Primitive Art and Society ed. by Anthony Forge (review)

348 Books malfunctioning of the mechanism that detects the data or by the use of inappropriate strategies or assumptions in interpreting the data. Mechanism illusions, e.g. the Hermann grid and phi movement, are caused by loss of calibration of the detectors due to adaption and mutual inhibition or by other inadequacies of the visual system. Strategy illusions, which include the Ames distorted room, the Necker cube and closure figures, may be due to inappropriate data processing (e.g. mis-use of constancy scaling), fallacious inference from data, oscillation between alternative interpretations of ambiguous information or the postulation of the probable existence of absent data. Using numerous examples, Hinton explains how camouflage , Batesian mimicry (a harmful species mimicking a harmful one) and Miillerian mimicry (two harmful species resembling each other) play an important role in natural selection. The account is revealing and often amusing but the sections dealing with insect diffraction gratings and the ultra-violet absorption characteristics of flowers are rather abstruse and seem to have only a tenuous connection with the subject of illusion. The dependence of pictorial interpretation upon culture is discussed by Deregowski in an excellent review of the published literature. In the following chapter, Gombrich defends his philosophical arguments concerning the visual reality of paintings. He analyses the various techniques used in the pictorial representation of eyes and concludes that art is a form of language that has developed slowly over the centuries. The language is used consciously by the artist but often it produces sub-conscious responses in the viewer. Penrose amplifies this theme by describing the developments in the artistic use of ‘illusion’ during this century. Using a wide variety of well-chosen examples, he shows how pictures and sculpture can convey impressions of space or movement and can evoke emotions ranging from violent anger to intriguing perplexity. These studies provide an extremely thorough and comprehensive analysis of the causes and effects of visual illusion. However, it is remarkable that no mention is made of entasis-the methods used in Greek architecture to compensate for optical illusion. A glossary of scientific terminology should also have been included, so that unexplained terms such as nanometer, fundus oculi and the principle of Occam’s razor do not provide a stumbling block for the general reader. Although many of the topics have been discussed in recent issues of popular science magazines, especially in Scientific American, I feel that the well-written text and the excellent illustrations will make the book a useful addition to both public libraries and private collections. Phiinomen Kund. Herbert W. Franke. (Text in German.) DuMont Schauberg, Cologne, 1974. 214 pp., illus. Paper. DM 8.80. Reviewed by Gerhard Charles Rump* In this book, Franke tries to give a comprehensive introduction to ‘experimental’ or ‘exact’ aesthetics, a subject that has been treated by authors such as Bense, Birkhoff, Fucks, Gunzenhauser and Moles. Most of these authors appear in Franke’s bibliography, which, however, is rather short, although I find that his selection has been made on sound principles. He begins his book with a discussion of ‘Art without Myth’ that is based on understanding aesthetics from the point of view of biology and technology. This approach to aesthetics offers, for the first time, the possibility of verifying statements on the ‘phenomenon of art’. This approach (an unexpected but fascinating side-product of cybernetics (Wiener) and information theory (Shannon)) is not considered by Franke as rivalling the historical approach to aesthetics but as a necessary supplement to it. In the light of experimental aesthetics, art is not an independent mode but only differs in a few specific ways *D53 BONN - Bad Godesberg, Romerstrasse 32, Fed. Rep. Ger. from other means of communication. This view is also shared by semiologists, notably W. A. Koch, who has published a stimulating book Variu Semiotica (Hildesheim : Olms, 1971) in which this question is discussed more deeply. Koch, alas, is not mentioned by Franke. By putting art on the same scale as other means of communication , the interaction of theory and experiment, a vital aspect of the natural sciences, is introduced into aesthetics. It is a pity that Franke’s discussion of certain topics is so brief and that...