I am currently involved in research on implicit recognition of the fractal dimension of natural and synthetic images. This work is motivated by the initial work of Richard Taylor (University of Oregon) showing that paintings by the artist Jackson Pollock have statistical properties similar to those of natural scenes. Taylor's hypothesis is that the aesthetic appeal of Pollock's work derives from its similarity with the scenes in which our visual systems have evolved to function. Indeed, our initial data suggest an aesthetic preference for natural images such as clouds and waves, which share same fractal dimension as the most popular of Pollock's paintings. These data are consistent with a biologically based theory of aesthetics, recently proposed by visual neurphysiologists, that we prefer those shapes and arrangements of shapes which are most effectively processed by our visual system. The present stage of this project is exploring the link between aesthetic preferences and basic visual characteristics such as orientation and spatial frequency in artistic and synthetic images of varying complexity.
Taylor RP Newell B Spehar B Clifford C 2001 "Fractals: A resonance between art and nature?" The Quarterly of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry 1-2 194-197
Spehar B Clifford C 2001 "Aesthetic preferences among simple visual patterns" The Art of Seeing: Visual Science and Art , Australian National University, Canberra
Watts N Bagot R Stapinski L Spehar B 2001 "An oblique effect in aesthetics revisited" The Art of Seeing: Visual Science and Art , Australian National University, Canberra
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