The Perceptual Structure of Three-Dimensional Art

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Paul M. W. Hackett

   Pages 1-21

3. Sensing the Art Object

   • Paul M. W. Hackett

   Pages 23-43

4. A Mapping Sentence Account of Non-traditional Three-Dimensional Art

   • Paul M. W. Hackett

   Pages 45-52

5. A Partial Ordering Mereology for Non-traditional Three-Dimensional Art

   • Paul M. W. Hackett

   Pages 53-80

6. Conclusions—The Perceptual Structure of Abstract Artwork

   • Paul M. W. Hackett

   Pages 81-91

7. Back Matter

   Pages 93-95

   PDF

This book deals with philosophical aspects regarding the perception of spatial relationships in two and three-dimensional art. It provides a structural understanding of how art is perceived within the space created by the artwork, and employs a mapping sentence and partial order mereology to model perceptual structure. It reviews the writing of philosophers such as Paul Crowther and art theorists such as Krauss to establish the need for this research. The ontological model established Paul Crowther is used to guide an interactive account of his ontology in the interpretations of the perceptual process of three-dimensional abstract art to allow the formulation of a more comprehensive philosophical account. The book uniquely combines structuralist and post-structuralist approaches to artistic perception and understanding with a conceptual structure from facet theory, which is clarified with the help of a mapping sentence and partial order mereology.

• Art Theory
• Facet Theory
• Figure-grounds Relationships
• Mapping Sentence
• Mereological Model for Perceiving and Understanding Art
• Metaphysics

• School of Communication, Emerson College, Boston, USA

  Paul M.W. Hackett

Paul holds PhDs in psychology and fine art. He is a professor teaching ethnography at Emerson College, Boston and is a visiting academic in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He has previously worked at Birmingham, Cardiff and Tufts Universities and has held honorary appointments at institutions such as York University, Toronto, and Birmingham University, UK.

Policies and ethics