Objects of Vision
Objects of Vision

Author: A. Joan Saab

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2021-02-26

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 0271088702

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Advances in technology allow us to see the invisible: fetal heartbeats, seismic activity, cell mutations, virtual space. Yet in an age when experience is so intensely mediated by visual records, the centuries-old realization that knowledge gained through sight is inherently fallible takes on troubling new dimensions. This book considers the ways in which seeing, over time, has become the foundation for knowing (or at least for what we think we know). A. Joan Saab examines the scientific and socially constructed aspects of seeing in order to delineate a genealogy of visuality from the Renaissance to the present, demonstrating that what we see and how we see it are often historically situated and culturally constructed. Through a series of linked case studies that highlight moments of seeming disconnect between seeing and believing—hoaxes, miracles, spirit paintings, manipulated photographs, and holograms, to name just a few—she interrogates the relationship between “visions” and visuality. This focus on the strange and the wonderful in understanding changing notions of visions and visual culture is a compelling entry point into the increasingly urgent topic of technologically enhanced representations of reality. Accessibly written and thoroughly enlightening, Objects of Vision is a concise history of the connections between seeing and knowing that will appeal to students and teachers of visual studies and sensory, social, and cultural history.

Empires of Vision
Empires of Vision

Author: Martin Jay

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2014-03-14

Total Pages: 686

ISBN-13: 0822378973

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Empires of Vision brings together pieces by some of the most influential scholars working at the intersection of visual culture studies and the history of European imperialism. The essays and excerpts focus on the paintings, maps, geographical surveys, postcards, photographs, and other media that comprise the visual milieu of colonization, struggles for decolonization, and the lingering effects of empire. Taken together, they demonstrate that an appreciation of the role of visual experience is necessary for understanding the functioning of hegemonic imperial power and the ways that the colonized subjects spoke, and looked, back at their imperial rulers. Empires of Vision also makes a vital point about the complexity of image culture in the modern world: We must comprehend how regimes of visuality emerged globally, not only in the metropole but also in relation to the putative margins of a world that increasingly came to question the very distinction between center and periphery. Contributors. Jordanna Bailkin, Roger Benjamin, Daniela Bleichmar, Zeynep Çelik, David Ciarlo, Natasha Eaton, Simon Gikandi, Serge Gruzinski, James L. Hevia, Martin Jay, Brian Larkin, Olu Oguibe, Ricardo Padrón, Christopher Pinney, Sumathi Ramaswamy, Benjamin Schmidt, Terry Smith, Robert Stam, Eric A. Stein, Nicholas Thomas, Krista A. Thompson

300 Astronomical Objects
300 Astronomical Objects

Author: Jamie Wilkins

Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y. ; Richmond Hill, Ont. : Firefly Books

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13:

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A handy and comprehensive reference to the 300 most interesting celestial objects. This book provides a tour through the galaxy, from its solar core to its outer limits, with all the highlights and the very latest data about the universe. Convenient data sidebars with each entry provide facts and figures on every object- including mass, magnitude, density, radius, rotation period, and surface and core temperatures. An annotated cross-section of the object enhances this information, and a full-page photograph brings the object to life. Additional spreads bring together and explain related objects or phenomena. For example, the corresponding pages for the sun include solar power, sunspots and solar flares. Others examples include: *Mercury: Mercury's surface *The asteroid belt: Eros 433 *Jupiter's moons: 10, Europa, Callista *Outer belts and comets: Halley's comet; Deep Impact *Space telescopes: International Space Station. 300 Astronomical Objects is a handy reference for the amateur astronomer. AUTHOR: Jamie Wilkins has a degree in astrophysics from Cambridge University. Robert Dunn has a degree in natural sciences, specializing in physics, from Cambridge University, where he is a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy. 300 + colour illustrations

Computer Vision
Computer Vision

Author: Christopher W. Tyler

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2011-01-24

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1439817138

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Computer Vision is the first book to take a full approach to the challenging issue of veridical 3D object representation. It introduces mathematical and conceptual advances that offer an unprecedented framework for analyzing the complex scene structure of the world. Leading theorists cover full 3D scene reconstruction, instead of the simplistic 2D planar algorithms employed in the past. They explore cutting-edge research on computational algorithms for scene analysis and present an integrated, complementary treatment of neural, behavioral, mathematical, and computational approaches. The text includes numerous graphics of complex processes, with many in color.

The Visual World of Shadows
The Visual World of Shadows

Author: Roberto Casati

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-12-26

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 0262550849

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How the perception of shadows, studied by vision scientists and visual artists, reveals the inner workings of the visual system. In The Visual World of Shadows, Roberto Casati and Patrick Cavanagh examine how the perception of shadows, as studied by vision scientists and visual artists, reveals the inner workings of the visual system. Shadows are at once a massive problem for vision—which must distinguish them from objects or material features of objects—and a resource, signaling the presence, location, shape, and size of objects. Casati and Cavanagh draw up an inventory of information retrievable from shadows, showing their amazing variety. They present an overview of the visual system, distinguishing between measurement and inference. They discuss the shadow mission, the work done by the visual brain to parse, and perhaps discard, the information from shadows; shadow ownership, the association of a shadow with the object that casts it; shadow labeling, the visual system's ability to tell shadows from nonshadows; and the shadow concept, our knowledge about shadows as a category. Casati and Cavanagh then apply the theoretical apparatus they have developed for shadows to other phenomena: illumination, reflection, and transparency. Finally, they examine the art of the shadow, paying tribute to artists' exploration of shadow, analyzing a series of artworks (reproduced in color) from a rich and fascinating art historical corpus.

Vision and Its Instruments
Vision and Its Instruments

Author: Alina Alexandra Payne

Publisher: Penn State University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780271063898

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A collection of essays investigating the early modern debates on the nature of sight and its epistemic value.

Vision and Mind
Vision and Mind

Author: Alva Noë

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2002-10-25

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 9780262640473

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The philosophy of perception is a microcosm of the metaphysics of mind. Its central problems—What is perception? What is the nature of perceptual consciousness? How can one fit an account of perceptual experience into a broader account of the nature of the mind and the world?—are at the heart of metaphysics. Rather than try to cover all of the many strands in the philosophy of perception, this book focuses on a particular orthodoxy about the nature of visual perception. The central problem for visual science has been to explain how the brain bridges the gap between what is given to the visual system and what is actually experienced by the perceiver. The orthodox view of perception is that it is a process whereby the brain, or a dedicated subsystem of the brain, builds up representations of relevant figures of the environment on the basis of information encoded by the sensory receptors. Most adherents of the orthodox view also believe that for every conscious perceptual state of the subject, there is a particular set of neurons whose activities are sufficient for the occurrence of that state. Some of the essays in this book defend the orthodoxy; most criticize it; and some propose alternatives to it. Many of the essays are classics. Contributors G.E.M. Anscombe, Dana Ballard, Daniel Dennett, Fred Dretske, Jerry Fodor, H.P. Grice, David Marr, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Zenon Pylyshyn, Paul Snowdon, and P.F. Strawson

Vision Science
Vision Science

Author: Stephen E. Palmer

Publisher: CUP Archive

Published: 1999-04-14

Total Pages: 844

ISBN-13: 9780262161831

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This textbook on vision reflects the integrated computational approach of modern research scientists, combining psychological, computational and neuroscientific perspectives.