Splitting images : understanding irreversible fractures through aspect change

  • The Rubin vase and duck-rabbit have two things in common: not only are they famous multistable figures, or 'Kippbilder', but before being discovered by scientists and philosophers, they both started their career as simple jokes. In contrast to usual understandings of 'Kippbilder', this paper will try to demonstrate that 'Kippbilder' can be a helpful model for understanding better dramatic, existential, and even religious events and their consequences. Multistable figures or 'Kippbilder' combine reversibility and irreversibility in an interesting way. While the so called first aspect change introduces an irreversible split, all subsequent aspect changes can be understood as an endless chain of reversible changes. After discussing the specificity of the Rubin vase and its aspect changes and focussing then on the distinction between first and further aspect changes, Di Blasi suggests the productive potential of the multistable figure as model for eventful events in discussing the conversion of Paul and his 'hōs mē' ('as if not').

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Metadaten
Author:Luca Di Blasi
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-532038
URL:https://www.ici-berlin.org/oa/ci-08/di_blasi_splitting-images.pdf
DOI:https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-08_04
ISBN:978-3-85132-734-2
ISSN:2627-731X
Parent Title (English):Multistable figures : on the critical potential of ir/reversible aspect-seeing ; Cultural inquiry ; Vol. 8
Publisher:Turia + Kant
Place of publication:Wien
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2020/03/03
Year of first Publication:2014
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2020/03/09
Tag:Aspect seeing; Gestalt psychology; Multistability; Multistable figures; Religious studies; Splitting (psychology)
GND Keyword:Inversionsfigur; Wahrnehmungswechsel; Gestaltpsychologie; Damaskuserlebnis
Page Number:21
First Page:67
Last Page:87
HeBIS-PPN:46489347X
Dewey Decimal Classification:8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik
Sammlungen:CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft
CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft / ICI Berlin
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen