Composite Perspective

Composite Perspective is a multi-category perspective process, system, image or environment produced when two or more Perspective Categories operate in sequence or combination.

Within Perspective Category Theory (PCT), a perspective image or view does not necessarily arise from one isolated process. Natural, optical, mathematical, graphical, instrument-based, simulated, computational and perceptual processes may all contribute to the formation of a single perspective system or image.

Composite Perspective provides a way of describing this complete multi-category arrangement.

In simple terms:

two or more Perspective Categories operating together or in sequence → Composite Perspective

Composite Perspective within Perspective Category Theory

Perspective Category Theory distinguishes the principal source or mode of a perspective process through Perspective Categories.

The principal categories are:

Natural Perspective;
Visual Perspective Type 1;
Optical Perspective;
Mathematical Perspective;
Graphical Perspective;
Instrument Perspective;
Simulated Perspective; and
New Media Perspective.

Visual Perspective Type 2 is the human retinal and perceptual subclass within the broader Visual Perspective Type 1.

These categories are not mutually exclusive. Several may contribute to one perspective process, system, image or view. When this occurs, the resulting multi-category arrangement can be described as Composite Perspective.

A basic example of Composite Perspective

A photographed and digitally displayed scene provides a straightforward example.

The complete process may be represented as:

Natural scene → Optical and Instrument imaging → New Media processing → Instrument or New Media display → Visual Perspective Type 2

This may involve:

Natural Perspective within the original physical scene;
Optical Perspective as light travels from the scene and forms an image;
Instrument Perspective through the camera;
New Media Perspective during digital processing;
Instrument or New Media Perspective during display; and
Visual Perspective Type 2 when the resulting image is viewed and perceived by a human observer.

The final image or visual experience is therefore not the product of one Perspective Category. It emerges from a multi-category perspective system.

Composite Perspective and Category Chaining

Category Chaining occurs when two or more Perspective Categories operate sequentially while an image is formed, processed, displayed or viewed.

Composite Perspective is the broader multi-category process, system, image or environment that results when several categories operate in sequence or combination.

The relationship can therefore be expressed as:

Category Chaining = categories operating sequentially
Composite Perspective = the resulting multi-category process, system, image or environment

Category Chaining is consequently one important means by which Composite Perspective arises.

Composite Perspective can also occur where several categories operate together rather than strictly one after another.

Composite Perspective and Category Overloading

Category Overloading is another related but distinct concept.

Category Overloading occurs when the same perspective term, type or process legitimately belongs to more than one top-level Perspective Category.

Linear Perspective, for example, may be Mathematical because it is governed by geometrical relationships, Graphical when constructed in a drawing, Optical when comparable convergence occurs in an optical image, Simulated when physical objects are arranged according to its apparent rules, or New Media when calculated and rendered digitally.

The distinction is therefore:

Category Overloading = one term, type or process belonging to several categories
Composite Perspective = several categories participating in a multi-category process, system, image or environment

A Composite Perspective system may contain individual processes that are themselves category-overloaded.

Single and Composite Perspective

Perspective systems can be distinguished according to whether one or several principal Perspective Categories are involved.

Single Perspective involves one principal Perspective Category within an image chain, system, view or image.

Composite Perspective involves two or more Perspective Categories operating sequentially or in combination.

This distinction concerns the categorical organisation of the complete perspective system rather than merely the appearance of its final image.

A visually simple image can therefore still be Composite Perspective if several different perspective processes were involved in producing and displaying it.

Composite Perspective and Synthetic Perspective

Composite Perspective and Synthetic Perspective are closely related, but they are not identical.

Composite Perspective formally identifies the multi-category arrangement: two or more perspective categories or processes participate in producing a perspective system, image, view or environment.

Synthetic Perspective describes the unified visual or perceptual outcome produced when two or more perspective categories or processes combine.

The distinction can therefore be summarised as:

Composite Perspective = multi-category organisation or process
Synthetic Perspective = unified visual or perceptual outcome

A Composite Perspective system may consequently produce a Synthetic Perspective appearance when its different constituent processes combine into a perceptually unified image or spatial view.

Composite Perspective and Combined Perspective

Combined Perspective is a more specific form of Composite Perspective.

Combined Perspective occurs when two or more distinct views, images, perspective methods or spatial constructions are intentionally joined, superimposed or presented together within one view or image.

Examples may include:

a direct view of physical reality with a graphical or optical overlay;
an augmented-reality view combining the external scene with displayed information;
two or more scene spaces intentionally joined into an apparently unified image;
image compositing;
mirrors, mattes or projected backgrounds combining different perspective spaces.

The relationship is therefore:

Composite Perspective = broad multi-category process
Combined Perspective = intentional combination of distinct views, images, methods or perspective spaces within one presented view

Combined Perspective is therefore a subtype of Composite Perspective.

Composite Perspective and Mixed Perspective

Mixed Perspective describes a different relationship.

Composite Perspective concerns the participation of two or more Perspective Categories.

Mixed Perspective concerns a system in which the two basic directional Perspective Classes—Viewing or Imaging and Projecting—both operate.

The distinction can therefore be stated simply:

Composite Perspective = multiple categories
Mixed Perspective = both directional classes

A perspective system may be both Composite and Mixed. For example, a system might involve Optical, Instrument and New Media Perspective while also capturing an image and subsequently projecting or displaying it.

Composite Perspective in photography

Even an apparently ordinary photograph can involve Composite Perspective when the complete image-making and viewing system is considered.

The photographed scene may first possess Natural Perspective. Optical processes transfer light from the scene towards the camera. The camera introduces Instrument Perspective. Its image geometry may also involve Mathematical Perspective, while subsequent image manipulation may introduce New Media Perspective.

The photograph may then be printed or displayed and ultimately viewed through Visual Perspective Type 2.

The completed photographic experience is therefore potentially a chain of several Perspective Categories rather than a single photographic process considered in isolation.

Composite Perspective in cinema

Cinema provides particularly clear examples of Composite Perspective because many different spatial and imaging processes can contribute to a single shot.

A film scene may combine:

real architecture or physical scenery;
Natural Perspective;
Forced or Simulated Perspective;
Optical and Instrument Perspective through the camera;
Mathematical or Graphical Perspective;
digital compositing;
computer-generated imagery;
New Media Perspective;
projection or electronic display; and
Visual Perspective Type 2 during viewing.

The finished shot may nevertheless appear to the spectator as one coherent spatial image.

Composite Perspective helps identify the different perspective processes underlying that apparently unified result.

Composite Perspective images

A Composite Perspective Image is a perspective image formed through more than one Perspective Category.

The term can also describe images assembled from multiple image segments or views that are separately captured and subsequently joined using optical, graphical or digital techniques.

Such images may employ:

image overlays;
spatial overlays;
masks;
mirrors;
segmented fields of view;
digital compositing;
front projection; or
rear projection.

Different component images or perspective spaces may be combined so that the resulting image appears to present one scene, even though its constituents originate through different processes, viewpoints or spatial arrangements.

Composite Perspective and New Media

Composite Perspective becomes especially important in New Media Perspective.

Computational systems can integrate photographs, maps, satellite imagery, graphical models, computer-generated imagery, optical recordings, simulations and interactive three-dimensional environments within a single system.

Each source may involve different Perspective Categories, Types and Forms. These can then be linked, processed, transformed, displayed and explored computationally.

Virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, computer vision, digital imaging and computer-generated environments can therefore involve complex Composite Perspective systems in which several perspective processes contribute to one visual environment.

Composite Perspective as process and system

Composite Perspective should not be understood merely as a visible mixture of different image styles.

Its primary definition concerns the organisation of the complete perspective process or system.

Several Perspective Categories may contribute even when their individual effects cannot easily be distinguished in the finished image.

A photograph displayed digitally may look completely ordinary, for example, while nevertheless embodying Natural, Optical, Instrument, Mathematical, New Media and Visual Perspective processes.

The concept therefore allows the underlying perspective system to be analysed independently of whether its categorical components remain visibly distinct in the final image.

A secondary meaning of Composite Perspective

The Dictionary of Perspective also records a second usage of Composite Perspective.

In this secondary sense, Composite Perspective refers to a scene containing multiple principal or primary vanishing points resulting from the overlay or compositing of multiple perspective views.

The constituent views may have been produced at different times or from different viewpoint positions, so that each possesses a separate principal vanishing point.

This usage relates particularly to multi-view, multi-plane and non-unified perspective constructions.

It should be distinguished from the primary PCT definition of Composite Perspective as a multi-category perspective process, system or image.

Why Composite Perspective matters

Many modern images and viewing systems are far more complex than their finished appearance suggests. A single image may pass through physical, optical, instrumental, graphical, mathematical, simulated, digital and perceptual stages.

Classifying such an image solely as photographic, graphical, optical or digital can therefore conceal much of the perspective system that actually produced it.

Composite Perspective provides a framework for recognising:

the participation of several Perspective Categories;
categories operating sequentially through Category Chaining;
categories operating together within one system;
individual processes possessing multiple categorical memberships;
the relationship between multi-category processes and their visual outcomes; and
the increasingly complex perspective structures of modern imaging and New Media systems.

Composite Perspective is therefore a fundamental concept within Perspective Category Theory because it identifies the multi-category perspective process, system, image or environment produced when several Perspective Categories operate in sequence or combination.