Option 1:This option will provide you a chance to integrate some of the different topics we have discussed
in color and spatial vision. Imagine that you see a painting from across a room. At a far distance you can
see a full range of colors and shapes, yet viewed up close you find that the entire painting is made up of
small, separate spots that include only a few colors. Such paintings are characteristic of the pointillist style,
in which “each touch of the brush represents a separate color, set down to mix not on the palette but in the
eye.” (Hartt, F. Art Vol. II, Prentice Hall, New York, 1979, p. 377.)The same principle underlies our
perception of color in a tile mosaic or on a color TV -the many colors and shapes you see on a TV are all
created by varying the brightness of small discrete dots that can only be red, green or blue. In this essay
you should discusshow these dots are “mixed in the eye” and how this mixture of only a few primary colors
can give rise to the many colors that we experience.
The essay grade will be based on the following:1. a brief and clear account of the differences in the retinal
image at the two viewing distances (hint: how does the visual angle of the dots change with viewing
distance?) (25%)2. a brief and clear account of the properties of the eye that influence the change in
perception at the two viewing distances (hint: what limits your acuity -i.e. your ability to resolve the
individual dots -at the far viewing distance?) (25%).3. a brief and clear account of the properties of color
vision that influence the change in perception at the two viewing distances (hint: how do the colors
addtogether when mixing, and what does trichromacy predict about the number of primary (dot) colors
required) (25%)4. writing style: a clear discussion that focuses on the question, grammar, and spelling
(25%)