The Myosotis ramosissima in the palm of my hand is twice its natural size. The Heracleum mantegazzianum, on the other hand, is some twenty times reduced. The Myosotis at that size would not be recognizable (left side). Using double size for the Heracleum the palm space would overflow from just a single part of the big umbel. (So here's a palm reduced to half, with a partial umbel in its natural size, instead.) The same goes for animals, of course: bugs are small, bears are big.

But the real problem with the palm-size presentation of the Giant Hogweed is not size: the main problem is that it was done from a photo taken in situ and in such a way that it isn't really possible to extract the specimen from its environment.

In this respect it's more like a moss than like a bug: when it comes to rendering a distinct object for virtually real presentation bugs are easy - mosses are hard...

... though perhaps in the end it all depends on how you capture the initial photo-graphic likeness. Does the life form fit on a scanner bed? Does the scanner capture it well? Can you take a good-enough photo of a specimen against a neutral background? Will your photo-graphic techniques still present the object with a 3D quality? Can you find post-processing routines that enhance and improve, rather than blur and distort?

Here is some 25-minute moss as an exploration.

Small or large - all in the palm of my hand

Some commonplaces...     (back to entrance) (next)

Allow me to quote Comenius
in his Great Didactic of 1641:

    "We will now speak of the mode in which objects must be presented to the senses, if the impression is to be distinct. This can be readily understood if we consider the processes of actual vision. If the object is to be clearly seen it is necessary:
    (1) that it be placed before the eyes; (2) not far off, but at a reasonable distance; (3) not on one side, but straight before the eyes; (4) and so that the front of the object be not turned away from, but directed towards, the observer; (5) that the eyes first take in the object as a whole; (6) and then proceed to distinguish the parts; (7) inspecting these in order from the beginning to the end; (8) that attention be paid to each and every part; (9) until they are all grasped by means of their essential attributes. If these requisites be properly observed, vision takes place successfully; but if one be neglected, it's success is only partial."

The very best place to put the object of study is in the palm of my hand: there I can conveniently concentrate my gaze to properly follow Comenius' recipe for visual learning. More than one object in a palm-size space gives a crowded and confusing impression.

Since I do not have that handy picture of a child, gazing in rapture at a seashell held in the palm of her hand, I give you my portrayal of the Deep Learner instead:

What is good for seeing the Real Thing clearly has its advantages for close study of the Virtual Thing as well: a palm-size surface at a palm-type distance gives very convenient access for visual scrutiny. Isn't this size and range also what many technologies for visual enhancement emulate? Allow me to continue my anchoring of these most commonplace statements in the writings of great men, and give you a quote from Bruno Latour, writing about "Visualization and cognition; thinking with eyes and hands":

"The scale of the inscriptions may bemodified at will, without any change in their internal proportions. Observers never insist on this simple fact: no matter what the (reconstructed) size of the phenomena, they all end up being studied when they reach the same average size. Billions of galaxies are never bigger, when they are counted, than nanometer-sized chromosomes; international trade is never much bigger than mesons; scale models of oil refineries end up having the same dimensions as plastic models of atoms. Confusion resumes outside of a few square meters.

The practical beauty of the idea of a book, for example, is that a book can be held open with your two hands so that your gaze may conveniently stroll across the spread of two pages. The fact that your hands can hold a surface that is several palmfuls in area affords the opportunity to pull a great varitey of palm-size things together. Text and images, diagrams and maps are there for convenient individual scrutiny and just as convenient movement back and forth between these heterogeneuos matters bearing on the same topic.

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