Perception beyond inference: the information content of visual processes

Proposing a new paradigm for perceptual science that goes beyond standard information theory and digital computation.

This book breaks with the conventional model of perception that views vision as a mere inference to an objective reality on the basis of "inverse optics." The authors offer the alternative view that perception is an expressive and awareness-generating process. Perception creates semantic information in such a way as to enable the observer to deal efficaciously with the chaotic and meaningless structure present at the physical boundary between the body and its surroundings. Vision is intentional by its very nature; visual qualities are essential and real, providing an aesthetic and meaningful interface to the structures of physics and the state of the brain. This view brings perception firmly in line with ethology and modern evolutionary biology and suggests new approaches in all disciplines that study, or require an understanding of, the ontology of mind.

The book is the joint effort of a multidisciplinary group of authors. Topics covered include the relationships among stimuli, neuronal processes, and visual awareness. After considering the mind-dependent growing of information, the book treats time and dynamics; color, shape, and space; language and perception; perception, art, and design.

Liliana Albertazzi is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Cognitive Science at Trento University, Italy.

Gert J. van Tonder is Professor of Vision Research and Adjunct Professor at the Laboratory of Visual Psychology, Department of Architecture and Design, at Kyoto Institute of Technology.

Dhanraj Vishwanath is RCUK (Research Councils UK) Academic Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Liliana Albertazzi is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Cognitive Science at Trento University, Italy.

Gert J. van Tonder is Professor of Vision Research and Adjunct Professor at the Laboratory of Visual Psychology, Department of Architecture and Design, at Kyoto Institute of Technology.

Dhanraj Vishwanath is RCUK (Research Councils UK) Academic Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Jan Koenderink was Professor of Physics at Utrecht University for many years. He is currently a Research Fellow at Delft University of Technology and Visiting Professor at MIT and École National Supérieure Paris. He is the author of Solid Shape (MIT Press, 1990).

Gert J. van Tonder is Professor of Vision Research and Adjunct Professor at the Laboratory of Visual Psychology, Department of Architecture and Design, at Kyoto Institute of Technology.

Dhanraj Vishwanath is RCUK (Research Councils UK) Academic Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Liliana Albertazzi is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Cognitive Science at Trento University, Italy.

Liliana Albertazzi is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Cognitive Science at Trento University, Italy.

Ernest Edmonds is an artist who has pioneered the use of computers and computational ideas in his art. He has exhibited in the US, UK, Australia, Russia, China, and many other countries. He is the author of The Art of Interaction: What HCI Can Learn from Interactive Art, and other books. He was awarded the 2017 ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art.