This paper draws from art history and perception to place computer depiction in the broader context of picture production. It highlights the often underestimated complexity of the interactions between features in the picture and features of the represented scene. Depiction is not always a unidirectional projection from a 3D scene to a 2D picture, but involves much feedback and influence from the picture space to the object space. Depiction can be seen as a pre-existing 3D reality projected onto 2D, but also as a 2D pictorial representation that is superficially compatible with an hypothetic 3D scene. We show that depiction is essentially an optimization problem, producing the best picture given goals and constraints. We introduce a classification of basic depiction techniques based on four kinds of issue. The spatial system deals with the mapping of spatial properties between 3D and 2D (including, but not restricted to, perspective projection). The primitive system deals with the dimensionality and mappings between picture primitives and scene primitives. Attributes deal with the assignment of visual properties such as colors, texture, or thickness. Finally, marks are the physical implementations of the picture (e.g. brush strokes, mosaic cells). A distinction is introduced between interaction and picturegeneration methods, and techniques are then organized depending on the dimensionality of the inputs and outputs.

We present an algorithm for rendering subdivision surface models of complex scenes in a variety of artistic styles using an interactively editable particle system. The algorithm is suitable for modeling artistic techniques explicitly by the user, or automatically by the system. Our approach can simulate a large number of artistic effects due to the fact that almost any type of mark made on paper or canvas can be imitated. Any of our artistic effects is customizable by the user through a particle editing interface. The algorithm maintains complete frame-to-frame coherence, a characteristic required for good animation, and runs at interactive rates on current computer graphics workstations. CR Categories: I.3.0 [Computer Graphics]: General; I.3.6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques. Keywords: interaction, illustration, non-photorealistic rendering, silhouettes, lighting models. 1 Introduction Both humans and computer programs can take an input image, scene or geometric re...

An important problem in the area of computer graphics is the visualization of large, complex information spaces. Datasets of this type have grown rapidly in recent years, both in number and in size. Images of the data stored in these collections must support rapid and accurate exploration and analysis. This article presents a method for constructing visualizations that are both effective and aesthetic. Our approach uses techniques from master paintings and human perception to visualize a multidimensional dataset. Individual data elements are drawn with one or more brush strokes that vary their appearance to represent the element’s attribute values. The result is a nonphotorealistic visualization of information stored in the dataset. Our research extends existing glyph-based and nonphotorealistic techniques by applying perceptual guidelines to build an effective representation of the underlying data. The nonphotorealistic properties the strokes employ are selected from studies of the history and theory of Impressionist art. We show that these properties are similar to visual features that are detected by the lowlevel human visual system. This correspondence allows us to manage the strokes to produce perceptually salient visualizations. Psychophysical experiments confirm a strong relationship between the expressive power of our nonphotorealistic properties and previous findings on the use of perceptual color and texture patterns for data display. Results from these studies are used to produce effective nonphotorealistic visualizations. We conclude by applying our techniques to a large, multidimensional weather dataset to demonstrate their viability in a practical, real-world setting.

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Nearly all listeners consider the subjective aspects of music, such as its emotional tone, to have primary importance. But contemporary philosophers often downplay, ignore, or even deny such aspects of experience. Moreover, traditional philosophies of music try to decontextualize it. Using music as an example, this paper explores the structure of qualitative experience, demonstrating that it is multi-layer emergent, non-compositional, enacted, and situation dependent, among other non-Cartesian properties.

Abstract: This article describes a new method for assessing the effect of a given film on viewers ’ brain activity. Brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during free viewing of films, and inter-subject correlation analysis (ISC) was used to assess similarities in the spatiotemporal responses across viewers ’ brains during movie watching. Our results demonstrate that some films can exert considerable control over brain activity and eye movements. However, this was not the case for all types of motion picture sequences, and the level of control over viewers ’ brain activity differed as a function of movie content, editing, and directing style. We propose that ISC may be useful to film studies by providing a quantitative neuroscientific assessment of the impact of different styles of filmmaking on viewers’ brains, and a valuable method for the film industry to better assess its products. Finally, we suggest that this method brings together two separate and largely unrelated disciplines, cognitive neuroscience and film studies, and may open the way for a new interdisciplinary field of “neurocinematic ” studies.

This article supplements our earlier paper on synaesthesia published in JCS (Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001a). We discuss the phenomenology of synaesthesia in greater detail, raise several new questions that have emerged from recent studies, and suggest some tentative answers to these questions.

People’s wanting and liking reactions reflect not only high-level beliefs, but also the operation of rudimentary biopsychological processes. Previous studies suggest that the following wanting and liking processes may be relevant to political behavior: irrational wanting (where wanting is triggered by activation of the brain dopamine system and becomes dissociated from liking); unconscious liking and wanting (where evaluative judgments and behavior are modified without awareness of the eliciting affective stimuli or of the underlying affective response); and fluency-based liking (where preferences are influenced by the ease of stimulus processing). This review suggests how conceptual and methodological tools from affective neuroscience and psychophysiology can refine our understanding of basic affective and motivational processes that shape political attitudes and choices. KEY WORDS: affect, choice, emotion, preference, neuroscience Citizens participate in the political process not only with their heads, but also their hearts. They are either enthusiastic about candidates or disgusted by them, engaged in or indifferent to elected officials ’ decisions, trusting or afraid of the government, passionate about social justice or hateful toward certain groups, hopeful or scared about the future, “mad as hell ” or confident about the economy. Social scientists who appreciate these observations have long been interested in understanding the functions of emotion and motivation in political behavior

I argue that Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) research will play a key role in the scientific understanding of visual art and illustration. NPR can contribute to scientific understanding of two kinds of problems: how do artists create imagery, and how do observers respond to artistic imagery? I sketch out some of the open problems, how NPR can help, and what some possible theories might look like. Additionally, I discuss the thorny problem of how to evaluate NPR research and theories.

I investigate the trade-off between the expected and the surprising in certain geometric patterns. This work is inspired by Bridget Riley’s early Op art pieces, White Discs 2 (1964) and Fragment 6/9 (1965). I analyse these two works, investigate a range of variants, and propose hypotheses about the perceptual effects in patterns like these. The key hypothesis is that there is an æsthetically interesting range where between a quarter and a half of a regular pattern is adjusted in some way. I report on a perceptual experiment that tests and supports this hypothesis, and discuss the implications.