I went online a few days ago and Googled-”Art and Perception”. I found an article by an artist/researcher called Robert Pepperell. I've always been into perceptual psychology and there were some items in his paper that interested me. I'm just going to refer now to his thoughts on the importance of peripheral vision. It is a convention that a picture is based on what is sharply in focus in the centre of our field of vision, but if we roll our eyes up, down or sideways we become conscious of our brow and nose, as in this “View from the Left Eye” by Ernst Mach, 1886.
See his nose and moustache. Robert Pepperell is an artist as well as a scientist and he did this study from the left eye. See the drawing he is doing on his I-pad.
I thought I would have a go myself and I did this quick pencil drawing. It is from my right eye and you can see the rim of my glasses as well as the sketch book in which I am drawing. The sketch book is held down by my left hand.
I like this expanded view. It emphasises that we see the world from our own bodies. It puts the camera lens right there with our eye lens. Perception is from images created by our brains, eyes and memories. Is objective, clear reality just an illusion? Two pictures by M.C Escher come to mind. The first is a combination of two of his famous drawings.
And this comment on art and reality.
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