Assignment #3 - light and shadow

Due Tuesday, February 24 (in class)

CS 99D - The Science of Art
Winter Quarter, 1998
Marc Levoy
Handout #6

Your third assignment is to write a 3-4 page double-spaced paper on one of the topics listed in the first two sections below. Alternatively, you may do the project described in the last section (whether or not you did a project for the previous assignment). You may also choose another topic or project if you clear it with me in advance.

The format and rules for this assignment are the same as in the first two. Those of you who have not yet presented in class must do so this time.

Topics drawn from the required readings and from class discussions

• Compare and contrast Leonardo and Minnaert as observers of the optical effects of nature. How are their goals and methods similar, and how are they different? Whose observations are more useful for artists, and why?
  
  
• In Baxandall's essay about Molyneux's problem, Condillac's statue cannot effectively utilize its sense of sight until also given the sense of touch. Do you agree with this prediction? If a person were paralyzed from the neck down and had sight but no touch, what would be their understanding of the world? If they suddenly regained the use of their body, what difficulties might they face?
  
  
• During your upcoming expedition to find the last Amazon tribe that has had no contact with modern civilization, you wish to bring with you visual depictions of the inventions, cities, and other wonders of the outside world. Some of your teammates propose bringing line drawings. Others propose bringing hatched etchings, oil paintings, photographs, or even scale models. Critically evaluate each proposal. Which do you think will be most readily understood by the natives? Do you have other proposals? Feel free to draw for inspiration on Baxandall's essay about Molyneux's problem, but I want to hear your thoughts, not his.

Topics involving readings from the bibliography or additional research

• In our coverage of the history of chiaroscuro, we neglected to treat the effects of changes in painting technology, in particular the switch from egg tempera to oil-based paint in the 15th century and the development of synthetic pigments in the 18th and 19th centuries. Working from Lamb and Bourriau's Colour: Art and Science, the appendicies in Baxandall's Shadows and Enlightenment, or other sources, trace this fascinating relationship between technology and art from the Renaissance through the 19th century.
  
  
• The recent cleaning of the Sistine Chapel ceiling suggests that Michelangelo, rather than employing the Renaissance discovery that shadows should be dark, tending toward black, instead adhered to medieval tradition, in which shadows were fully saturated with color. If correct, then this radically changes our view of Michelangelo and his art. If, on the other hand, we have cleaned away Michelangelo's intended tones, as some critics claim, then we have ruined his masterpiece forever. Find an account of the cleaning. (This may require some research.) Then read James Beck's scathing condemnation of it in Art Restoration: the Culture, the Business, and the Scandal. Who is right?
  
  
• Write on the treatment of light and shadow in a non-Western-European culture.

Some non-writing projects

• Create a illustration that convincingly depicts a scene in extremely bright light, a scene in extremely dim light, or a scene with an extremely wide range of illumination. Use any media you like, including computer graphics. You are also welcome to experiment with extreme viewing conditions as described in Helmholtz's essay.
  
  
• Create photographic demonstrations of as many of the optical effects described in Minnaert's chapters as you can. You may use any kind of camera you wish (film, polaroid, digital, video), but you must take your own photographs - no borrowing from books. For more fun, use your photographic talents to document some of his other chapters.

Heads-up about final projects

It's time to start thinking about your final project. If you plan to work in a team, start looking for a partner. During the next week, I'll add some more suggestions to the online list of project ideas. Almost anything goes for this project, so feel free to invent a project of your own. I'm happy to serve as a sounding board.

A one-page project proposal will be due on Thursday, February 26.