My dissertation is about pictures and about seeing things in pictures. What conditions should be fulfilled before I can see an apple on a canvas, my girlfriend on a photograph, or an alien on my computer screen? And what is the difference between perceiving apples, girlfriends, and aliens in the flesh and seeing them in a picture? After an introductory chapter in which I engage these more general questions, I focus on how different forms of pictorial representation - photography, television, virtual reality - give rise to different experiences of the things and events they depict. The working title of this dissertation is Varieties of Depict…
My dissertation is about pictures and about seeing things in pictures. What conditions should be fulfilled before I can see an apple on a canvas, my girlfriend on a photograph, or an alien on my computer screen? And what is the difference between perceiving apples, girlfriends, and aliens in the flesh and seeing them in a picture? After an introductory chapter in which I engage these more general questions, I focus on how different forms of pictorial representation - photography, television, virtual reality - give rise to different experiences of the things and events they depict. The working title of this dissertation is Varieties of Depiction: An Experiential Approach. Besides pictures, in all forms and shapes, I am interested in perception, imagination, and aesthetics in general.
