Binocular Art

The term ‘binocular art’ is assigned to those pictorial works which are dependent on the operation of two eyes either in cooperation (stereoscopic or dichoptic) or in competition (rivalry or lustre). There has been much sterile debate about whether photography is pictorial art and I do not wish to add to it. However, the debate is essentially pointless in the context of binocular pictorial art as it did not exist prior to the almost synchronous inventions of stereoscopy and photography. Most pictures made for two eyes are stereoscopic and there are many books devoted to them. The emphasis in this chapter will be on stereoscopic images and the neglected aspect of vision with two eyes, namely rivalry.