Table Of Content

This Page Intentionally Left Blank THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC IMAGES Seeing, Drawing, Communicating Manfred0 Massironi Universiti di Verona Translated by Nicola Bruno Universiti di nieste LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2002 Mahwah, New Jersey London Senior Consulting Editor: Susan Milmoe Editorial Assistant: Stacey Mulligan Cover Design: Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey Interior Design: Cheryl Asherman Textbook Production Manager: Paul Smolenski Full-Service Compositor: TechBooks Text and Cover Printer: Hamilton Printing Company This book was typeset in 10/12 pt. Sabon, Sabon Italic, SabonB old, and Futura. The heads were typeseti n Fenice, Fenice Italics, Fenice Bold, SaboBno ld Italics, and Sabon Bold. Cover illustrations taken from text pages 73,111,121,207,224, and 282. Copyright 0 2002 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system,o r any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationD ata Massironi, Manfredo, 1937- The psychology of graphic images : seeing, drawing, communicating/ Manfredo Massironi ;t ranslated by Nicola Bruno. cpm . . Includes bibliographical referencesa nd index. ISBN 0-8058-2932-6 (alk. paper) -ISBN 0-8058-2933-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Visual perception. 2. Visual communication. 3. Drawing-Psychological aspects. I. Title. BF241 .M345 2001 302.2’224~21 2001016019 Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper,a nd their bindings are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 Introduction 1 2 Invariance and Transformation 25 3 The Elusive Context 48 4 The Quest for Balance 65 5 What Makes a Graphic Image Work 97 6 Visualizing the Invisible 141 7 Seeing and Showing Time 178 8 Graphics and Perception 215 9 Ambiguity and Information 243 10 Toward a Taxonomy of Drawings 267 Notes 289 References 297 Author Index 305 Subject Index 309 V This Page Intentionally Left Blank Acknowledgments Iw ish to show my gratitude toa ll those who contributed with their obser- vations, discussions and remarks to enrich and organize the subject of this book, from my artist mates of the visual research collectives to my perception scholar colleagues. For them all, Paolo Bonaiuto of the University La Sapienza in Rome and Sergio Los of the Faculty of Architecture in Venice. Ia lso wish to thank Michael Kubovy for the encouragement, support and suggestions he gave me during the different phases of writing of this book and, in particular, for the promotion a seminaryo n thef irst draft of of this book at thUe niversity of Virginia. He andh is students insightful remarks made me meditate further. An irreplaceable help came from Nicola Bruno the University of Trieste, who not only translated, but also discussed and of re-organized the text withb rilliant criticism. The fifth chapter, the hinge around which turns ome of the basic ideas of the book, owes most of its articulations to James Cutting of Cornel1 University. Ia m in debt toS usan Milmoe, who patiently and competently permitted the publication of this book, as well as copy editor E.S. Budd for the care, attention and masteryin the tiresome work of text revision. This Page Intentionally Left Blank THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC IMAGES Seeing, Drawing, Communicating