Art and Geology: Expressive Aspects of the Desert by Rita D. Abbey, G. William Fiero (review)

Current Literature Edited by Elizabeth Crumley I. Book Reviews Book ReviewPanel:Rudolf Arnheim, Vladimir Bonacic, John E. Bowlt, Donald Brook, Robert Dixon, ElmerDuncan,James A. Goldman,Vic Gray, YusufA. Grillo,JohnG. Hanhardt,Peter Lloyd Jones, Dick Land, SharonLebell, Lin Xiaoping,Leo Narodny,Sean O’Driscoll, Sheila Pinkel,Harry Rand, LordEric Roll,AllanShields, VladimirTamari,DavidTopper,LeonTsao, M. Tsao, Steve Wilson. VISUAL COGNITION Steven Pinkner, ed. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1986. 280 pp. Reviewed by Donald Brook,Visual Arts Discipline, School of Humanities, The Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042, Australia. The purpose of Visual Cognition (an edited reprint of a special issue of Cognition:InternationalJournalof Cognitive Science) is clearly set out in the Editor’s Introduction: to outline the conventional wisdom of the standard textbooks in its field and to correct or to extend that wisdom in the light of significant recent research. The main ‘textbook’ approaches to the problem of shape recognition described and criticized by Pinkner are those of visual recognition by template matching and by means of feature models, Fourier models and structural descriptions. The two most fundamental weaknesses of traditional approaches, it is claimed, are that none of them separate perception and cognition clearly enough, and none pay adequate attention to the function (i.e. the point or purpose) of shape recognition in the lives of organisms. A cognate, although more complex, analysis of the textbook approaches to visual imagery follows. Five papers then set out to make good theeditor’s promise of a more acute criticism or of a more potent supplement to the standard literature. They are: Hoffman and Richards,“Parts of Recognition”;Ullman, “Visual Routines”; Shepardand Hurwitz, “Upward Direction, Mental Rotation and Discrimination of Left and Right Turns in Maps”; Rosslyn, Brunn, Cave and Wallach, “Individual Differences in MentalImageryAbility:AComputational Analysis”; and Farah, “The Neurological Basisof Mental Imagery:AComponential Analysis”. If one grants the editor’s questionable contention that the philosophical issues surroundingperception are largely either settled or irrelevant, theeffectof the book is distinctly optimistic, despite the fact that he has “made no effort to conceal the disagreement and lack of resolution” surrounding many of the issues. These disagreements, he tells us, “are not to be taken as a signof disarray, but as a signof the vigor of a newly revitalized branch of cognitive psychology”. He may be whistling in the dark, but the tune is a lively one. ART AND GEOLOGY: EXPRESSIVE ASPECTS OF THE DESERT by Rita D. Abbey and G. William Fiero. Peregrine Smith Books, P.O. Box 667, Layton, Utah 84041,U.S.A., 1986.96~~. Paper, $16.85. ISBN: 0879052015. Reviewed by Othmar Tobisch, Earth Science Board, Applied Science Board, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, U.S.A. This is an enjoyable and well-produced book on the ambience of the desert as seenfrom the perspectiveof twoobservers, one an artist and the other (trained as) a geologist. The love and reverence that both authors have for the desert as a deeply felt experience, as well as a source of inspiration and curiosity on the workings of nature, is clear. Their desire to make the reader more aware of the natural beauty of the desert and its plethora of texture, color, line, pattern, and so forth, is, I believe, successful. The book reawakened my own desert experiences , and by the end of the book I was longingto dashout intothatdry landscape and re-explore its aesthetic delights. The book is divided into two general sections,oneon “Seeing Art and Nature” and the other, “Elements and Ideas”, in which various aspects such as color, line, etc. are considered through image and word. The color reproductions of both paintingshelief structures and photography appear true. While it isa personal experience whether any piece of visualart moves one or not, I believe most readers will find several if not many of the pieces to be intriguing, personal statements. Indeed, the whole book is a highly personalstatementconcerningtheauthors’ experiences and their translation of their experiences into painting, photography, poetic prose, and poetry. In this regard, I think the title of the book, which is usually the decision of the editors/publishers, couldhavebeen better chosen. The term ‘art’ not only...