Linear perspective’s been around for a while, ever since the 15th Century to be exact, when the architect and engineer Filippo Brunelleschi ostensibly invented it. Brunelleschi developed the idea of the “vanishing point,” which led painting to emerge from its flat, two-dimensional form into the three-dimensional realism that came to define the Renaissance period. And while Brunelleschi’s ideas continue to form the basis of all three-dimensional renderings, from artist sketches to fancy design software, not a whole lot of innovation has been made on the linear perspective front since the mid-1400s.
The Oakes brothers are a pair of twin artists who are picking up where Brunelleschi left off and offering up a fresh perspective on perspective. They’ve devised an “easel” machine that enables you to draw in perfect perspective, achieving that all illusive realism that can only be accomplished through accurate proportion and scale.
Following a similar track of scientific inquiry, the pair explored the nature of stereoscopic vision and its effect on our idea of what three dimensional space is. What they’ve developed is essentially a technique for willfully activating “double vision,” isolating the images captured by each eye. In doing so, they’re able to let one eye scan the scene while the other plots it on the canvas. Their custom constructed concave “easel” plays tricks on your eyes, making the paper melt away and allowing the artist to trace the scene beyond it.
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