This study explores the image mainly
in it's two dimensions - a lot of our simplified examples do not have neither
need nor possibility for a third, and stay within the world of a plane. Well,
the third dimension, or rather our experience of it within the image, can
arrive from two directions. One is the presented reality itself, which
is being recognized as three-dimensional. Obviously, this spatial impression
is direct product of the amount of reality in the image - or the abstraction
level of our perception here, and owes nothing to the essential attributes
of the visual medium itself. The other source of "depth" can therefore
be found in the capacity of specifically visual elements to convey the
spatial relations between the objects. We are talking about superposition,
perspective and relation of sizes, color and lightness, aerial perspective,
sharpness, etc. Our perception is trained to recognize this elements, even abstracted
from our experience of reality. Or, more interestingly, some of these
3d triggers have physiological foundation, as we measure outside by the
rules of our own body. In any case, what's important is that this way we
perceive the third dimension regardless of the level of abstraction. This
independence makes it possible to sometimes contradict the experience of reality
within the image in figurative art, just as it makes it the sole source
of depth in non-figurative visuals.
If we accept that in art a total illusion doesn't exist, the image always impresses something
of its two-dimensional nature. The experience of third dimension, if, and
as much as it is present, always mixes into this impression, and thereby
influences the total effect of composition. This interplay (or conflict)
of two mostly autonomous views characterizes the objects within the image,
although psychologically it can have an overtone effect (of harmony or
conflict, for example) by itself.
Additionally, three-dimensional in image invites the relation towards
the space represented (as opposed to identification): this happens because
if we already have this perpendicular axis established, it is only a matter
of time just when are we going to hang ourselves onto the existing rod,
as a foreground to the image. Even though identification/empathy is just as possible with the three-dimensional
view, the relation is often the first response.
It is to be judged if this means a loss, and where is the moment when the
third dimension turns from potentially dynamic into a emotionally destructive element
of composition. |
third
dimension |