Description

The Engineering of Vision from Constructivism to Computers by Lev Manovich

The dissertation presents a history of modern ideas about vision. I believe that vision is
not a timeless concept; rather, each period understands vision differently depending on how it is
used. In the twentieth century, vision acquired new roles as the medium of mass communication
and the instrument of labor, and, as any other productive tool, it was subjected to engineering,
rationalization and automation. Such new disciplines as applied experimental psychology and
cognitive science, communication engineering and film, robotics, and advertising design
continue to search for ways to utilize vision productively. In the process, they generate new
knowledge about vision, at the same time reducing it to a few disjoined and limited models. The
dissertation chapters follow the development of four such models: vision as a code, vision as a
means of logical reasoning, vision as a way to capture spatial information, and vision as
information processing.