Professor Robert Pepperell PhD

My current research combines methods from art and science to investigate the nature of visual experience and how it can be represented. I am working with a team of co-researchers, including Alistair Burleigh and Nicole Ruta, to develop a new form of pictorial perspective based on the phenomenology of visual perception. For hundreds of years our culture has relied on the principles of linear perspective to represent the visual world, and this has underpinned our general approach to image making and image technology. However, as we have shown through our research, linear perspective fails to capture key aspects of visual experience. Alternative methods of depicting visual space, many of which have been developed by artists, are more accurate. The goal of our research is to enrich our understanding of how we perceive the world by combining knowledge from science and the arts. We are developing various forms of new media that exploit this knowledge, working to create a form of ‘synthetic vision’ with applications in advertising, gaming, communications, cinematography, and medicine.

View Professor Pepperell’s papers and publications on Cardiff Metropolitan University’s DSpace repository.

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4728-4122

Publications

Pepperell, R. (in press). Being Alive to the World: An Artist’s Perspective on Predictive Processing, in Philosophical Transactions B of the Royal Society, themed issue on Art and Predictive Processin​.

Munar, E., Gustavo, E., Chuquichambi, E., Ruta, N., Alejandro, N., Pepperell, R. (in press) Preference for Curvature in Paintings extends to Museum Context, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.

Ruta, N., Vañó, J., Pepperell, R., Corradi, G. B., Chuquichambi, E. G., Rey, C., & Munar, E. (2023). Preference for paintings is also affected by curvature. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 17(3), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000395

Wang, X., Bylinskii, Z., Hertzmann, A., & Pepperell, R. (2023). A computational approach to studying aesthetic judgments of ambiguous artworks. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000579

Clemente, A., Penacchio, O., Vila-Vidal, M., Pepperell, R., & Ruta, N. (2023). Explaining the curvature effect : Perceptual and hedonic evaluations of visual contour. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000561

Ruta, N., Ganczarek, J., Pietras, K., Burleigh, A., & Pepperell, R. (2023). Non-metric distance judgements are influenced by image projection geometry and field of view. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 17470218231164351. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231164351

Pepperell, R. (2022). Does Machine Understanding Require Consciousness? Frontiers in System Neurosci.16:788486. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.788486.

Pepperell, R. & Burleigh, A. (2022) "The Art and Science of Displaying Visual Space" in London Imaging Meeting, 2022, pp 31 - 35, https://doi.org/10.2352/lim.2022.1.1.08

Pepperell, R., Burleigh, A. & Ruta, N. (2022). Space and Scale in Medieval Painting Reflects Imagination and Perception. Gestalt Theory 44 (1-2):61-78.

Wang, X., Bylinskii, Z., Hertzmann, A. & Pepperell, R. (2021) Toward Quantifying Ambiguities in Artistic Images. Journal of Vision 2021;21(9):2611. doi: https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.21.9.2611.

Pepperell, R., Burleigh, A. & Ruta, N. (2021). Art and the Geometry of Visual Space, in Space-time Geometries in the Brain and Movement in the Arts, in the series "Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis" eds. T. Flash, A. Berthoz & A. Sarti, Berlin: Springer.

Chamberlain, R. & Pepperell, R. (2021) Slow Looking at Slow Art: The Work of Pierre Bonnard. Leonardo 2021; 54 (6): 615–618. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02054

Wang, X., Bylinskii, Z., Hertzmann, A. & Pepperell (2020). Toward Quantifying Ambiguities in Artistic Images.  ACM Transactions in Applied Perception, Special issue for ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP) papers. Volume 17, Issue 406, November 2020,Article No.: 13pp 1–10, https://doi.org/10.1145/3418054​

Pepperell, R. (2019). Problems and Paradoxes of Painting and Perception, Art & Perception, Vol. 7(2-3). 

Pepperell, R., Burleigh, A. & Ruta, N. (2019). Egocentric vision in a 3D game using linear perspective and natural rendering. Proceedings of the British Machine Vision Conference. 

Burleigh, A. & Pepperell, R. (2019). A Method for Generating and Modifying Images of a 3D Scene. International Application Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, WP2019/048825.

Burleigh, A. & Pepperell, R. (2019). A Method of Modifying an Image on a Computational Device. International Application Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, WP2019/048820.

Burleigh, A. & Pepperell, R. (2019). Preserving Object Size and Shape. International Application Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, WO2019/048831.

Burleigh, A. & Pepperell, R. (2019). A Method for Modifying Camera Images. International Application Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, WO2019/048819.

Ruta, N., Burleigh, A. & Pepperell, R. (2019). People are Better at Estimating Distances in Natural Perspective than Linear Perspective. Visual Science of Art Conference, Art & Perception, Vol. 7(4). 

Ruta, N., Burleigh, A. & Pepperell, R. (2019). Does Visual Space Correspond to Imagined Space? European Conference on Visual Perception, Perception, Vol. 48(2S) 1–236.

Pepperell, R. (2018). Consciousness as a physical process caused by the organization of energy in the brain,Frontiers in Psychology,9, 2091.

 Koenderink, J., van Doorn, A. and Pepperell, R. (2018). View From Outside the Viewing Sphere. i-Perception, Vol. 9(3).

Burleigh, A., Pepperell, R. and Ruta, N. (2018). Natural Perspective: Mapping visual space through art and science. Vision. 2(2), 21

Pepperell, R. (2018). 'Art, energy and the brain'. In Christensen, J. & Gomila, A. (eds.) The Arts and the Brain: Psychology and Physiology beyond Pleasure, Progress in Brain Research. Volume 237. London: Elsevier. 

 Burleigh, A., Pepperell, R. and Ruta, N. (2018) 'Fovography: A naturalistic imaging media', In 3D Immersion (IC3D), 2017 International Conference on 3D Immersion (IC3D). Brussels, 11-12 December IEEE 

Smith, C., Burleigh, A., Lambert, N., Pepperell, R., Langford, T. and Veltman, K. (2017). Natural Media Workshop, Electronic Visualisation and the Arts, doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.90.

Pepperell, R. (2017). Imaging Human Vision: An Artistic Perspective, in Human Vision and Electronic Imaging 2017, edited by Bernice E. Rogowitz, Thrasyvoulos N. Pappas, Huib de Ridder, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging.

Ruta, N., Burleigh, A., Vigars, R., Barratt, E. & Pepperell, R. (2016). Evaluating an artistic method for depicting human visual space, Applied Vision Association meeting, London, 19th December 2016.

Ruta, N., Burleigh, A. & Pepperell, R. (2016). Smaller hands, bigger head: a perceptual trend in artistic portraits, Experimental Psychology Society meeting, London, 4th - 6th January 2017.

Pepperell, R. (2016). Sargy Mann, Euan Uglow and subjective realism: the revolutionary achievement of modern British painting, The Collection, Lincoln/Cadogan Contemporary, London.

Pepperell, R. (2016). Where do we see? Perception, Vol. 44(51), p. 73.

Pepperell, R. (2016). Always Learning to See: The Art and Thought of Sargy Mann, Art & Perception, Volume 4, Issue 4, DOI: 10.1163/22134913-00002056.

Baldwin, J., Burleigh, A., Pepperell, R. & Ruta, N. (2016). The Perceived Size and Shape of Objects in Peripheral Vision, i-Perception, July-August 2016 vol. 7 no. 4, DOI: 10.1177/2041669516661900.

Koenderink, J., van Doorn, A., Pinna, B. & Pepperell, R. (2016). Facing the Spectator, i-Perception, November-December 2016, pp. 1–29, DOI: 10.1177/2041669516675181

Zhu, Z., Martin, R. R., Pepperell, R. & Burleigh, A. (2016). 3D Modeling and Motion Parallax for Improved Videoconferencing. Computational Visual Media, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 131-142. DOI: 10.1007/s41095-016-0038-4

Pepperell, R. (2016). Neuroscience and Posthuman Memory, in Memory in the Twenty-first Century: New Critical Perspectives from the Arts, Humanitiesand Sciences, Sebastian Groes (ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 330-33.

Koenderink, J., van Doorn, A., Pinna, B. & Pepperell, R. (2016). Armchair perspective preferences, Art & Perception, 4(1-2), pp. 39-56. DOI: 10.1163/22134913-00002044.

Koenderink, J., van Doorn, A., Pinna, B., & Pepperell, R. (2016). On right and wrong drawings, Art & Perception, 4(1-2), pp. 1-38. DOI: 10.1163/22134913-00002043.

Vano-Vinuales, J., Pepperell, R., Corradi, G. & Munar, E. (2015). Visual Preference for Curvature and Art Paintings: Some Data, Perception, Volume 44, p. 30.
 
Pepperell, R. (2015). Artworks as Dichotomous Objects: Implications for the scientific study of aesthetic experience, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00295.
 
Pepperell, R. and Hughes, L. (2015). As Seen: Modern British Painting and Visual Experience. Tate Papers, Spring 2015.
 
Pepperell, R. & Ishai, A. (2015). ‘Indeterminate Artworks and the Human Brain’, Art, Aesthetics and the Brain, eds. M. Nadal, J. Houston, L. Agnati, F. Mora and C. J. Cela Conde. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 143-153.
 
Pepperell, R. (2015). Egocentric perspective: Depicting the body from its own point of view, Leonardo 48(5), pp. 424-429.

Pepperell, R. and Burleigh, A. (2014). Improvements in and relating to image making. International Patent Treaty Cooperation, WO2014122477 A1.

Baldwin, J, Burleigh, A. and Pepperell, R. (2014). Comparing artistic and geometrical perspective depictions of space in the visual field. i-Perception. Vol. 5, pp. 536-547.

Pepperell, R and Haertel, M. (2014). Do artists use linear perspective to depict visual space? in Perception, 43(5), pp. 395-416

Green, J. and Pepperell, R. (2013). How can visual experience be depicted? A study of close-up double vision, in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education.

Pepperell, R. and Ruschkowski, A. (2013). ‘Double Vision as a Pictorial Depth Cue’, in Art & Perception 1:1.

Manzotti, R. and Pepperell, R. (2013). ‘Denying the content-vehicle distinction: a response to ‘The New Mind Revisited’, in AI & Society, 28:4.

Leonardo, 46:5.

Pepperell, R. (2012) ‘Art and Externalism’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 19, No. 11, Pp. 107-127.

Pepperell, R. (2012) ‘The Perception of Art and the Science of Perception’, in Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XVII, edited by Bernice E. Rogowitz, Thrasyvoulos N. Pappas, Huib de Ridder, Proc. of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 8291, 829113.

Manzotti, R. and Pepperell, R. (2012) ‘The New Mind: Thinking beyond the head’, AI & Society.

Pepperell, R. (2012) ‘Indeterminacy and Realism in Cinema and Art’ in Realism After the European Avant-Garde, ed. Ohlschlager, C.,
Perrone Capano and Borso, V., Verlag Transcript: Biel

efeld.

Pepperell, R. (2011) ‘Connecting Art and the Brain’, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Pepperell, R. (in press) ‘Art and the Extended Mind’ in Aesthetics Beyond the Skin, Exeter: Imprint Academic.

Pepperell, R. (2010) ‘Art Connections to Literature and Science’, in The Routledge Companion to Art, Literature and Science. London: Routledge.

Consciousness Literature and the Arts, Vol. 10 No. 2.

Pepperell, R. (2009). ‘An Information Sublime’, editorial in Leonardo, Vol. 42 No. 5.

Pepperell, R. (2009). ‘Art and the fractured unity of consciousness’ in New Realities: Being Syncretic Consciousness Reframed: The Planetary Collegium’s IXth International Research Conference Series: Edition Angewandte. Ascott, R.; Bast, G.; Fiel, W.; Jahrmann, M.; Schnell, R. (eds.). New York, Vienna: Springer.

Wallraven, C., Kaulard, K., Kürner, C. and Pepperell, R. (2008). In the Eye of the Beholder: The Perception of Indeterminate Art. Leonardo Vol. 41, No. 2.

Wallraven, C., Kaulard, K., Kürner, C., Pepperell, R and Bülthoff, H. (2007). Psychophysics for perception of (in)determinate art. In APGV 2007. New York, NY: ACM Press, pp. 115–122.

Pepperell, R. (2007). Art, Perception and Indeterminacy. Journal of Contemporary Aesthetics, Volume 5.

Pepperell, R. (2007). Manifesto del Posthumano. Dopo l’umano, Kainos 2. Milano: Ediziono Punto Rosso.

Ishai, A., Fairhall, S. & Pepperell, R. (2007) Perception, memory and aesthetics of indeterminate art. Brain Research Bulletin, Volume 73, Issues 4-6, pp. 319-324.

Pepperell, R. (2007). Posthumanismi manifest. Vihik: Journal of the Estonian Literary Society. No. 12: 14-24. Tartu: Eesti Kirjanduse Selts.

Pepperell, R. (2007). Putting Art to the Test. Dialogue, Issue 2. Axis Publications.

Pepperell, R. (2007). Applications for Conscious Systems. AI & Society. Volume 21:3.

Pepperell, R. (2006). Seeing Without Objects: Visual Indeterminacy and Art. Leonardo. Vol. 39:5.

Pepperell, R and Punt, M., (eds) (2006). Screen Consciousness: Mind, World and Cinema. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.

Talks
(2014) ‘Do artists use linear perspective to depict visual space?’ Visual Science of Art Conference, Belgrade.
(2014) ‘Art and Perception as Deception’ Natural History Museum, Oxford.
(2013) ‘Art and visual perception’ European Conference on Visual Perception, Bremen.
(2012) ‘Depicting the Visual Field in Science and Art’, European Conference on Visual Perception, Alghero, Italy.
(2012) ‘Depicting Visual Perception in Science and Art’, First Visual Science of Art Conference, Alghero, Italy.
(2012) ‘The art of perception and the perception of art’ International Symposium of Art and Perception, Institute for Advanced Studies, Paris.
(2012) ‘Rethinking Posthumanism’, Rethinking Humanism, University of St. Andrews.
(2012) The Perception of Art and the science of perception, Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XVII, SPIE, San Francisco.
(2011) Art, Neuroscience and Ontology, Psycho-Ontology Conference, Jerusalem.
(2011) Art and Externalism, Towards a Science of Consciousness, Stockholm
(2011) A Vision-Space Model of Perception, (with John Jupe), Towards a Science of Consciousness, Stockholm
(2011) Kinetica Art Fair, London
(2010) First International Symposium on Illustration, Cardiff
(2010) COGS Research Seminar, University of Sussex.
(2010) Realism and the Avant-Garde, University of Paderborn, Germany.
(2010) Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Annual Conference, University of Oxford,
(2010) The Emergence of the Posthuman Subject, University of Surrey
(2010) Zoototechnics, University of Cardiff
(2010). Art, perception and indeterminacy. Towards a Science of Consciousness, Tucson, University of Arizona.
(2009) Art, indeterminacy and non-duality. Science and Non-Duality Conference. San Francisco, USA.
(2009) Ishai A., Wiesmann M., and Pepperell R. Training Facilitates Object Perception in Cubist Paintings. The 16th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco.
(2009) Ishai A., Wiesmann M., and Pepperell R. Training Facilitates Object Perception in Cubist Paintings. 15th Annual meeting for the Organisation of Human Brain Mapping, San Francisco.
(2008) Ishai A., Wiesmann M., and Pepperell R. Training Facilitates Object Perception in Cubist Paintings. 17th Annual Meeting of The Israel Society for Neuroscience, Eilat.
(2008).Art and the Fractured Unity of Consciousness. Consciousness Reframed 2008, Vienna.
(2007). Posthumanism and the challenge of new ideas. Catalogue text for Hylozoic Soil exhibition by Phillip Beesley, e-art: New Technologies and Contemporary Art, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, 2007.
(2007). From the Human to the Posthuman. Conference of the Science, Technology & Culture Research Group, University of Nottingham.
(2007). Reflections on Looking at a Painting. 11th Annual Conference of the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, Oxford.
(2007). Conscious Awareness of Objects in Indeterminate Art Fairhall, S., Pepperell, R. & Ishai, A. Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness Annual Conference 11, Las Vegas.
(2007). Psychophysics for Perception of (In)determinate Art. Wallraven, C., Kaulard, K., Kürner, C., Pepperell, R and Bülthoff, H.. Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualisation Symposium, Max Planck Institute.
(2007). In the Eye of the Beholder—Perception of Indeterminate Art. Wallraven, C., Kaulard, K., Kürner, C., Pepperell, R and Bülthoff, H. International Symposium on Computational Aesthetics in Graphics, Visualization, and Imaging. Canada.
(2007). The Future of Art. Kinetica Museum, London.
(2007). The Conscious Act of Looking at a Painting. Art and Science Week, University of Exeter.
(2007). Art and Perception. School of Psychology, Cardiff University.
(2006). Mind-Machine-Art. Inaugural lecture, Kinetica Museum, London.
(2006). Object indeterminacy in art compositions, with Ishia, A. and Fairhall, S. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Atlanta.
(2006). An Interdisciplinary Study of Visual Indeterminacy in Painting, with Ishia, A. and Fairhall, S. European Conference on Visual Perception, St Petersburg, Russia.
(2006). An Interdisciplinary Study of Visual Indeterminacy, with Ishia, A. and Fairhall, S. The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness 10th International Conference, University of Oxford.
(2006). The Future of Humanity. Chair of Royal Society of Arts Lecture, London.
(2006). Seeing and Knowing. Department of Neuroradiology. University of Zurich.
(2006). Visual Indeterminacy and Art. Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany.
(2006). Art and Perception. Science in the Dock – Art in the Stocks, National Science Week, Exeter University.

Awards

Research and Enterprise Investment Fund Award, 2014
Academia for Business Award (Wales Government/EU), 2014
Paul Mellon Research Grant (with Dr Louise Hughes), 2014
Research and Enterprise Investment Fund Award, 2013
Research and Enterprise Investment Fund Award, 2012
Academia for Business Award (Wales Government/EU), 2012
SIP with Latcham Direct Ltd, Bristol, 2011
Reverse SIP with Chaos Trend Ltd., Swansea, 2011
Enterprise and Research Award, 2011
Academics for Business Award, 2010
KESS PhD scholarship, 2011-14
Access to Masters Scholarship, 2010-11

Fovography: Developing a new form of image media based on the phenomenology of visual perception. Currently funded by a 3-year award from Cardiff Metropolitan University.

PhD Programme (10 students)
Fine Art Masters (MA and MFA)
BA Fine Art

Supervision of Doctoral Research (titles or broad areas of investigation):
Alise Piebalga: Hybrid Art and Posthumanism
Chris de Selincourt: Where is the mind of the cinema editor?
Craig Thomas: Pre-reflective art
Joe Baldwin: New methods of depicting visual perception
Theo Humphries: Humour and design
Paul March: The shock of the unclear