The Art of Shaping Materials

Abstract

Material perception — the visual perception of stuff — is an emerging field in vision research. We recognize materials from shape, color and texture features. This paper is a selective review and discussion of how artists have been using shape features to evoke vivid impressions of specific materials and material properties. A number of examples are presented in which visual artists render materials or their transformations, such as soft human skin, runny or viscous fluids, or wrinkled cloth. They achieve this by expressing the telltale shape features of these materials and transformations, often by carving them from a single block of marble or wood. Vision research has just begun to investigate these very shape features, making material perception a prime example of how art can inform science.