Painted Optics Symposium
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FoNnazroNpGroncro RoNcHr ,r.@, Studio Art CentersInternational Palazzodei Cartelloni D. HOCKNEY,J.TSPIKE, S. GRUNDY, R. LAPUCCI, F.CAMEROTA, C.M. FALCO, C. PERNECHELE PaintedOptics Symposium Re-examiningtbe Hockney-Falcotbesis 7 yearson Florence, September7 -9, 2008 Via San Felice a Ema 20 501.25Firenze, Italia http://ronchi.isti.cnr.it Firenze 2009 Ibn al-Haytham'sContributions to Optics,Art, and Visual Literacy CHARLESI\4, FALCO, AIMEE L, \(EINTZ ALLEN C') Introduction In his book, Seuet Knowledge:rediscouering tbe lost tecbniquesof tbe old Masters(2001,2006), the artistDavid Hockney reported visual discoveries within someof the bestknown European paintings that affectlong-held understandings of the developmentof westemart overthe courseof the past600 years. Subse- quently,a collaborationcombining the visualskills of oneof the world'sgreatest artists(Childers, 1996; Langmuir & Lyrrton,2000) with the analyticalskills of an opticalphysicist (Charles M. Falco),resulted in Hockneyand Falcodeveloping the foundationsof a new methodologyfor extracdnginformation from complex, optics-basedimages (Hockney & Falco,2000,2004, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c). As will be discussedin this paper,this methodologyalso contributes to our burgeoning understandingof visualliteracy. Visualliteracy is not limited to the naffativeand symbolicqualities of pic- turesand images (Duncum,2001; Hockney, 1998), but it is alsorooted in the sci entificand culturalstudy of opticsand the visualsystem (Edgerton & Steinberg, 1987;Greenstein, 1997; Grootenboer, 2007). As we will discuss,the genesisof this conceptcan be tracedto the work of the 11'hcentury Arab polymath,Ibn al- Haltham (LatinizedAlhazen or Alhacen),rvhose scientific exploration of vision significantlyimpacted the studyand practice ofvisual art, as well asour cognitive capacityto interpretit. Historic Theoriesof Vsion During the first two centuriesofthe IslamicGolden Age (8th-1Jthcenturies), translationof ancientwritings on the scienceof opticsoffered contemporary in- tellectualswith variousphilosophical theories of vision.Euclid, Ptolemy, Galen (n) CollegeofOptical Sciences.University ofArizona, Tucson8J721 USA T 116 C.M. Falco,A.L. \N/etutzAllan and Aristotle, whose Greek texts were hanslated into Arabic dudng this period, provided disparateviervs on the way the organ of the eyereacts with light to aid in vision. Greek theorieswere largely appropdated by Islamic scholarsuntil the first quarter of the 11ihcentury, when a new method of inquiry rvasintroduced by Ibn 'scientific al-Haytham. Vith the method' he introduced to the rvodd, al-Haythanl used experimental evidence to develop a remarkably accurate theory of vision. His design and interpretation of elegantexperiments became the root sourcefor 'Westernunderstandings ofoptics up to the 17thcentury (Lindberg, 1967). Born in Basra in 965, Ibn al-Haytham primarily worked in Cairo's al-Azhar Mosque - an epicenter for academic inquiry - where he wrote prolifically on subjects as diverse as poetry and politics. He is primarily known however, for his writings on geometrical optics, astronomy, and mathematics.His landmark sevenvolume treatiseon the human visualsystem,Kitab al-Manazir lBook ol Oy> ticsJ,published sometime between 1028 [418 A.H.] and 1018 [429 A.H.], u.as incorporated throughout the core ofpost medieval\Western culture. This seminal work initiated an unbroken chain of continuous developmentof the modern un- derstanding of both optics (i.e. science),as rvell as understandingsrelated to two dimensional pictorial representationsof three dimensionalspace (i.e. art). FrG.1 lbn al Hattham's descriptionof the human visualsystem. From a copy othis Kitab al-Manaztu108i [175 A.H.] in the SiileyminiyeLibrary, Istinbul. Ib n al-Haltham's Cofttibutions. Ill Frc. 2 The anatomyof the eyeaccording to Ibn al-H^yrh^m, horn Ki/abal,ManziL MuseumVictoria. Prior to thework oflbn al-Ha1tham,theories ofvision could be broadly clas- sifiedinto oneofthree categories:extramission, intromission, or a combinationof the two. Extfamissiontheories require that somesort of illuminatingparticles be emittedby the eye.Euclid and Ptolemyare well-known scholars associated with this category(Linberg, 1981). Although there are obvious flaws with extramrssron theories,they do get the geomeryright, with a one-to-onecorrespondence be- tweenpoints on the objectand points on the eye.Intromission theories, with Ar, istotleas a prominentproponent, postulated that objectscontinuously sloughed off microscopicallythin replicasof themselvesthat then travelledto the eyeof the observerIntromission theories avoid some obvious problems of extramission theories,such as near and far objectssimultaneously being visible the momentthe eyeis opened.A third alternative,supported by Platoand Galen(and Aristode, to a lesserdegree), combines the trvotheories, proposing that light emittedby the eyeengages in someway with the interveningair and aforementionedreplicas, or species(Lindberg, 1,967 , 1981,). Like othersbefore him, Ibn al-Haltham also recognizedthat therewere problemswith all existingtheories of vision,but he viasuniquely successful in findinga solutionthat hadeluded the bestminds of antiquity.He proposeda type 118 C.M.Falco, A.L. \VeintzAllcn of intromission theory ofvision, and validatedhis cor.rclusionsby empirical under standing deduced from scientific experimentation, This methodology expanded his understanding beyond the theoretical,which resulted in the incorporation of psychology to explain vision, in combination with the behavior of light and the physiology of tl.reeye. tIG. ' l.rnunfr,k. ll, l. ll;.i \,1.t4l2.,l4t4,d,1d l 'hos insapproxim.r.c h z'"-ot rr. il.c.5o.7.nrL,jnrincr.Birru,ir.i\,r';rsol LrcrspcLri\L;nN. din en.i.'rrJlLrJc,:, specLFcinforri,,ti,'n .in be eLi.jtcd aboui the mannel in rvhich imagcs are produced. Ibr.r al Haytham also linked sight and vision with the properties of light throughout his studies.His experimentssubsequently verified scienti6cprinciples conmonly associatedwith what is known todayas optical'ray tacing'. Theseex' periments included using flat and curved mirrors to control and manipulate light, but primarily involved obseruing the effect of light pouring through aperturesof varioussizes into dalkenedspaces (i.e. camera obscura) (Smith,2001a, 2001b). Perhapsmost inrportantly, they provided him a theoreticalbasis for the existence of rays; a theoretical construct that he used as a meansfor describing and inter preting the visualsystem.These lays are subsequentlyrepresented by geometrical lines associatedon a point by point basisu'ith an object in space. Al Haytham did get one important aspectof vision l'rong: the fact that an image projected by a lens is upside down and flipped right-toJeft apparently rvas more than he could acceptin a theory olvision, eventhough it is containedrvithin his optical fornalism. Leonardo da Vinci also failed to accept this when he ap proached the problem much later (Kemp, 1977).Ultimately, it rvould take another live hundred yearsbefore Kepler would follow Ibn al Haytham's formalism to its inevitable and logical conclusionin developing the theory of the retir.ralimage. Smith (2005) poir.rtsout that such contasting theo es of vision in the pre ceding centuriesbefore Kepler had profound epistemologicalimplications on me- dieval culture. The Platonist perspectivistssupporting extromission,for exampie, suggestthat the eye has powers which extend outward as a meansfor engagrng reality rvhich, in a general sense,can be understood as a "r'isual finger reaching out to palpate things" (Smith, 2005, p. 223). Intromissiolr theories howeveq are uniquely Aristotlian. They ascribe to the idea that, "Knowledge is inductive... lbn al Haytham's Contribrtions. .. I19 Sensationand its representationsare therefore not to be deprecatedas the bearefs of falsehood(Platonism) but ratherto be prizedas the bearersof tuth" (Smith, 2001,p. cx). Perhapspredictably, as cultural understandings of visionard cognitionex pandedto includethese disparate theories, so too did evolvingcultural consid- erationsfof conceptsseemingly unrelated to the scienceof optics,the impactof whichwas not relegatedto the sciencecommunity alone but spreadout to include the humanitiesat large. 3. Interdisciplinary disseminationand appropriation of Kiffib al-Mdndzir Thereis little debatethat Ibn al-Haltham'sseminal work, Kitab al-Manazir, translatedinto Latin asDe Aspectibus In theearly to mid-1.1th century, is largelyre, sponsiblefor the widespreadappropriation of its contentsby \WesternEuropean intellectuals(Lindberg, 1967). Smith recognizesthat variationsexist among the Latin versionas compared with theArabic original, not simplyin its organizarion- al sructurebut in theinterpretation of specificterms (2001). From thebeginning, however,knowledge of the coreprinciples and experimentsdetai.led throughout the manuscriptby its originalauthor were not limited to lWesternreaders alone, or to scientificaudiences specifically. De Aspectibusis first referencedin Bartolomeo Anglicus'De proprietatibus rcrun,lOn thePrcpertyof Thingsl c1220-1T0(Smith.2001), a monumentaland earlyencyclopedia covering a widevariety of subjects.The text refersto the study ofoptics andIbn al'Haythamspecifically several times. It wasrequired reading at the Universityof P arisin 1296,avatlable in the universitylibrary of the Sorbonne by 1306,and usedwidely as referencematerial at Oxford, Cambridge,Canter- bury andMerton Collegeby the mid-fourteenthcentury (Holbrook, 1998). Specificproposals contained withn De Aspectibzzshowever,