Reality and Illusion

To paraphrase Einstein:  Space is what keeps everything from happening at the same place, and stereoscopic imaging helps us visualize space.  The concept of space, or distance, is so fundamental, that a tentative understanding of our perception of it has taken the human race centuries. Stereoscopic imaging heightens our perception of space and it is so fundamental to our existence that any idea that the stereoscopic cinema is a passing fad is ridiculous.

Stereoscopic Movies: Conventional Wisdom

People are now learning how to look at stereoscopic moving images just as there was a time, a century ago, when people learned how to look at movies.  I’ve read that when motion pictures were first projected, if the composition didn’t include the entire actor – say they were cut off at the knees – people were taken aback by the effect, thinking that this was an image of an amputee. It took a bit of time to get away from composing a shot to look like the entire theater stage. There are stories about the Lumières projecting a movie of a locomotive headed towards the camera with the audience fleeing the projection in terror. 

Glossary

In any discipline, nomenclature turns out to be of obvious importance.  It’s crucial for all the people who are doing the thing to agree on the same set of definitions.  Without that, it’s impossible to communicate – or it’s impossible to communicate without ambiguity. 

Radio Flashback

One morning recently, on the way to high school, my son Noah and I listened to the song One Toke Over the Line.  It’s a toe-tapper from the ’60s, but despite its sweet sing-songy melody and seemingly ingenuous lyrics I wouldn’t discount it.  Driving the Honda on Riverside it brought back the ’60s for me. It’s an epoch that extended from, in my estimation, 1965 to 1972.  For a few moments I reflected on what it was like to be alive a little more than 40 years ago.