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javicandraw In reply to ??? [2016-07-17 16:29:16 +0000 UTC]

Is phsychophysics in any way related to what kandinsky used to teach? I mean, point and line to plane and all that!

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Sol-Caninus In reply to javicandraw [2016-07-17 19:25:52 +0000 UTC]

The only Kandinskys I know are modern artists.  I don't think they have anything to do with quantifying art.  So, I would say not.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoph…

Any time you study art in terms of illusion, perceptual threshold, and such - which is to say, art grounded in science, then you can bet that the science involved is psychophysics.  for example, designers know that edges catch the eye;  the proof is to be found in psychophysics experiments. 

Not too long ago I pursued the study of after images to see how plastic they were - or rather, if the eye and brain could be trained to hold them for increasingly longer periods, so that one could use them as a basis for drawing.  Instead of having to study the model, look away, and draw from memory, I tested the potential to extend the afterimage and draw directly from it.  This is something that could be made into an experiment for psychophysics.

BTW- Yes.  It is not only possible to do this, it is fairly easy.  However - one cannot do anything else.  Any mental activity dispels the illusion.  So you cannot really draw, or think, or feel the flow.  All you can do is be still, empty, and carefully trace what you see.  It is a method suited for, and, perhaps, characterizing, idiot savants.  It's logged in my weekly journals some years back- I ROBOT: HOW TO BECOME A CAMERA OBSCURA (Found it!)
I, Robot: How to Become a Camera ObscuraAFTER IMAGE
On Wednesday morning I began experimenting with a completely new way of doing figure and portrait warm-ups.  Instead of observing and constructing, I focused on the after-image and copied what I saw.  
This was the first disciplined experiment using after-images.  I've experienced them in the past but never used them in a controlled way until now. It was VERY freaky, similar to drawing with a camera obscura.  That's a contraption that uses a mirror in a box to project an illusory image on glass so that it looks as if it's on paper, allowing one to trace it (example  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura  ). 
Most of us are completely unconscious of after-images, except under unusual circumstances.  We constantly repress them. And with good reason, because the after-image competes with seeing what's there, now.  
Drawing under normal circumstances I am sometimes aware of after-images and have to suppress them, deliberately,

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