ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to report one of Paolo Bozzi’s enquiries that perhaps the one that allows us most fully to appreciate his peculiar approach to the study of visual phenomena, in this case afterimages. Bozzi’s experimental journey through afterimages represents, by way of the shrewd observations and experimental configurations that he proposed, not only to catch very relevant insights about the nature of this phenomenon, but also to precious information about his way of arguing over perceptual facts. Da Pos states that the few occasions that reveal to lay persons the existence of afterimages are those in which, after intense visual stimulation, such as staring at the sun or other particularly strong light sources, persistent bright or dark spots come into view. Richard Gregory offers a definition of afterimage that, with variations, it is quite common to find in psychology manuals: “An image seen immediately after the intense stimulation of the eye by light has ceased.
