticity in the Virtual Image Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	260
Feedback-Effects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	268
Epilog Peter Weibel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Appendix
Endnotes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	276
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Internet sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	302
Image credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Students, teachers, academics
Pages
- Main content: 304
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 135
- Coloured Illustrations: 60
Keywords: visuelle Wahrnehmung; Kunst; Wissensgeschichte; Experimentalsysteme; Bildwissenschaft

eBook

Published: January 15, 2016
ISBN: 9783110422993

Hardcover

Published: December 14, 2015
ISBN: 9783110426960