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3D culture and perception



While many discuss and debate personal preferences and technical
issues of resolution, bandwidth and hardware requirements, there
is always the range of perceptual abilities on the part of any viewer
to appreciate (and/or mis-perceive) the stereographic image.

A friend of mine who has a particular passion for collecting stereo
cameras, viewers, and images (from 1800's on) - and this is a
vast collection representing an extraordinary interest - is married to
a woman who CAN'T SEE in 'stereo'.  Why?  Because at an early age
she had an eye 'defect' which interfered with 'normal' parallax viewing.
Many years later, she had this defect surgically corrected.  But even
now she can't view and fuse a typical stereo-pair because it seems
that she has little 'memory' of what that refers to(!).  In screenings
I have found that some audience members can only see deep-stereo
scenes as representing "3-D" whereas the shallow-scenes are seen
as "flat".  Some viewers express wonder and appreciation for some
images and a lack of it for others.

All of this reminds me of studies we did (back in college)
of saccadic eye movement, feature rings, and the idea that recognition
of objects, spatial relationships (and depth) is tied to personal 'memory'
and of course cultural conditioning.

So, if we take the range of available stereo-3D art forms (photographic,
video, computer, and even throw holography into this), aesthetic interests,
viewer-delivery systems (in their many resolutions, and motion/stasis
configurations), and tie this to the wide range of perceptual interests,
abilities and/or disabilities, we have indeed a huge platform of
possibilities.
The present-day culture will determine which mode of representation
it will support and be responsive to.  And we know a lot of this will
be tied to video-computer systems which have proliferated all over.

In the 70's I made a  (2D) film for the National Film Board of Canada (titled
"Egypte")  which explored the "official language" of ancient Egyptian
cultures:
hieroglyphic writing and depiction.  Official "flat-land" (as enforced by
priesthoods)
in stark contrast to the very much 3-D temple architecture, corridors,
passages,
and sacred-spaces.  In our mass-culture culture, it seems to me that the
"official visual language" has been 2-D (painting, photography, film-video)
with
an escalating interest in kinetic-motion depiction (film-video-computer
graphics).
All of which is being (slowly) displaced by spatial visual art forms (stereo
3-D,
holography) and virtual realities (virtual communication like the one you are
reading).

Thus, I maintain, the major issues facing many artists in this and the next
century are related to a conceptual shift in culture, perception, depiction -
a shift that also implies creating 'hybrid' media forms of the various 3D
imaging and communicating mediums (this is why VRML is so important).
Issues of resolution, technology, medium-specific hardware fetishism, are
important only in so far as they deliver the artist and media creator to an
audience that can comprehend and enjoy (and be moved by) the work itself.
Any art that is solely based on a precious technique or apparatus finds
itself
ultimately in the hall of antiques.

With all of these wonderful shifts occuring in culture and perception, this
is
indeed an extraordinary time to create and communicate.  And this site is
exciting in its diversity of opinion and information.



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