Experiencing
Three-Dimensionality

Three-dimensional art has height and width, as a painting does, plus a third dimension--depth. This stark definition, though true, gives no hint of the excitement of actually experiencing three-dimensional art. To plunge into this experience, try this experiment: Loosely crumple a piece of paper, any piece of paper. Then look at it. Don't just glance at it briefly; really explore it all over with your eyes. Hold it in your hand and slowly turn it, watching how it changes as the parts you can see and the angle from which you are seeing them change.
If you are giving yourself fully to this experience, you will find that your piece of crumpled paper becomes endlessly fascinating. Your eyes and mind will be intrigued by the ever-changing patterns created by the paper forms and the empty spaces they define--the myriad ridges, hollows, and tunnels and their relationships to each other, the gradations of light and shadow, the changing surface textures. If your piece of paper happens to have writing on it, follow what happens to the lines of words as they disappear over the edge of a fold. Spend a long time exploring as many ways of looking at your paper "sculpture" as possible. Let your fingers explore it as well, if they want to.
This seemingly simple exercise will help open you to fully appreciative experiencing of three-dimensional art. At the same time, it will give you some idea of what is lost in looking at pictures of three dimensional art. No photograph, no matter how well-planned or dramatic, can possibly replicate the highly personal act of experiencing a three-dimensional piece.
In this chapter we will examine some of the ways in which photographs distort the three-dimensional experience, requiring a great leap of imagination on your part to appreciate the works shown in this book. As an introduction to the vast range of possibilities for your own three-dimensional work, we will also look at the many different degrees of three-dimensionality and some of the techniques that can be used to draw viewers into the three-dimensional experience.
(from text "Shaping 3D Space")