Author: Megan Russell

Warning: This post briefly mentions suicide. It doesn’t go in-depth, but if you are triggered by the mention of it, then please don’t read further. Thank you!

Bipolar disorder, also known as “manic-depressive disorder” is a mood disorder that is characterized by alternating depressive and manic states, with each one often lasting for weeks at a time. These dramatic, and sometimes dangerous, mood swings are due to abnormal chemical activity in the brain. During the depressive state, people with bipolar have reduced levels of norepinephrine and serotonin activity in their brains, similar to people with major depressive disorders. Symptoms of this include being withdrawn and gloomy, tiredness, an inability to make decisions, and slowness of thought. On the contrary, the manic state is caused by excess norepinephrine activity in the brain. Symptoms of mania include elation, extreme euphoria, hyperactivity, having excessive thoughts (as opposed to the slowness of thought demonstrated in the depressive state), and a desire for action. The manic state can often be dangerous and can lead to people taking extremely dangerous risks as a result of the euphoria.

My grandpa was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Growing up, my mom remembers watching him struggle with the mood shifts between depression and mania. She remembers being scared of what he was going through, and even sometimes of him and what the disorder made him do, including getting excessively and irrationally angry at her and her brother as a result of his condition. Eventually, he committed suicide, likely due to extreme depression during the depressive state of the disorder. Even though I never got to know him personally, I’ve heard stories about him and what he went through from my mom and my uncle.  (Sorry, that got kinda sad.)

When we see, our brain uses certain cues in order to give a sense of depth perception. These cues can be sorted into two categories: binocular cues, which use two eyes, and monocular cues, which only use one eye. Binocular cues are what we use on an everyday basis to perceive the world around us, while monocular cues are used most frequently in art and optical illusions. Monocular cues include relative size, interposition, aerial perspective, linear perspective, texture gradient, and motion parallax. Relative size is the principle that if two objects are similar in size, the one that casts a larger retinal image is closer. Interposition means that if one object is blocking our view of another, then the one in front is closer and the one being blocked is farther away. Aerial perspective refers to the phenomenon that the farther away objects are, the hazier and fuzzier the view gets. Linear perspective is the way that lines that are parallel in real life will appear to converge as they get farther away. Texture gradient is the fact that we see much less detail (or texture) on objects as the distance between the object and the viewer grows. Finally, Motion parallax means that, when the viewer is moving, closer objects will appear to move at a much faster rate, while objects that are farther away will appear to move much more slowly.

Art Examples:

A

B

As an artist, I frequently use monocular cues, sometimes even without realizing it. In the first example, I used interposition to show the positioning of the balloon string with regards to the banner. Since the banner overlaps the balloon string both at both places where there is text, our brain automatically reasons that the banner is closer than the string, even though there is no actual physical depth to the picture. Additionally, since the balloon string is in front of the banner in the middle of the picture, our brains assume that it is now closer than that portion of the banner. In the second example, I used both relative size and interposition to create a sense of depth. Interposition is used where the pointe shoe on the right slightly covers over the shoe on the left, creating an illusion that it is closer than the other shoe. Relative size is also present because the shoe on the right is slightly bigger than the one of the left, once again implying that the right shoe is closer than the left one.

Credit: All images are mine.