Space,Time and Perspective in Print Culture and Electronic Media

Unpublished, Toronto, 1992.
This paper grew out of a Keynote address at The University of Pennsylvania, "Perspective and Print Culture," First Pennsylvania Symposium on Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies, College Park, September 1987. It was to have been published in a special issue of Canadian Journal of Communications which never materialized.

1. Introduction
2. Standard Claims
3. Painting Practice
    - High Mediaeval (1100-1399)
             Relating Scenes
             Emphasizing Scenes
             Varying Scenes
    - Renaissance (1400-1500)
             High Renaissance (1500-1527)
4. Printed Treatises
    - Contents
            Theoretical Foundations
            Objects
            Buildings
            Environments
            Plays between Reality and Fiction
5. New Interpretation
6. Time and Motion
7. Dynamic Knowledge
8. Conclusions.

1. Introduction
Linear perspective and print culture are two key developments associated with the Renaissance. While separate studies of each topic abound, relatively little attention has been given to connections between them. This essay opens with a review of literature on these connections. A fresh look at the evidence of painting practice and treatises leads to a reassessment of earlier premises and conclusions. It is claimed that perspective is not simply a Renaissance phenomenon; that its temporal and kinetic dimensions actually require electronic media; that these have basic implications for our concepts of knowledge and that a new era in the understanding of perspective is therefore about to begin.