Imagination refers to an unreal object/scene and related event(s) that (ostensibly) exist only in the human mind, but can nevertheless (potentially) be captured and viewed using a visual technique such as with optical/technical and graphical perspective (or at least aspects of the unreal object/scene can potentially be captured, represented, and viewed, etc). That is, we can produce a visual image of the imaginary object/scene using overt perspective methods/techniques.
Indeed, overt perspectivisation of imaginary spatial reality may be a major part of how humans are able to cogitate. Great thinkers like Galileo, Newton, and Einstein were all visual thinkers who applied perspective to create mental models and also overt images of spatial situations.
Perspectivisation
Perspectivisation is framing content from a specific viewpoint (spatial or not). It shapes how information is presented and understood in various contexts.
In cognitive linguistics, perspectivisation refers to how a speaker mentally conceptualizes and visually “views” a scene or event. It encompasses:
- Vantage Point: The spatial or mental position from which an observer views the scene.
- Deixis: Words (like this/that, here/there, come/go) that anchor the subject in space and time relative to the speaker.
- Subjectivity vs. Objectivity: How much the speaker’s own feelings or physical presence intrudes into the description of the event
Visual Image
A visual image is a visual representation of a spatial reality, whereby we have an object or target space that may have two independent dimensions (2-D), or three independent dimensions (3-D), and a corresponding image space that may likewise be 2-D or 3-D.
A perspective image is defined as a visual image formed by a category of optical perspective that works to view, match, represent, make an illusion of, or apparent immersion into, spatial reality (ref. physical, mathematical, graphical, instrument, imaginary, artificial and New Media/digital reality).
Goals of optical perspective <IMAGING CLASS>:
- View: look at a spatial reality—capture/prescribe/observe
perspective images of a 3-D scene. - Match: measure a spatial reality—figure/survey/classify/
match/cross-match perspective images of a 3-D scene. - Represent: copy a spatial reality—model/index/link/mix/
explore perspective images of a 3-D scene. - Illusion/Immersion: false impression of viewer place, false
object dimensionality: size, depth, transparency, etc.
Visual Image Kinds
An image form can be two-dimensional or 2-D, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or a three-dimensional form, such as a carving, 3-D model, or sculpture (or even a 3-D computer CAD model).
Images may be created, stored, transferred, and displayed on various optical and physical media, including captured by film camera and then displayed/projection on a physical surface, or else be created/captured/manipulated/displayed through digital cameras, computer systems and computer displays.
Images can be reproduced through mechanical means, such as photography, printmaking, or photocopying, or they can be created/reproduced on optical and digital media, for example existing as digital or CGI images/data on a computer system. Images can also be moving images or be animated images through digital or physical processes. A volatile image exists briefly and may arise from a mirror, camera obscura, or display. A fixed image, or hard copy, is recorded on material like paper, while a mental image exists in one’s mind as memory or imagination.
A live image is suspended in space, or observed directly (produced by visual or light rays reflected from objects in physical reality), whereby said image is fleeting, ‘virtual’, or temporary, and cannot be easily recorded. For example, it includes images formed by the human eye and by looking through a lens, telescope, or spyglass. It can sometimes correspond to a virtual image that cannot be projected onto a surface.
Eidetic Image
An eidetic image is a clear, detailed mental image of a visual scene that someone can recall for a short time after the event. People with eidetic imagery are called eidetikers, and eidetic imagery has been a source of inspiration for artists.
Characteristics
- Eidetic images are vivid and can be recalled with great accuracy
- Eidetikers can recall details like colours, shapes, and patterns
- Eidetikers can visualise and relive memories like snapshots
- Eidetic imagery is more common in children than adults
Principles
- Eidetikers continue to see a visual scene even though they know it’s no longer there
- Eidetikers describe the image as if it’s still present
Distortions and limitations
- Eidetic imagery is not perfect and can be distorted or have additions
- Vocalisation can interfere with the memory
Images and Imagination are Linked
Images and imagination are linked through neural pathways in the human brain; whereby imagining activates the brain’s sensory and visual regions, creating a mental workspace for recombining images into new ideas. This connection relies on key cognitive and neurological mechanisms.
Links between images and Imagination
- Neural Overlap (The Mind’s Eye): When you see an object, your eyes send signals to the visual cortex, assembling lines and shapes. In reverse, visual imagination involves the prefrontal cortex retrieving memories and sending feedback to recreate absent objects in your mind.
- Mental Synthesis: Imagination combines familiar elements—like a horse and a horn—to create new images, such as a unicorn, with the prefrontal cortex activating numerous neurons in this process.
- The Reality Threshold: Why don’t we constantly hallucinate if imagination activates the same neural networks as seeing? The brain uses a “reality threshold” to evaluate neural signals.
The Spectrum of Visualization
- Hyperphantasia: A condition where the brain can conjure visual images that are almost photo-realistic in intensity.
- Aphantasia: The inability to form any voluntary mental images at all. Those with this condition imagine the world using abstract concepts or inner speech rather than pictures.
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