HOME > News Archives > 2011 > Aesthetic Lecture on Shadow by Dr. Roberto Casati
Lecture by Dr. Roberto Casati (National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) ) is to be held as follows.
*Admission free, no registration required.
*This event will be held in English, no interpretation provided.
Lecturer: Dr. Roberto Casati
Title: "The art of shadow painting"
Date and Time: Tuesday, 25th January, 2011; 13:30 ‐ 16:00
Venue: G-SEC Lab, 6th floor, East Research Building, Mita Campus, Keio University
Chair: Koichi Toyama (Global COE CARLS, Keio University)
Outline: Shadow painting evolved twice in history of art, each time with different results. It is one of the most difficult challenges for visual artists, as it requires an ability to balance a large number of constraints (light, shape, position). Errors - even impressive ones - are widespread and can easily spoil the general impression conveyed by a painting. Some of these errors, however, are systematic in a way that allows vision scientists to reconstruct some of the mechanisms of shadow perception. In particular, I shall focus on two types of conditions: mistaken shadows that are considered as acceptable, and correct shadows that are considered as unacceptable. These suggest that the brain is using a proprietary logic when dealing with shadows - a logic whose profile is still much open to empirical investigation. I shall present evidence from a large body of Renaissance representations, indicating discoveries that psychologists can make by studying large corpora such as this one.
Reference: "
Aesthetic Lecture on Shadow by Dr. Roberto Casati
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