PS-REP-174 · r1
REPRESENTATION
OBSERVED
ENGAGED · ONGOING
DEPTH DRAWN FLAT
The picture gained a dimension and lost the ability to say exactly where anything is.
01 DEFINITION
Condition in which a spatial arrangement is presented on a flat surface, so the added dimension is inferred rather than read, and every device that restores it — a line dropped to the ground, a cast shadow, a grid to count against — spends part of the picture on saying where things are instead of what they are.
02 CONDITIONS
UNCERTAINTY
MISSING
The dimension being judged is not stated by the surface; it is reconstructed by the reader.
TIME PRESSURE
SHORT
The judgement is made at the moment the position matters, from the impression available then.
ERROR ASYMMETRY
ASYMMETRIC
Reading a position as nearer than it is and as further than it is do not cost the same.
OPERATOR STATE
DEDICATED
The operator is reading this picture and no other, so the projection is the whole account.
03 WHERE IT APPEARS
MEDICALA volume reconstructed on a flat display is read for distances that the projection can only suggest, and the suggestion is what the judgement rests on.
CONSTRUCTIONA model shown in perspective is used to decide clearances, and the perspective is exactly what makes a clearance look adequate.
AVIATIONSeparation in a dimension the screen does not have is inferred from cues placed there to stand in for it.
ENERGYSubsurface structure drawn on a flat surface is read for depth, and every aid that makes depth readable covers something else.
MANUFACTURINGAssemblies inspected in perspective hide interference along the axis the view is pointing down.
DEFENSEElevation is judged from a projection that cannot state it, using marks added for that purpose.
04 WHAT AEON WORKED THROUGH HERE
Height was the thing being judged and height was the thing the surface could not state. Every fix for it worked and took room from the picture it was fixing. The work went into which parts of the space have to be exactly readable and which can be left to the impression.
The question it keeps returning to is what a flat picture owes about its own projection — the reader who has learned to trust the impression is the one who will not notice the moment it stops being reliable.