Spatial Elements in Visual Awareness. Challenges for an Intrinsic “Geometry” of the Visible

Abstract

Un enjeu majeur pour les recherches actuelles dans les sciences de la vision consiste à mettre au point une approche dépendante de l'observateurune science des apparences visuelles située au-delà de leur véridicité. L'espace dont nous faisons l'expérience subjective est en réalité hautement « illusoire », et les éléments de base du champ visuel sont des structures qualitatives, contextuelles et relationnelles, et non des indices métriques et dépendants du stimulus. Sur la base de nombreux résultats disponibles dans la littérature traitant de la manière dont fonctionnent les divers constituants de l'espace (formes, surfaces, etc.), l'article décrit les éléments qualitatifs de base d'un tel espace et pose la question de la « géométrie » des apparences visuelles. Il formule enfin un ensemble de propositions pour d'éventuelles recherches poursuivant l'examen de l'espace visuel d'un point de vue expérimental.

Fractal-Scaling Properties as Aesthetic Primitives in Vision and Touch

“…In addition, the studies of perceptual phenomena across multiple sensory modalities alike are preoccupied with the neural underpinnings and computational models of processing characteristics, largely ignoring the phenomenology and qualitative aspects of perceptual experience (Albertazzi 2015a). The predominant focus on processing also takes for granted the nature of information that drives our perceptual systems and the insights concerning the structure and primitives of perceptual experience (Cutting 1987;Albertazzi 2015bAlbertazzi , 2018.…”

Perception of 3D virtual road markings: Based on estimation of vehicle speed

“…What the subject perceives is something intrinsically qualitative and should not be compared to a Euclidean metric viewpoint or indeed even more complex spaces defined by Cayley/Klein geometries [49]. Seeing is a process where space, more than being a static sequence of planes, is bodily situated in a frame of basic egocentric directions-such as right/left, above/below, in front of/behind [51].…”

“…More than being illusory, the space of vision requires primitives and laws of organization different from the physical ones. The primitives of geometry of the visible, in fact, more often than not are imbued with connotative dimensions making them meaningful for the perceiver [51].…”

Naturalizing Phenomenology: A Must Have?

“…The basic issue is thus how to construct a series of axioms for perceiver-dependent entities, whose grammar is currently not yet fully known, if not from an indirect viewpoint (i.e., from time to time by language or by psychophysical and/or neurophysiological units of measurement). In fact, we do not yet have a thorough geometry of subjective visual space and its elements (partial descriptive attempts in Arnheim, 1954 , 1982 ; Massironi, 2002 ; Albertazzi, 2015c ), nor a general theory of subjective space-time continua; we do not have a thorough theory of qualities (partial attempts in Rausch, 1966 ), i.e., of the “matter” of appearances, whose existence is still located at the physical and/or biological level. There is a body of literature very close to the original tenets of phenomenology that can be a preliminary reference framework, but a thorough theory and the methods for a phenomenological science are still in their infancy: to build such a science, for example, one cannot resolve to methods such as introspection or to folk narratives, the most common interpretation of intersubjectivity conveyed by linguistic and or social sharing ( Hutto and Kirchhoff, 2015 ).…”