Letters

Lronurdo. Vol. 1I. pp. 258 264. Pergamon Press Ltd. 1978. Printed in Great Britain LETTERS ANTHONY TONEY’S MEMOIR It is very refreshing to read On Painting Realistically: A Memoir by Anthony Toney Leonarclo 10, 277 (1977). While my own painting concept and style is very different from his, he strikes ii responsive note in his disappointment and disgust with the New York ‘art establishment’, its promoting of trendy and inferior artists and their rejection and slighting of independent artists. The ’art’movements in the chic galleries of New York City come and go much the same as fashionsin women’s clothes. Toney and other independents like him must long for the emergence of more independently oriented galleries in that city. Richard Bowman 17X SpringOtilr Wci), Recluood Citr. C‘A 94062. C‘.S.A. CAN SELF-ACTUALIZATION BE TAUGHT? There seems to me to be a difference between a search for ii viable philosophy of life and trying to ‘find oneself. I myself feel that I m i . so I cannot be ‘1o.sr’. Perhaps it is unkind to suggest that Patricia L.Musick in Paintings and Poetry:A Teaching/Learning Experiencein %lf-Actualization [Lconurch10.3I5 ( I977)I.was on a kind ofego trip: ’Look how self-actualized I am.’ I doubt that her studentswould learn. second-hand. what a self-actualized person is. Maslow’s Towircla P.sdiology ?/Being is not a do-it-yourself .stcrrionpoinr.A general station point, according to research with computers, is one in which incremental changes in station point do not change the topology of the image. From a general station point. the specificity of a line is awesome. If a line is considered an aspect of a 3-dimensional layout of opaque surfaces. and not a strip ofpigment on a sheet of paper, only two objectsin the world can project a line to a moving eye:( I ) the dihedral angle between two surfaces and (2) the edge of a cylinder. A dihedral angle between curved surfaces may project a straight line from a particular station point, but it is the ptirticdor station poinr that the kinetic characteristic of vision and the general station point rule out. Only when all points on a line forming a corner or on a line of an edge remain in line for any chosen spatial reference axes, will segments of the line remain in line on the retina as the eyes change station point. Given these constraints, an evolving visual system would become highly effective if it led a human to interpret the absence of a segment of a continuous line and the termination of a line as due to an occluding surface. The Ware and Kennedy constructions suggest that lines that end with a gradual change in brightness are interpreted as partially occluded by fog. Albert Yonas 1n.stitiitc (I/ C’hill Dorihpnirnt L‘niwrsit), of Minnesotti Minncwpo1i.s. M N 5545.5 U.S.A. O N THE DEPICTION OF IMPOSSIBLE OBJECTS manual. Self-actualization is a continuing process of growth that is not amenable to being taught by any method. Sheldon Richmond‘s discussion of pictured impossibles in Lwricirdo 11, 129(1978). while making frequent reference to my work. can hardly be addressed to anyone who. like me. finds the distinction between impossibility and contingent non-existence utterly uncleiir. Nelson Goodman D C ~ J I o/ Pliilosophy Eniiwori Hull Robin Lardner 443y A ~ l l l c t Al,l,, Cusrro Vullc,j~. ( ‘ A Y4546, U.S.A. THE PHENOMENON OF SUBJECTIVE CONTOURS C. Ware and J. M. Kennedy in Lroncirdo 11, I I 1 ( 1978)report on their fascinating set of 3-dimensional constructions that evoke subjective lines. surfacesand volumes. Subjectivecontours found in these constructions and in certain pictures are important, because they require a theoretical explanation ofthe striking way lincs and their arrangements influence visual perception. At present. no such explanation exists, but recent work in ecological psychology (Gibson) and in digital computer discrimination of visual material (Tennenbaum and Barrow) suggests a direction that ought to be helpful. Let it bc assumed that the human visual system evolved to function as part of an organism that is much of the time in motion...