Points of view from above
call for paper diségno n. 12, 2023
edited by Pilar Chías Navarro, Andrea Giordano, Ornella Zerlenga

In the most general sense, with ‘point of view’ we mean the point from which one imagines he is looking at something (an object, an architecture, a landscape, etc.). Indeed, the concept of ‘point of view’ matches terms as ‘angle’, ‘visual angle’, ‘perspective’ and can be considered as a physical point or figurative one. It is not a coincidence that in literature (which shares with the representation the act of narration) the ‘point of view’ is a personal interpretation of the writer, since, in his descriptions, he uses the concept of ‘point of view’ to analyze and classify his own thoughts or physical position, referring to a specific narrative situation. In this sense, the description is defined as ‘mono-perspective’ when there is a single angle of linear order and ‘multi-perspective’ in the event that the description is ‘viewed’ from multiple angles and, therefore, it refers to a non-linear trend. But, again, in a tale there is also a ‘spatial point of view’, which depends on the place where the author is located and describes what he is looking at, as well as a ‘temporal point of view’, which follows the time of the description in different moments or in different stages. Yet, above all, there is a ‘subjective point of view’: it has a cultural, psychological, and ideological nature that affects the mental attitude of the person that describes, involving the cognitive as well as the emotional spheres.
However, all these definitions lead to a ‘fixed point’: the ‘point of view’ alludes to the act of looking with your own eyes at something. Nevertheless, at the same time, this act contains also the personal choice of the narrator (here, he should be considered as the one who draws) to place himself in a precise position from which to observe the reality, since the surrounding world could ‘appear’ different if observed from a different ‘point of view’. This would lead us to doubt the objectivity of the narrative (i.e. representation), but this is not the case. The choice of the ‘point of view’ from which to observe and describe the reality is based on the synthesis of the multidimensionality of the features to be represented, on the multiplicity of various representation methodologies able to describe them, on the purpose of the representation itself, with the information that this must convey.
In the geometric representation of reality, the position of the ‘point of view’ is a function of several parameters:
- The distance (infinite or finite) of observation of the object from the iconic plane of the representation (plane on which the image of reality is geometrically projected and delineated);
- The direction of observation and the position of what is described referring to it;
- The observer’s height referring to the horizontal plane (in the case of finite distance).
The definition of these elements allows determining more ‘points of view’ of the same reality. The result is the construction of different figurative outcomes able to totally abstract the visual effect of the three-dimensional perception, discretizing the real in two two-dimensional ‘views’ (method of double orthogonal projections: plans, sections, elevations) or to perceptively alluding to the three-dimensionality of reality investigated according to ‘points of view’ that extract the observer from the context (parallel or cylindrical projections: axonometries). On the other hand, there are ‘views’ that consider the observer in the context (central or conical projections: perspectives). Moreover, the repercussions that such thoughts on the ‘point of view’ can have in creative and conceptual terms of the imagined spaces are also fundamental.
In this sense, issue 12 of the scientific journal diségno invites us to reflect on the project of narratives created through ‘points of view from above’, declining the theme in four areas of interpretation:
• Geometries of representation from above (narratives that have a theoretical basis in the science of representation).
• Measurement of the territories from above (narratives that have a theoretical and practical basis in the use of methodologies, techniques, both analogic and digital tools).
• Visual thoughts from above (narratives which, like the myth of Icarus, find an artistic-cultural foundation in the metaphor of a shattered ambition).
• Depiction of landscapes from above (narratives based on the idea of ‘landscape’).