Visual Science: An Emerging Discipline
Gary R. Bertoline
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

Abstract
The emergence of computer graphics as a powerful medium to communicate information is one of the primary reasons graphics is playing a larger role in engineering, science, and technology. Such a powerful medium has emerged from many sources. The author suggests that there is a philosophical foundation and a unique body of knowledge necessary for a discipline called visual science.

This emerging discipline has as its foundation cognitive visualization, imaging, and geometry. These three areas when combined provide the knowledge base for visual science. The applications for visual science can be grouped into two areas: artistic and technical.

It is only through the development of this emerging discipline that all graphics related activities will be viewed within the context of a common discipline: visual science. All those professionals and practitioners in the many graphics related fields can, for the first time, share their common interests. It is hoped that an international effort can be started to further define and validate the emerging discipline of visual science.

Introduction
There are many well recognized disciplines that have developed beginning with the ancient Greek society. Mathematics, physics, biology, language, and others are recognized by educators and laymen. There is little argument that these disciplines have a basic body of knowledge that most societies feel are an important part of their respective educational systems. The same cannot be said of graphics.

Why is learning mathematical equations more important than learning about descriptive geometry and visualization? One reason can be traced to the ancient Greek philosophers who emphasized the importance of thinking skills over hand skills. Anything done with the hand was considered menial and fit only for slaves. This attitude was carried forward into the Middle Ages and later, as more formal systems of education were developed. As the knowledge base for graphics began to develop it was done by many different people scattered throughout Europe. No center for graphics knowledge seemed to emerge that could have promoted the development of a formal discipline.

This has resulted in graphics having no single home in higher education today. If you look at where graphics is taught and how it is used on a typical college campus in the USA, you will find many fields of study teaching some form of graphics or using it for their own reasons. Typically, you can find graphics being taught in engineering, art, architecture, technology, science (medical illustration), and others. This diversity indicates that graphics is an important part of many disciplines. However, what is most distressing is that there is no graphics department that makes an attempt to integrate these activities and serve as the knowledge base for all.

The Domains of Knowledge
The justification that visual science is in fact a distinct body of knowledge is accomplished by putting it in context with the existing knowledges. This is done by evaluating other knowledges and studying the history and philosophical base used to develop the educational systems of Europe and the United States of America (Bertoline & Pleck, 1990; Schubert, 1986; Tyler, 1950).

Aristotle was one of the first philosophers to classify knowledge. He categorized knowledge into the theoretical, practical, and the productive disciplines. Theoretical disciplines included mathematics, natural science, and metaphysics. The practical disciplines included ethics, politics, and human conduct. The productive disciplines were the fine arts, applied arts, and engineering.

Modern philosophers have grouped human knowledge using categories similar to Aristotle. Most agree that there are a number of core knowledges that are fundamental to the development of other knowledges. These fundamental knowledges are: Language, mathematics, and logic. (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Domains of Knowledge

Language is defined as the expression and communication of emotions or ideas between human beings by means of speech and hearing. Language consists of speaking, reading, and writing. Language is far more than an area of study. It is our primary means of communicating with each other. Logic is the science concerned with the principles of valid reasoning and correct inference, either deductive or inductive. Mathematics is the study of number, form, arrangement, and associated relationships, using literal, numerical, and operational symbols.

These formal or global knowledges are the base for our intelligence and give humans the ability to learn secondary knowledge. The next level in this hierarchy are the secondary knowledges which are grouped into: Science and humanities. Figure 1 shows some examples of secondary knowledges. Humanities or liberal arts is defined as those branches of knowledge, such as philosophy, literature, and arts, that are concerned with human thought and culture. Science is defined as the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. These activities can be restricted to a class of natural phenomena or applied to an object of inquiry or study. Examples include: astronomy, chemistry, physics, earth and atmosphere, life, and social, which includes sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, political science, and history.

Notice that visual science is added to the list of sciences in Figure 1. Visual science is categorized as a secondary science knowledge because graphics, the visual process and its scientific verification, involves a large and unique body of knowledge that is different from other secondary knowledges. In fact, the visual mode is so important to the learning process that it could be argued that visual science is one of the fundamental knowledges as is language, mathematics, and logic. However, visual science can more easily be justified as a secondary knowledge which is where it is placed within the domains of knowledge hierarchy.

Visual Science
Universities divide knowledges into various disciplines and form colleges, schools or departments for those disciplines that have common attributes. Normally, the graphics disciplines are scattered throughout the university. For example, graphic design departments are sometimes located in an art school or department; engineering graphics in schools of engineering or technology. Even when graphics is placed in departments, such as engineering, the subject and the faculty are viewed as being somehow different from the rest of the faculty and discipline. The same could be said for graphics in schools of technology and in schools of art. Graphics is recognized as important in engineering, technology and the arts, but not on the same level as other disciplines within that school.

Approximately eighty percent of our sensory input comes from our visual system. Much of what we learn and experience is through our visual sense. Much of our technological world could not exist without the use of graphics to plan, produce, market, and maintain goods and services. There is a tremendous amount of information that is associated with producing good graphics. Color theory, projection theory, cognitive visualization, and geometry are a few examples of what is needed to plan and produce graphics. Graphics is used to communicate and store information, solve problems, and affect the senses. Graphics is an integral part of the human experience.

Graphics and all that it encompasses is a unique body of knowledge that should be studied, practiced and scientifically verified. This body of knowledge, called visual science, can be defined, is significant, and is mutually exclusive from other disciplines and should be placed with the sciences as a secondary domain of knowledge. The term graphic science is not used because the word graphic by definition is limited to text and pictures. The word visual was chosen because it is a broader term that encompasses not only text and pictures but anything that is seen or able to be seen by the eye.

Visual science is defined as the study of the processes that produce images in the mind. Visual science has at least three major categories: geometry, cognitive visualization and imaging. (Figure 2) These three categories form the foundation for any field of study related to the visual sciences. For example, an engineering design graphics course should have elements of all three areas.

Cognitive Visualization
Visualization is the ability to mentally create and edit visual information. Visualization is based on three cognitive processes: visual cognition, visual production, and visual resolve. Visual cognition is the ability to mentally comprehend, store, retrieve, create and edit visual information. Visual production is creating, editing, communicating, and comprehending visual products. Visual resolve is comprehending the termination of a visual activity. Visualization is the entire visual-mental process which includes perception and memory and continues to operate throughout the primary stages of visual production and visual resolve. (Figure 3) All stages are hierarchical, are in continuous operation during the stages, and are influenced by competency levels within them (Wiley, 1989).

Figure 2. The Visual Science Subject Matter and Applications

An individual’s visual literacy at any level has a compounding effect which directly influences competency at higher levels. So visualization should be a continuous goal of formal graphics education throughout all stages of visual learning. Just as language can be broken into various aspects such as grammar and semantics, and mathematics into algebra and calculus, the visual language must be broken into discrete elements which can be learned and manipulated to bring about desired results. Modern tools and techniques make it more important for those in engineering graphics to study the principles of visual communications, such as line, shape, color, value, contrast, repetition, etc., that are common to other visual fields.

Imaging
Imaging is the process of analyzing, producing, and reproducing real or virtual things. A knowledge of imaging processes is used to create graphics that are easily visualized or recognized by the user. This area would include: animation, color theory, projection theory, graphic design principles, photography, videography, typography, reprography, lighting theory, and computer graphics. See Figure 3. Much of the body of knowledge for any graphics course will come from the imaging area. An engineering design graphics course would have a heavy emphasis on projection theory, for example.

Figure 3. Visual Science Knowledge Base

Geometry
Geometry is the branch of mathematics that deals with the properties, relationships, and measurements of points, lines, planes, and solids. There are three primary areas of geometry: plane, solid, and descriptive. See Figure 3. Plane geometry is concerned with planar figures, such as circles and polygons, and their relationships. Solid geometry is concerned with three-dimensional objects, such as cylinders, cones, and cubes, and their relationships. Descriptive geometry is concerned with analyzing and solving space distances and relationships. Much of the study of engineering design graphics has dealt with these topics. (Figure 4) However, it must be recognized that the study of geometry has a much wider application than just engineering. Artists, animators, illustrators, and anyone who creates graphics has a need to learn about geometry.

Visual Science Research Base
It is through scientific inquiry that disciplines move forward and new knowledge is discovered. In visual science, research is conducted in cognitive visualization, imaging, and geometry. All of these areas currently conduct research but it is not focused toward a single goal which is the advancement of visual science. The emergence of visual science as a discipline will promote a focused research approach that will lead to more new knowledge and a more refined discipline.

Applications
There are many applications of visual science which is another way of validating its importance as a formal area of inquiry. All of these applications share the common core knowledge of visualization, imaging, and geometry. The application of visual science is divided into two broad categories: artistic and technical. See Figure 2. Although both categories share some of the same knowledge, skills, and technique, the final products are different both in content and style.

Figure 4. Classification of Geometric Elements

Artistic
Artistic applications are primarily concerned with the conscious production or arrangement of color, form, and other elements that affect the sense of aesthetics. The primary purpose of art is for personal expression and not to solve problems. Artistic applications include: sculpting, painting, and drawing. A good foundation in visualization, geometry, and imaging will make a better artist because those are the foundations for sculpting, painting, and drawing.

Technical
Technical applications are primarily concerned with the conscious production or arrangement of color, form, and other elements used to communicate information or solve problems. The primary purpose of technical graphics is to present information in such a way as to make it easier and faster to assimilate and understand than could be done using other forms of communication, such as writing and speaking. Technical graphics is a huge area of study that includes engineering design graphics, architectural graphics, medical illustration, printing/publishing, scientific visualization, presentation graphics, technical illustration, industrial design, interior design, multimedia production, and others.

Techniques
Of course, the applications for visual science must also include the systematic procedures necessary to accomplish a task. These techniques would include the processes, tools, and skills used to create the visual, such as sketching, 3D modeling, drafting, and standards. These processes, tools, and skills are integrated into the artistic and technical applications of visual science.

The Implementation of Visual Science
The Technical Graphics Department at Purdue University has evolved from its beginnings in Civil Engineering into a four-year Bachelor or Science (BS) degree program with approximately 300 majors, 15 full-time faculty, lecturers, and a growing number of graduate students. This rapid evolution has occurred over the last 15 years. During that time much has occurred technologically that has had a direct impact on technical graphics. Traditionally, the strengths of the program have centered on the knowledge and skills associated with the making of illustrations for industry and detail drawings for design and manufacturing. In addition, with the start of the four-year degree program, another area of concentration has emerged focusing on pre-press printing processes.

The program at Purdue University has a heavy emphasis on visualization, imaging, and geometry, especially 3D modeling. Students are allowed to specialize in a field of study or application, such as engineering design graphics, technical illustration, pre-press publishing processes, animation, or multimedia. Specialization occurs are added through the addition of more selective and elective courses in the curriculum. Other areas being considered include architectural graphics, virtual reality, engineering document management, and other emerging fields of study that have a heavy emphasis on visual processes. Currently, there are over 30 visual science and graphics courses offered in the Technical Graphics Department at Purdue.

In addition, a graduate program is being developed that would offer advanced study in visual science. Graduates of this program would be prepared to teach, manage, or do applied research in one of the many applications of visual science, such as engineering design graphics, computer graphics, illustration, digital-based publishing, and others.

Conclusions
To formalize a discipline takes a great deal of effort and time from many individuals. Visual science can be recognized as a discipline if like-minded individuals work together to further refine its subject matter and begin implementing it through organized research and a defined curricula. The development of visual science as a formal knowledge has to be accomplished by an international group who share the same vision. This international group must work together to create the vision, define the subject matter, perform related research, develop the curriculum, and teach the courses. This effort has begun at Purdue University but must be expanded throughout the world by others who share the vision of making visual science a recognized discipline.

References
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