Close Encounters--An Artist Shows that Size Affects Shape

Visual perception plays a crucial role in mentaljunetionina. How we see helps determine what we think and what we do. Scientists can peiform lab oratory experiments to aet at the mechanism if seeina, but Denis G. Pelli, a prcjessor if psycholoBJ and neural science. at New York University, has had the happy idea if enlistina the visual arts. Seizina on the unique properties if Chuck Closes remarkable block portraits, in which jaces are bUiltfrom distinct aeometrical units, Pelli dismisses conventional notions if the ways in which size and shape eifJect how we perceive objects. We easily recognize objects of all shapes and sizes, yet no one has any idea how we do it. It seems obviousthat we must see shape in the same way regardless of size, other wise we would recognize Our friend or the letter a differently at each size or viewing distance. I Yet the block portraits by the artist Chuck Close vividly show the size dependence of shape perception. When viewing any of Closes 1987-1997 portraits at