The nature of the visual field, a phenomenological analysis

The visual field is the spatial form of visual awareness, that is, immediate visual experience ignoring qualities and meanings. Such an entity only exists in the discursive representation, for the awareness as such is quality and meaning throughout. Thus the discursive, formal treatment is necessarily limited. We identify a number of important distinctions of a geometrical nature. This description is confronted with experimental phenomenology, that is the psychology of the Gestalt Schools, and with well known principles of artistic practice. We also trace the connections with biology, especially ethology, aesthetics, and the field of cognitive science based upon Cassirer's concept of symbolic forms.