ABSTRACT
Illusion and art are uneasy bedfellows. This is largely because an illusion short-circuits language while art can only be said to be effective when it manipulates and anticipates language, so illusion tricks the mind while art must persuade the mind. Perspective links the two because it is an idea that seeks to formalise the behaviour of an illusion and in doing so takes on some of the characteristics of language and therefore the potential for being manipulated within the field of art. Perspective organises the apprehension of depth by recognising the shapes which objects adopt when they are described in a theoretical space which is, in reality, a flat, two-dimensional picture plane. Perspective is an agent of picturing and a picture is the product of a relationship forged between the particular and the general – the object and its surroundings. Objects are those things that are identifiable by being named, or recognised, as significant bits of the continuum. We notice them. We also notice their relationship one with another in space because this relationship affects their appearance.
