Lines, Perspective, and Blindspots: a Porto-cybernetic Phenomenology in Leonardo da Vinci’s Optics
Résumé
This essay proposes a parallel between the Renaissance approach to the study of perception, in particular visual perception according to Leonardo da Vinci's studies, and the cybernetic approach whereby knowledge is always embodied, and proceeds according to retroaction. Leonardo’s studies on sight, through the concept of 'linia', the construction of the camera obscura and perspective representation, highlight the fact that the eye is a 'picture-making machine', that perspective is at the same time a rationalization but also a denial of anthropocentrism, and that the image is an instrument which doesn’t allow any access to a totality but a contingent knowledge construction.