Assignment 1 - GARDEN IN MONTMARTRE WITH LOVERS

This painting, the summery garden – which Van Gogh later referred to as ‘the painting of the garden with the sweethearts’ – is one of the largest canvases he painted. It is also the first work he exhibited in Paris. He painted the park in the Pointillist style that kept him so occupied during the summer of 1887. This technique, in which small dots of unmixed color are placed close together, has been applied fairly consistently here. Carefully crafted in the studio, this painting lacks the spontaneity of much of his other work. The artist’s brushstrokes are nonetheless expressive. The sky, for instance, is rendered with vigorous dashes of paint.

Source: Van Gogh Museum

1 Chapter 2 What We Can Easily See

1. 1 what stands out = what we can bias for

The painting is painted by small dots. Basically, the painting is divided into three main areas, the sky, the plants and the road. The dots’ color in the same area are very similar with each other, they are in the same hue. Also, the dots’ shapes are alike in the same area. (Figure 1) Thereby the elements of features make an area blend into a whole. (Figure 2) These are the things that easy to find out, because the features can be easily seen.

Figure 1  Colors and shapes

Figure 2:  areas

“The strongest pop-out effects occur when a single target object differs in some feature from all other objects and where all the other objects are identical, or at least very similar to one another.” (P. 29) Thus, the people in the painting pop-out. The clothing and accessories are composed by different colors, which are not in the same hue. And the high saturation parts are bigger and closer than other areas. The shape of dots and orientations are also not in tune compare to the surroundings. (Figure 3) In conclusion, the degree of feature-level is more complex than the surroundings. They are in different multiple channels. (P. 29) Secondly, the second fixation will be the trees in the middle, because of the contrast color of flowers and leaves- red and green.

Figure 3 next fixation

1.2    The visual search

Bigger pattern has bigger detective field, so we first detective the sky, the grass and the ground. Then our fixation comes to the people on the ground. They pop out. “At every instant in time part of the brain is planning the next eye movement based on the information available from the current fixation of the eye as well as some small amount that is retained from the previous few fixations.” (P. 37) When the people in pink dress and blue suits become the fixation, the two people next to them may be the target of next fixation. (Figure 3) Apparently, the two people are hard to be detected at first stage. They cannot be distinct due to the colors are very similar with the background. And they do not have clear rims for the body shapes. The contrast is not big enough for us to detect at the start. However, the shapes of brushstroke are still diverse compare to the background, so we could discover the people when we have a fixation on the people in front of them.

1.3 Using multiscale structure to design for search

To become a rhythmic painting, to become a painting that can be easily understood and remembered, high level structure make them happen. (P. 41) These area structures are at different scale. For instance, the patterns and colors of people are more complex compare to the surrounding. The color of trees and grass are more complex than sky. These feature lead efficient and fluent eye movement sequences.

2 Chapter 3 Structuring Two-Dimensional Space

2.1 The binding problem: features to Contours

“Our brain constructs contours and areas from the millions of fragmented pieces of information in V1.”  Patterns of light, shade, color and motion, help the binding process put disconnected pieces into connected pieces. So we identify the differences of each area in V1, and understand the painting by analyzing the objects in it. By this process, the edge-finding machinery helps we identify the trees, the sky, the bushes, the road and people. (Figure 4) 

Figure 4 Edge-finding

2.2 The generalized contour

When people look at a picture, they need to understand the objects in the picture. People instantly search for the objects, and make plans for eye search movement. “An object may be separated from its background in many different ways including luminance changes at its silhouette, color differences, texture boundaries, and even motion boundaries.” (P. 49) People could distinguish the sky area, tree area, road area and people area by their color and shapes distinctions. (P. 49)

Let us have a closer look at the people that in the picture. The three groups of people are at different distance. In order to show the spatial distance, the painter used diverse methods to reach the goal.  Refer to the book Visual Thinking for Design; line drawings are so effective in conveying different kinds of information. The couple on the left side pops out, the painter draws some black lines along the bodies. (Figure 5.1) Therefore the couple draws people’s attention in the first place. After this, the other couple on the right side will be detected; the color of their wear is very distinct from the surrounding. Even though the edges are vague compare to the couple on the left side. (Figure 5.2) Following this, people could eventually find out the two people that ‘hide’ in the background. They do not have clear contours, they are in the similar colors with surroundings, and then they are involved into surrounding. Those reasons create out the feeling, they are the farthest ones. (Figure 5.3)

Figure 5.1                       Figure 5.2             Figure 5.3

2.3 Texture regions

Except for the couple on the left side and some trunks, they have some black lines as clear contours. Most of the objects do not have explicit contours. The contour extraction mechanism generates the contour by assemble the features together. The texture element orientation, shape and color which could be analyze in V1. (P. 50) As what we could see in figure 1, the whole painting was painted by small dots. People start thinking the dots as a texture when the dots have similar orientations, shapes and colors. Figure 6 illustrates the organized dots of each area. The properties of texture make these areas distinct. The dots of sky are straight blue lines which are at 45 degree. The dots of trees are straight lines that point to a center, form the crowns of a tree. Short and crosswise dots are used to show the texture of grasses and road. Bushes and short grasses are cut apart by vertical grasses, which are in straight and vertical lines of long length.

Figure 6 texture differences

2.4 Spatial layout

“Group of objects can form patterns based on the proximity of the elements.” (P.56) Take trees for examples, the crowns are made of dots that point to a center and the crowns of trees can be seen as elements of a tree as well. They provoke a response from a large-shape detecting neuron, and form the shape of a tree. (Figure 7) The law is also used in forming the other areas, such as the bushes.

Figure 7 spatial grouping

3 Chapter 4 Color

3.1 Channel properties

This painting is an impressionism painting. This type of painting emphasize on the accurate depiction of light in its changing  qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. (Wiki: impressionism) The painter use massive soft colors in chromatic channel, but chromatic channels have less capability to convey detail information. “Chromatic contrast occurs in the red-green and yellow-blue channels. Its effects are much more complex and harder to predict than grey-scale contrast.” (P. 70) In addition, “Shape perception is based mainly on luminance channel information, color sequences that vary mainly in luminance will be the most effective in revealing patterns in the data.” (P.81) So we only could detect the vague shape of each area, and the distance between each objects. This subtle vision gives us the impression of a summery garden to show painter’s experience and perception.

Furthermore, “The brain’s processing of stereoscopic depth information is done via the luminance channel.” (P. 71) So the painting seems a little bit flat. The stereoscopic depth only can be perceived by the low saturation color in the background. “The luminance channel can process shape-from-shading, whereas the chromatic channels cannot.” The painting is lacking of the colors from luminance channel, so that the objects do not have obvious shading which could show the shape in three-dimensional surfaces. We can see the threes blend into a whole in figure 8 as powerful evidence.

Figure 8 threes blend into a whole

3.2 Color-coding information

The unique hues first are red, green yellow and blue, these colors are widely use in this painting. “A strong pop-out effect depends both on the other colored objects in the scene and on the background color.” (P. 77)  For this reason, red umbrella, pink dress and red flowers pop out. Because red is the contrast color of green. Red and green are at the ends of middle- and long-wavelength-sensitive cones. The surroundings are trees and grasses, basically are green, although the green are in different hues. In addition, the background colors are low saturation colors, the small area like people and flowers are higher saturation colors. (Figure 9) Higher saturation colors get more attractions. The short-wave-length colors have fewer chances to be dug out than long-wave-length colors, such as blue and purple. (P. 67)

Figure 9 color-coding

3.3 Semantics of color

Blue is usually stands for quiet and soft feelings. Green is usually stands for vitality, hope, friendly, peace and fresh feeling. These two colors describe the mood of garden in the summer. The environment is pleasant enough for people to visit in summer time. Red and white indicates it is the middle of summer; it is the best time in this season. The vivid flowers even provide people a feeling that they are in a sweet smell atmosphere, because of the flowers are booming.  What’s more, red is a high saturation color; it attracts people by their first sight. In that case, it emphasizes that the flowers are booming, and people are involved in the smell of flowers. This kind of feeling meets painter’s purpose, which creates a sweet atmosphere for sweet couples. 

Besides, the umbrella is red, the dress is pink, and they also hint the couples are in heated love.

Assignment 1 - HERCULES AND THE HYDRA

This picture described the Greek mythology that Hercules fight with the Hydra. It is made by Antonio Pollaiuolo. As can be seen in this picture there are two layers, first one is a man fighting with a monster. The other layer is a vague background that displays blue sky and a huge area of ground with rivers and farms. From this background, we can naturally know the figure and monster in the picture are much bigger than the normal one if we take the background as a reference, we will think it probably could be a mythology story about gods. In this assignment, this picture will be investigated by chapter 1 “Visual Queries”, chapter 5 “Getting the Information: Visual Space and Time” and chapter 7 “Visual and Verbal Narrative”.

1 Chapter 1   Visual Queries

1.1    The apparatus and process of seeing

According to the reader, “visual thinking is a process that has the allocation of attention as its very essence, it consists of a series of acts of attention, driving eye movements and tuning our pattern-finding circuits” (P. 3). There are a great many tiny ones processing information from central regions where we direct our gaze and only a few very large ones processing information at the edge of the visual field, which means we always focus on the center of an image as well as our visual fields and neglect the information at the edge of field. That is why we need rapid and frequent eye movement to find other information to build a complete image.

In this picture, our eyes and brains naturally focus on the figure not only because it is in the center of the picture but also because it is the most bright and clear part of the picture. We begin to scan the body of the figure from the center point such as from the stomach to limbs. Therefore, we neglect the monster beside him as well as the backgrounds. The monster seems to be merged into the background and become a part of the background which is vague in our visual fields (Figure 1). In this way, the character in the center is highlighted both in our visual fields and brains that helps us to enhance his great image in our minds.

Figure 1. The figure is in the center of the picture and also our visual field 

After that, the attentions go on to the other parts around the figure which are also edges of the picture. Because when we interact with an information display, we are usually trying to solve some kind of cognitive problem (P. 4). In this picture, we want to know what the painter wants to tell us through his painting. In other words, we need to build a story by ourselves according to the detailed information we gained from the whole picture through the eye movement. The more information we get, the easier the story we can make. As we first saw the man in the center, then we saw the stick on his hand, and a monster’s neck in the other hand. At last, we saw the backgrounds such as sky and ground. Finally we know it is a story about a huge man fighting with a monster. If we look carefully, we can see two cut-off heads of the monster on the ground which shows the fight has lasted for a while.

1.2 The act of perception

According to the reader, “the act of perception is determined by two kinds of processes: bottom-up, driven by the visual information in the pattern of light falling on the retina, and top-down, driven by the demands of attention, which in turn are determined by the needs of the tasks “(P. 8).

From the bottom-up aspect, when the readers look at the picture, they first saw a man waving a stick, and then they noticed a monster is underling attack, finally they know it described a mythology because the figures are much bigger than the trees and rivers on the backgrounds. The background here is very important for readers to realise that the man in the picture is a god rather than a normal person.

From the top-down aspect, if the readers know this picture is about the mythology of Hercules and the hydra, they will mainly search Hercules and hydra and focus on them when they find them. The background here is not important or necessary for them to get a right understanding, they may even not notice the details of the background.

2 Chapter 5   Getting the Information: Visual Space and Time  

2.1 Depth perception and cue theory

- Occlusion and cast shadow

According to the reader, “Most depth cues consist of environmental information that we use to judge distances from our particular viewpoint.” (P.89). There are many depth cues such as size gradients, texture gradients, depth of focus and size relative to known objects. Each of them has unique properties that can support different kinds of visual queries.

In this picture, we can see the man’s arm occludes the monster’s wing, and the monster’s body occludes the ground which is the background of the picture (Figure 2). Although objects occludes another appear closer, we can not simply say that the man in the picture is in the front of the monster, because the cast shadow of the monster is closer than the man’s cast shadow. But this can not deny the fact that the man’s arm is more important than the monster’s wing that occlusion provides both a method and a metaphor for rank-ordering information with the most important partially occluding the less important even the wing of the monster is much bigger than the man’s arm, because occlusion is the strongest depth cue compared to the others such as size constancy.

Figure 2. The occlusion between the man and the monster   and the positions of their cast shadow on the ground

- Size gradients and depth of focus

There are two part of river on the ground in this picture, and one is much bigger than another (Figure 3). More distant objects are smaller on the picture plane than similarly sized nearby objects (P. 92). Since the rivers are almost the same psychical size or even they are the same river, we can feel that the smaller one is more distant than the bigger one. In another word, we can say that there is a long distance between the two rivers, which also means the ground showed in the picture, is a huge area if we consider the width of the river and the size of the farms as reference. Additionally, Objects that are farther away or nearer are blurred because the human eye, like a camera lens, focuses objects at a specific distance. From the figure 3, we also saw that the area of the smaller river is blurred while the bigger river area is clear, this also proved that the smaller river is far away.

Figure 3. The different size of the rivers shows the distance between them

- Reference to nearby known objects

Objects of known size provide a reference against which other objects are judged. Perspective cues only give cues to relative size, but we can also judge the absolute size if we have a reference object. Although this effect is knowledge-based and not pure geometry like the rest, it is one of the most important cues to distance. As we have seen in the figure 2, the man is standing on the ground according to his cast shadow is close to the ground. Also we know from the figure 3 that the ground is a huge area of land which has rivers and farms. If we make the man’s body as a known reference object, the rivers and the farm are too much tiny which looks like a normal man stands on a tiny world. But if we make the rivers as a reference, it become a giant man stands on the normal world. Of course, the latter one is more convinced.

3 Chapter 7     Visual and Verbal Narrative

3.1 Linking deictic gestures

Pointing is an important part of communication, especially when it is necessary to link visual and verbal information. When the communication is moved to 2D environment, images that contain deictic gestures can draw people’s attention easily and naturally.

In this picture, we first and most pay our attention to the man in the middle and pay less attention to the monster beside. While since we move our eyes through the man’s body to get more information, our eyes will naturally move on to the monster’s neck because the man’s left hand is grasping it. On the other hand, the man is waving a wood stick which points directly to the monster’s head. This also helps to draw our attention to the monster after we saw the man first, because the man is the most important role in the picture while the monster is the second important one. What’s more, the direction of the man’s gaze also points to the head of the monster that move all our attentions to the monster and help us to make connections between these two roles in the picture. The direction of someone’s gaze, or how he orients his body, can also serve to denote the subject of an utterance. For instance, the gesture of the man’s legs shows that he has the trend to lean to the monster for close combat. There is one interesting thing that the monster’s neck movement can also be seen as a kind of gesture. The neck twisted like the character “s” which guide people’s eye back to the man’s face (Figure 4).

Figure 4. The gesture of the man

3.2 Mirror neurons and empathic communication

The mirror neurons are called empathy neurons because they may allow us to read the emotions of others through the same pathways that generate our own facial expressions when we are expressing emotions (P. 137). For example, when we saw other’s face in a picture, we may feel the emotions of others via our own facial muscles through the mediation of mirror neurons. In this way, pictures can not only express the visual information people could see but also can express the emotional information people could feel, and this feeling will also help people to enhance the experience of the picture.

In this picture, there is a man starring at a monster. From his facial muscles, we can form a feeling in our minds that when we have the same face muscle movement. We can feel the man is angry because we will have our blows closely knitted just like the man showed in the picture when we ourselves are angry. He gritted his teeth together that shows he used up all his strength to swung the wood stick and grasp the monster’s neck tightly. Even from such emotions on the man’s face, we could feel how fierce and cruel the monster is. Such feeling helps us to experience the power of the giant man and the drastic battle between the man and the monster.

Figure 5. How the man orients his body

On the other hand, the monster also has its facial expression. It opens its mouth, looking rather ferocious or it may be suffering the drastic pain caused by the giant man’s grasp. The man and the monster staring at each other that reminds us the moment when we stared at each other. It must going to have a battle between the two even we only see their faces instead of seeing the arm movements.

Figure 6. The facial expression of the man and the monster

Assignment 1 - ADVERTISEMENT OF CLUB MED

This picture is an advertisement of Club Med Company. It is a company which provides vocation tours to people.  The whole picture can be divided into three layers. The front layer describes plants, animals and fruits of tropical islands. The middle layer shows some images of visitors. They are modern lady, young men with casual clothes, model with wedding dress and others. In the back layer, a tanker is sailing in the calm sea with blue sky. In the top left corner stands the logo of the company. The author of the picture aims to attract visitors to the islands via prosperous voyage.

1 Chapter 4   Color

1.1 Cone receptors and color-processing

According to the reader, cone receptors come in three subtypes—short-wavelength sensitive, middle-wavelength sensitive, and long-wavelength sensitive. And we have few and weak blue-sensitive cones than other cones, similar colors that can be catch by blue-sensitive is difficult to be distinguished. In the example of reader, blue text on blackboard background is illegible. (P66-67)

However, the icon of the picture can be seen as white texts on blue blackboard, and it is very distinct. White and blue are absorbed by two types of cone receptors, so that they are much easier to be seen in detail. Besides, the blue-sensitive cone are weak than the white-sensitive one, which makes the white icon more distinct.

Figure 1. White logo on blue blackboard

The reader presents red- and green-colored cones are clumped together, thus we are far less able to see detail where the differences are purely chromatic. (P68)

In the central of the picture, there is an obvious color contract between black glove and whit tanker. Black and white parts of the image to fall on two different cone receptors, which makes them easy to distinct. However, colors of flowers, fruits and animals are all kinds of blue and red. They fall on clumped cones and are hard to see in detail.

Figure 2. Discrimination of different parts

1.2Channels and Contrast

In the reader, there are three channels in color: red-green, yellow-blue, and black-white. And the effect of simultaneous contrast, which occurs in each channel, leads to the increase of difference between colors as illusion. In the front layer, most colors are red and green. These colors are two contrast colors in the red-green channel. And the differences in the colors are increased in brain. However, in the back layer, the color changes from blue to white. It can be seen as luminosity change, and the contrast created by brain is less complex.

Besides, chromatic channels have less capability to convey detail information. This is the reason why the fine detail information cannot be captured easily in the front layer.

Figure 3. Contrast within different channels

1.3 Semantics of color

Colors are often used symbolically. The semantics of color differs from countries and cultures. (P84) In the picture, the background is mainly blue and white. Blue represents calm and cold, while white represents purity. The color of background ensures customer that the trip via tanker is safe and pleasant. The colors of objects in the front layer are saturated, which implies high quality of fruits, vegetables and animals in the island. These colors are mainly red, green and yellow, which helps to create a happy and fresh atmosphere.  Besides, author of the picture uses black, white and gold in the visitors. This colors implies modern, fashion and rich in most cultures. All these colors imply that this trip is safe and pleasant, all the stuff on the island is fresh and lively, and the trip is worth for modern people who search for high quality life.

2 Chapter 5   Getting the Information: Visual Space and Time

We live in complex three-dimensional world. However, when we use paper to convey information, we only have the up dimension and the sideways dimension. Information on the towards-away dimension is easily to lose. However, people present depth cues in portrait or photograph to convey depth perception. (P89) In this picture, the author combines some methods to show depth cues.

2.1 Occlusion

According to the reader, occlusion acts as the strongest depth cue when there is a completion with other factors, such as size. Besides, occlusion has a metaphor meaning of ranking. The most important object can occlude other ones.

In general, the front lay occludes the middle one, which occludes the back layer. It suggests the beautiful flowers, fresh fruit and lovely birds of the front layer, are the key information of the picture. They are the gifts for customers as well as the main attraction of the company. While, the images of visitors and tanker are less important, so that some part are hidden. Besides, although the logo of the company lies in the back layer, it is not occluded by any object. It implies that the logo is very important in this picture.

The occlusion can express depth cues as well as show more objects in limited space. However, it is critical that occluded objects should still be identified. The author of the picture obeys this rule. Take the piece of the lower right corner for example, it is a small part of the whole picture and it contains more than ten objects: lemon, banana, pineapple, parrot and so on. If people see this corner in detail, they can distinguish the objects easily. None of these are occluded so much that cannot be recognized. In this way, the picture shows information clearly.

Figure 4.The lower right corner

2.2 Perspective: Size gradient

According to the reader, size gradient presents cues to depth information. More distant objects are smaller on the picture plane than similarly sized nearby objects. Besides, the size suggests the importance of objects. The most important object takes up the largest place in the photograph or portrait. (P92)

During images of people in the picture, the modern lady takes a largest space. It helps this image of lady to attract people’s attention. The man dressing informally looks much smaller than the lady. All these suggest that the trip is a modern one rather than a casual one. The interesting point is that there is a small image of young man in the front layer. There is a contradiction: the man occludes the lady while the lady is larger than the man. This cannot happen in the real world. It suggests that the lady is so important that the author magnifies the image of lady on purpose.

Another interesting point is the image of duck in the front layer. The duck is so big that it seems abnormal to the perspective rules. People can judge that the duck is popular animal in the islands of the trip.

Figure 5.The size gradient of people

2.3 Shading

“Surfaces of objects reflect more or less light depending on how they are oriented towards the light source.”(P93) By observing the shade, people can judge whether the picture is an original one or it is pieced by several pictures with different light sources. And the stronger the light source is, the more detail we can find on images. And the object with stronger light source can attract more attention.

This picture is surely a pieced one. The images of modern lady and the golden lady are taken with strong and close light sources. While the images of fruits and lemons are taken with weak and distant light sources. In this picture, people are easy to be attracted by details in the ladies and only glance at the fruits. The ladies stand out for the importance.

Figure 6.The shade of objects

2.4 Depth of focus

To show the depth information, photographers focus objects at the specific distance, and objects that are farther away or nearer are blurred.  (P93) Although this picture is a pieced one, the author also chooses sharp and blurred objects to give depth cues.  Besides, the sharp object often catches people’s attention and has a meaning of importance.

In this picture, the focus distance depends on the modern lady. The image is so sharp that all the details of the lady’s face can be seen clearly. The fruits and animals in the front layer are nearer, while the tanker on the back layer is farther away.  It makes the whole picture looks like a nature one and the lady stands out at the same time.

Figure 7.Sharp and blurred

Besides, the logo is also sharp and it seems at the same distance as the lady. Also it shows that the logo contains important information.

3 Chapter 7   Visual and Verbal Narrative

3.1 Linking deictic gestures

When people communicate face to face, they use the gesture “pointing” to express the meaning of “look at that one”, “it is here” and others. When the communication is moved to paper-based environment, author selects images which contain deictic gestures to draw people’s attention.

In the picture, there are some deictic gestures to draw people’s attention. Firstly, the tanker with the name of the company lies on the back layer of the picture, which cannot catch people’s attention easily. However, there are two big the modern lady is pointing at the tanker. One is the modern lady’s hand. She takes important part of the picture and her left hand is pointing at the tanker. The black glove makes sharp contrast to the light color background. This gesture stands out and turns peoples’ attention to the tanker. The other deictic gesture is much slighter. The man with casual clothes is gazing at the tanker too. It also draws people’s attention to the tanker.

Secondly, the gesture of the parrot is interesting. The wings of the parrot point to the logo of company and help the logo to stand out. It is an interesting finding. In the reader, the gestures only refer to human being. However, this can happen on any objects. But to make it more clear, the gesture should be large enough and make obvious contrast with the background to catch attention of people.

Figure 8.Deictic gestures

3.2 Mirror neurons and empathy communication

The discovery of mirror neuron in human being shows the complexity of brain activity. “They have been called empathy neurons because they may allow us to read the emotions of others through the same pathways that generate our own facial expressions when we are expressing emotions.” (P137)  When the theory applies to picture, people can read facial expressions and body language in pictures by generating the same expression. Then they can experience the same emotion. In this way, author of picture can achieve their emotional goal.

There are two main points of empathy communications in this picture. The modern lady is reclining on the floor with the support of elbow. One of her hand lies on her knee casually. Her head lifts slightly, as if she is watching something. Her facial expression shows she is relaxed and calm. When people see this, the mirror neurons work. They copy this action and facial expression in our own brain and experience this emotion. They feel relaxed, leisure and enjoyable. In this way, this advertisement does a good job. By watching this picture, people get positive emotion and get attracted by the imagined feeling of trip.

Besides, the image of golden lady does empathy communication with people. The lady looks up slightly with closed eyes. Her facial expression is relaxed and stretched. When seeing this image, certain region in people’s head works and this facial expression is imitated. People feel the delighted thoughts and the relaxing environment as if they are enjoying sunshine on the beach or smelling flower in the garden. In this way, this picture conveys the information that the company provides some service that brings relaxing and joyful enjoyment.

Figure 9. Empathy communication