Syllabi: Light, Vision and Understanding: Investigations in the Sciences and Humanities

INSTITUTION: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

COURSE DIRECTOR:

Stephen J Weininger

Professor of Chemistry

(email: stevejw@WPI.EDU)

PRINCIPAL INSTRUCTORS: S. Weininger, D. Samson

GUEST INSTRUCTORS: L. Becker, L. Fontanella

ENROLLMENT: undergraduate (junior-senior) seminar; selective

SEMESTER: Fall 1999

MTF 9:00-9:50, R 9:00-10:50

OBJECTIVES:

1. to explore similarities as well as differences among the sciences and humanities with respect to methodology and cognitive claims, and document interactions among them in both directions;

2. to see the extent to which the social/cultural matrix within which science develops affects that development;

3. to pursue both the literal and metaphorical consequences of the association of seeing with believing and understanding;

4. to make students more reflective about their own perceptual and cognitve experiences.

Conduct of the Course

The course will be conducted as a seminar. You will be expected to come to class having done whatever preparatory reading, viewing or experimenting has been assigned. It is likely that one or more students will be responsible for summarizing and explaining the readings, and others will be responsible for initiating discussions. It follows that regular class attendance and participation are expected and will figure substantially in your final grade.

READING

Each student is responsible for purchasing copies of Gregory, Eye and Brain and Alberti, On Painting, at the bookstore (both paperbacks).

The following course books are on reserve in Gordon Library:

Alpers, The Art of Describing

Edgerton, The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective

Frayling, The Art Pack

Goethe, Theory of Colours

Held, Perception: Mechanisms and Models

Lightman, Great Ideas in Physics

Newton, Opticks; Sepper, Newton's Optical Writings: A Guided Study

Ronchi, The Nature of Light

Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars

Zeki, "The Visual Image in Mind and Brain", Scientific American, September 1992

All reading assignments not in Gregory, Alberti or the reserve material will be handed out in the form of photocopies for which a nominal charge will be made. The assigned texts, which are shown in the syllabus on the day they will be discussed, are to be brought to the class meeting.

GRADING

In addition to class preparation, students will be graded on the following two assessments:

a. Written summaries of each of the four units into which the course is divided. These summaries should discuss the major issues raised in each unit with reference to the readings, discussion, tapes and experiments. They should indicate what conclusions you have arrived at concerning those issues and why. The summaries should be typed or word processed, and are due the Monday after the completion of the unit, except that the last summary is due on the last day of class.

b. Each student will keep a journal in which the results of various experiments and observations will be written down, with diagrams where appropriate. It should also contain notes and comments on the readings. The first page of the journal should be a title page, the third should be for an index, and entries should begin on pp 4-5. Each entry should be dated and occupy one or more separate pages. The format and content of the journal are described in detail in a separate handout. Journals will be collected periodically and returned with comments.

SYLLABUS OF COURSE MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

(* = two-hour meeting)

UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION: ASSUMPTIONS AND INTUITION IN SCIENCE; KNOWLEDGE AND METHOD IN ART

WEEK 1

Thursday, August 29. How the course operates--journals and overviews.
Introduction: What we see and how we understand what we see. Preliminary questionnaire.

Assignment for next meeting: 1. Look at the night sky and find four constellations; 2. maneuver blindfolded through a strange room (have a friend around to forestall accidents); 3. do the experiment entitled "Balance Sensitivity." Record the results of all three in your journal, along with your comments on what they tell you about vision.

Friday, August 30. Discuss yesterday's class and results of experiments and constellation search. Begin discussion of contemporary understanding of light and vision based on readings in Gregory.

Reading: Gregory, Eye and Brain, Chaps. 2, 4 and 5.

Monday, Sept. 2 NO MEETING -- LABOR DAY

Tuesday, Sept. 5 Modern theories of light and vision (cont); introduction to Greek theories.

Reading: Lightman, Great Ideas in Physics (reserve), "The Wave-Particle Duality of Nature," pp 167-183; view Particles and Waves (# 2259) and The Quantum Mechanical Universe (# 2261) (videotapes in AV room of the library).

Thursday, Sept. 5. Greek ideas of light, vision and art. Passive vs active seeing; the balance of physics, physiology and psychology in vision.
Modern vs Greek theories; which are "stranger?"

Reading: Ronchi, Nature of Light (reserve), pp 2-23; Lindberg, "Alhazen's Theory of Vision." A compact summary of this material is contained in Edgerton, Linear Perspective (reserve), pp 67-74. {Students write first summary}

UNIT 2. PERSPECTIVE AS ART AND SCIENCE: THE SHARED METAPHOR

Friday, Sept. 6. How perspective was invented/constructed. Science, religion and the purpose of visual understanding.

Reading: Edgerton, Linear Perspective, Chaps. 1, 2, 3, 6, 9.

Friday, Sept. 1. Is perspective useful because it's "natural?"

Reading: Ivins, "On the Rationalization of Sight."

Monday, Sept. 9. Is perspective useful because it's "natural?"

Reading: Ivins, "On the Rationalization of Sight." The Art Pack (reserve), unit on Perspective.

Tuesday, Sept. 10. Brunelleschi's perspective.

Reading: Alberti, On Painting, including introduction and notes; Arnheim, "Brunelleschi's Peepshow."

*Thursday, Sept. 12. The application of perspective in the Renaissance universe picturing machines; the body as machine. Kepler an the retina. How to make a perspective drawing (SG) {Bring a ruler and several sharp pencils to class.}

Reading: Edgerton, Linear Perspective, pp 163-65; Ferguson, Engineering and the Mind's Eye, "The Tools of Visualization;" Ivins, "On the Rationalization of Sight." View Scientific Imagination in the Renaissance (AV tape # 94-44).

Friday, Sept 13. Mechanization of vision and the camera obscura. Means are also ends, machines are also metaphors.

Reading: Crary, "The Camera Obscura and its Subject"
Construct camera obscura and play around with it over the weekend.

Monday, Sept. 16. Painting and vision as representation.

Reading: Eye and Brain, Chap. 10; The Art Pack (reserve), unit on The Artist at Work.

Tuesday, Sept. 17. Modern philosophy and the theater of the mind. (LB)

Reading: Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Galileo.

*Thursday, Sept. 19. Art and investigation: Dutch art and the "described" universe.

Reading: Alpers, The Art of Describing (reserve), "Introduction," Chapters 1, 2. {Students write second paper.}

UNIT 3. THE REDUCTIONIST ENTERPRISE: THE DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT, THE FRAGMENTATION OF PERCEPTION

Friday, Sept. 20 NO CLASS

Monday, Sept. 23 Newton's optics and the "disenchantment of the world."

Reading: Newton, Opticks (reserve): "Forward;" "Intro.," pp lxi-lxiv; Definitions, pp 1-4; Axiom VII, pp 14-17; Experiments 1 (pp 20-23) and 3 (pp 26-33); pp 122-125.
Experiments: Newtonian prism experiments. (work with one or more partners).

Tuesday, Sept. 24.Molyneux's Question: what happens when a blind person regains sight?

Reading: "Cheselden's case;" Sacks, "To See and Not See;" Eye and Brain, Ch. 11.

Thursday, Sept. 26. Psychology versus physiology in the 19th century: the separation of stimulus and sensation.

Reading: Young, "On the Theory of Light and Colors;" Maxwell, "On Color Vision;" Kahl, "Writings of Hermann von Helmholtz;" Eye and Brain, Chap. 8. Do the following Color Vision Demonstrations (on Novell system): Simple Color Field; 3-Color Mixer; Confusion Colors (3 demos); Flicker-Photometric Color Mixer.

Friday, Sept. 27.Computer visualization. Icon design exercises. (LB)

Reading: Firebaugh, "A New Visual Paradigm."

Friday, Sept. 23. Art as recorded or interpreted data?-- some definitions of Western art.

Reading: Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception, "Introduction."

Monday, Sept. 30. Art as interpretation in the age of science. "Romantic" art, science and philosophy, c. 1800. Reading: Goethe, Theory of Colours (reserve), Introduction (pp v-xvi); Paragraphs 1-14, 39-46, 722-727, 758-762. Experiments: Repeat Goethe's experiments with afterimages. Do the following Color Vision Demonstrations: After Effects and Opponent Colors; Desaturation by Adaptation; Induction after Adaptation. {Students write third paper}

UNIT 4. ACTIVE OR PASSIVE? HOW WE UNDERSTAND WHAT WE SEE

Tuesday, Oct. 1. Seeing as science or insight in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

Reading: The Art Pack (reserve), units on Light; Color; Motion.
Experiments: "Visual Accomodation; Blind Spot in Vision."

*Thursday, Oct. 3. Seeing, Knowing, and Stereotypes. Cartooning. Reading:Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception, "Introduction;" Gombrich, Art and Illusion (reserve), Chap.2, "Truth and the Stereotype." .

Friday, Oct. 4. Photography: reportage or creation?

Reading: Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, "Photography;" Fontanella, "The Limits of Documentary Photography."

Physics versus psychology in the construction of color vision. Land's experiments.

Reading: Land, "Experiments in Color Vision," in Held, Perception (reserve); Land, "The Retinex Theory of Color Vision" (excerpts); reread Gregory, Ch. 8. Do the following Color Vision Demonstration: Matching in a Color "Mondrian."

B. Recording as Knowing

Monday, Oct. 2. Physics versus psychology in the construction of color vision. Land's experiments.

Reading: Land, "Experiments in Color Vision," in Held, Perception (reserve); Land, "The Retinex Theory of Color Vision" (excerpts); reread Gregory, Ch. 8. Do the following Color Vision Demonstration: Matching in a Color "Mondrian."

Tuesday, Oct. 8. The mind as recorder or judge? The McCullough effect and other experiments in altering visual perception.

Reading: Gregory, Ch. 9; do the following Color Vision Demonstration: McCullough-Effect

*Thursday, Oct. 10. The ambiguity of fact: science and insight in Cezanne and Cubism.

Reading: The Art Pack, unit on Form; Attneave, "Multistability in Perception" (do the depth perception experiments in this article).

Friday, Oct. 11. Modeling vision

Reading: "The Brain and Vision" (handout); Zeki, "The Visual Image in Mind and Brain."

Monday, Oct. 14 How did science become "counter-intuitive"? The recoupling of observer and observed through Complementarity and Uncertainty.

Reading: Lightman, Great Ideas in Physics (reserve), Chap. 4, pp 183-197; watch Interference (AV tape 93-39)(LB)

Tuesday, Oct. 15. Does the "mind" or the "brain" see? (LB)

Reading: Reading: "Visual Cognition;" "Top-Down Processing" (handouts). Watch Stranger in the Mirror (AV tape 94-18).

*Thursday, Oct. 17. Vision as Fact and Illusion in Modern Art and Sesign.

Reading: Gropius, "Is There a Science of Design?" Teuber, "Blue Night by Paul Klee," in Vision and Artifact.

Experiments: Albers color experiments.

Friday, Oct. 18. Wrapup; final course evaluation.{Students hand in fourth paper}