Binocular Disparities, Motion Parallax, and Geometric Perspective in Patrick Hughes's ‘Reverspectives’: Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Findings

Abstract

Patrick Hughes's ‘reverspective’ artworks provide a novel way of investigating the effectiveness of different sources of 3-D information for the human visual system. Our empirical findings show that the converging lines of simple linear perspective can be as effective as the rich array of 3-D cues present in natural scenes in determining what we see, even when these cues are in conflict with binocular disparities. Theoretical considerations reveal that, once the information provided by motion parallax transformations is correctly understood, there is no need to invoke higher-level processes or an interpretation based on familiarity or past experience in order to explain either the ‘reversed’ depth or the apparent, concomitant rotation of a reverspective artwork as the observer moves from side to side. What we see in reverspectives is the most likely real-world scenario (distal stimulus) that could have created the perspective and parallax transformations (proximal stimulus) that stimulate our visual systems.