Subjectivity in Contemporary Visualization of Reality: Re-visiting Ottoman miniatures

Abstract

Though Ottoman miniatures are 2D representations, they carry the potential of conveying an individual’s perception in a more detailed manner as compared to 3D perspective renderings. In a typical 2-vanishing-point perspective; objects / subjects drawn in the foreground hide the ones that are located at their back: This phenomenon is called occlusion. In Ottoman miniatures there is no occlusion, all object / subject illustrations are wholistic, there is no partial description of figures. Consequently, you end up with a life form that is the synthesis of individual forms, a sui generis state... This unique visual narrative can be extended to cubist works where multifaceted descriptions are observed.

Another advantage of Ottoman miniatures is that hierarchies of image and image maker are quite clear. Miniatures make use of distance, void, shape, scale relationships and their layout to give a sense of depth in space. Though objectivity is very much valued in visual representation, ideal objectivity is not possible since representations are created by subjects and subjects belong to cultures that have different criteria in forming / perceiving portrayals. Moreover, tools that are used for visual representations usually prove to be narrower than the scope of human perception.

Departing from the point of view explained above, Muta-morphosis is a photography project that is created as an almost surreal visualization stemming from the real. The lack of a single perspectival structure due to multiplicity of perspectives after compressed panoramic imaging, can be linked to Ottoman miniatures, which in turn, connects the global contemporary representation to its local traditional counterpart.

Contributors

Murat Germen

Conference

Publication date: July 2012

Publication date (Print): July 2012

Pages: 15-22

Affiliations

Sabanci University

FASS, Orhanli, Tuzla, 34956, Istanbul, Turkey

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2012.6

Copyright statement: © Murat Germen. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2012), London, UK

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2012)

Conference acronym: EVA

Conference number:

Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 10 - 12 July 2012

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2012.6

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing