Instrument Five Shadows
Early morning sunlight landing on a version of Instrument Five, with a very dirty dome capturing the image from the surface that normally captures the image.
The Picture Plane’s Picture Plane
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Monthly Archives: April 2012
Cold Bog Diorama
Cold Bog Diorama
While I was digging out the photographs of the Big Horn Sheep diorama I came across this pair I took of the Cold Bog Diorama, also at the Yale Peabody Museum (also by James Perry Wilson). You can see more about this diorama here and here. In the second of these links is an assembly of Wilson’s survey slides. Here (below) is the same assembly done in Bridge/Photoshop, somewhat dissolving the frames and compensating for the faceted picture plane as Wilson’s Dual Grid method would.
Cold Bog Diorama survey
See two posts below for advice on viewing stereoscopic pairs (for the top image).
Big Horn Sheep side view
Big Horn Sheep side view
This is the view I mentioned in the previous post. It is hard to see the form of the diorama shell. It curves towards the viewer quite gently on the left, where it is closer to the viewer, and sharply to the right where it is further away. The pictorial information suggests almost the opposite, so your consciousness is struggling with the assembly. There is a similar problem with the floating shadows from instrument six, which do things that shadows are not supposed to do. We believe shadows so implicitly that we try and put them back where they should be, even though we perceive them to be floating in space.
Usual process for resolving the stereoscopic image (See the post below if you are new to the blog).
More on the Big Horn Sheep
Big Horn Sheep (normal)
Big Horn Sheep (mirrored)
Here are two more views of the Big Horn Sheep group at the Yale Peabody Museum, with a background painting by James Perry Wilson. The top view is the right way round for the diorama and the lower one is mirrored – the correct way round for the original site near Banff in the Canadian Rockies. Again, if anyone recognises the exact location I would be grateful to hear from you.
It is hard to see the curve of the background shell in these views so I will assemble a slightly sideways stereoscopic view to see if that helps, and will post it if it does.
Employ the usual technique to resolve the stereoscopic images – make them small enough so that when you go cross eyed you can register the same sheep over each other when you go cross-eyed. You will see three images as you do this – concentrate on the middle one and try to relax. You can buy glasses (lorgnettes) to help resolve them and these definitely help when the images are larger, but I find I get a better three dimensionality when working without them.
IPS Filler
Institute for Paradoxical Shadows detail
An extra detail.
Institute for Paradoxical Shadows
Institute for Paradoxical Shadows
An earlier view of the Institute for Paradoxical Shadows. It is developing the full size implications of instrument Six, shown below.
Instrument Six in real-time floating shadow mode
Instrument Six in research (photographic) mode
Stereoscopic view of floating shadow from Instrument Six
To view the floating shadow make sure the image is small enough to register the shadow in the left image over the one in the right hand image when you go cross-eyed (you will see three images – concentrate on the middle one). Try to relax to get a good three-dimensional view. You will see that the shadow sits a short way off the surface in which you would expect it to land.
Big Horn Sheep
Big Horn Sheep
Big Horn Sheep
Big Horn Sheep
A few posts ago (here) I asked if anyone knew the location that this diorama at the Yale Peabody Museum represents. It is near Banff in the Canadian Rockies and one suggestion since then is that it is in the Bow Valley where Banff resides (thank you Mr. Bergem). Here are some snaps of the diorama (check against the survey photograph) that you can see has been mirrored. It is a wonderful diorama so if you are in New Haven do make sure you se it! There are others there, especially the Longshore diorama, that will also make the trip worthwhile.
Again, if anyone recognizes the exact location of the site (reversed) I would be very grateful to hear from you. Below is J.P.Wilson’s test drawing on a model of the diorama. You can see the projection lines for his dual-grid system of diorama projection on the model floor.
Big Horn Sheep
Nat Chard 