The Skin of Things

Special Issue on the Skin of Things

Art and Perception recently published our special issue that organized after the first Skin of Things meeting. Because the journal is unfortunately not open access we have gathered the unedited manuscripts and would like to share them here. The DOI link brings you to the journal, the Preprint link to the manuscripts.

• Boulton, P. and Hall, P. (2020). Under material skin lie the bones of identity. Art Percept. 8 DOI, Preprint.

• De Corte, H. (2020). Selective preparation of canvas as an ‘artistic device’ in David Hockney’s early paintings (1964–1972); Impact of this hybrid priming technique on perception by the viewer, with a particular focus on Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) and Mt. Fuji and Flowers. Art Percept. 8 DOI, Preprint.

• Di Cicco, F., Wiersma, L., Wijntjes, M, and Pont, S. (2020). Material properties and image cues for convincing grapes: The know-how of the 17th-century pictorial recipe by Willem Beurs. Art Percept. 8 DOI, Preprint

• Pottasch, C. (2020). Frans van Mieris’s painting technique as one of the possible sources for Willem Beurs’s treatise on painting. Art Percept. 8 (this issue). DOI, Preprint

• Ritchie, J.B. and Van Buren, B. (2020). When scenes look like materials: René Magritte’s reversible figure–ground motif. Art Percept. 8 (this issue). DOI, Preprint.

• Romand, D. (2020). ‘Konrad Lange on ‘the illusion of materials’ in painting and visual arts: Revisiting a psychoaesthetic theory of the perception of material properties’. Art Percept. 8 (this issue). DOI, Preprint.

• Schmidt, F. (2020). The art of shaping materials. Art Percept. 8 DOI, Preprint.

• Wiersma, L. (2020). ‘Colouring’ — Material depiction in Flemish and Dutch Baroque art theory. Art Percept. 8 (this issue). DOI, (no Preprint because Open Access).

• Wijntjes, M.W.A., Spoiala, C. and De Ridder, H. (2020). Thurstonian scaling and the perception of painterly translucency. Art Percept. 8 DOI, Preprint.

Introduction

In the art of painting the rendering of space has always been considered of great importance, and perspective, shading and foreshortening have been widely studied. The rendering of materials is quite another matter. It was equally deemed essential for the art painting in the past, but it has received little scholarly or scientific attention until now. This symposium will be devoted both to the art historical aspects of the pictorial evocation of materials, and to the psychology and perception of material properties.

Besides a selection of invited speakers, we welcome proposals for contributions about representing material from both the fields of art history, perceptual studies and computer graphics.

Scope

In the case of art history we are thinking about topics as painterly techniques, theories of still life, or the development of different styles for depicting materials. In terms of period and region, some emphasis will be on the art of painting in 17th century Europe.

In the field of vision science we are looking forward to contributions concerned with material perception and rendering. We welcome recent findings in texture, material, shape, colour or light perception and rendering that may increase our understanding of how painters depict these. Also research using artefacts (like paintings) to gain novel insights into perception is much appreciated. Furthermore, we would like to organise an extra session concerned with art annotation and/or digital art history, depending on the number of contributions in this area.

If you feel in doubt whether your contribution would fit our scope, please feel free to contact us (e.g. m.w.a.wijntjes@tudelft.nl or J.F.H.J.Stumpel@uu.nl).

Venue and accommodation

Extended venue info

The symposium will take place in the ‘Ateliergebouw’ of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Accommodation is not included, but should be relatively easy to arrange since the venue is in the center of Amsterdam.

Program (preliminary)

Monday 26 November

Tuesday 27 November

Wednesday 28 November

Poster programme

Instructions for presentations

Oral presentations

We categorised your presentations in themes, feel free to be inspired! Furthermore, at the end of the sessions we schedule a 20 minute plenary discussion to find parallels across talks and theme and maybe discuss related art works. Your own talks lasts 20 minutes including time for questions.

Poster presentations

The heart of the symposium! We will have a long lunch and poster discussion on Tuesday. To get everyone informed well, we would like to show previews for which we need a visual, instructions will follow later. Importantly, your poster is A0, portrait orientation.

Registration

Registration is open here. The registration fee (50 euro) covers coffee and lunch. If you are not on the list (use the email address that you used for correspondence), please contact us. Seats are limited and we will review your request on the basis of matching interest/expertise.

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research in funding this symposium.

Special issue in Art and Perception

After the symposium you are invited to submit a manuscript to a special issue in Art and Perception, more info will be shared at a later moment. Note that this will entail an independent manuscript submission process. Participation to the workshop is neither necessary nor a guarantee for acceptance.

Organising committee

• Maarten Wijntjes (m.w.a.wijntjes@tudelft.nl)
• Sylvia Pont
• Jeroen Stumpel
• Lisa Wiersma
• Francesca Di Cicco
• Mitchell van Zuylen
• Cristina Spoiala
• Ann-Sophie Lehmann