Imagine standing and looking around at your surroundings. People sense and interact with a vast amount of information pertaining to their surroundings and interpret and encode the information, forming a mental map. How do we perceive ordinary space with our visual senses? How do the ways of seeing and perceiving our surroundings lead to different results as to our treatment of an image? When a creator represents real space by a flat, two-dimensional image, what factors contribute to the procedure for creating a spatial, i.e. three-dimensional image? By examining such questions of our daily experience in ordinary space, this thesis strives to focus on the visual perception of three-dimensional space and a two-dimensional image.

Creating a vanishing point is just one of the ways to depict the world. There is no absolute or objective way of representing real space. The survey conducted in this work points out that two different factors affect image creations: cultural difference and the development of tools to create an image. Based on the analysis of an image survey, it presents the diverse ways of representing our surroundings. It shows how images reflect a person’s understanding of the world and the flexibility of the human mind regarding the creation of images.

The purpose of the first practical experiment was to find the primary components of an ordinary place to define it as a specific space. By creating visual sketches using a photograph, the initial research found size and volume to be the main components regarding space and image. Also, it turned out to simplify the depicted object and design the logical procedure for the next experiment. To reflect the basic analysis,

the camera recorded the constituent objects: a plate and balls without any colour except white and black. The intention behind these simple forms is to let viewers focus on the act of perceiving them. Additionally, several parameters were tested until the decisive points were found, such as distance, size of balls, different backgrounds, light, and the angle of points of view.

After defining the main parameters, the images were produced according to a strict system by creating three-dimensional figures using rendering software. The image series shows a different impact on our perception by not only the parameters but also the tool that was used: Cinema 4d. The result of these images contrasts with the images produced by the photograph that were taken at the beginning of the study. The very arrangement of the image series has viewers look at the little shifts of images either due to the parameters or the different tools chosen. From the various re-organizations of the image series, objective and subjective viewpoints were suggested to be observed in more detail.

This thesis focuses on the various levels and points of view that tend to affect our perception. Theoretical and practical research emphasizes how an individual’s perception is affected by complex variants. At the same time, it compares the three-dimensional, spatial experience with the visual experience created by a two-dimensional surface. By doing so, the project explores the power of images, which turn the limit of the respective dimension into their strong point. The research proposes the idea to reveal the layers of meaning created by the visual transition from a space to an image.