The best thing that we're put here for's to see.

-The Star-Splitter, Robert Frost

 

Webpage of

Daniel J. Graham

 

Post-doctoral Researcher

Department of Mathematics

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH 03755

Daniel.J.Graham *a*t* Dartmouth *d*0*t* edu

tel. +1 (603) 646-9020

fax +1 (603) 646-1312

 

NEW CV available HERE

 

 

 

This website describes the work I do along with Prof. Dan Rockmore concerning vision coding and statistics of natural scenes and art. I study processing in the visual pathway in humans from low-level vision to V1 in cortex, as well as higher-level processing related to perceptual judgments. Current projects include (1.) work on retinal ganglion cell coding; (2.) studies of the basic statistics of painted art; (3.) statistics related to stylometry, historical ordering and authentication of art; (4.) studies of scene perception using art. Collaborators include Jay Friedenberg, James Cutting, David Field, Chris Redies, Damon Chandler, James Hughes, and others.

 

 

·      Education

Ph.D., Psychology, 2008 Cornell University

M.S., Physics, 2004 Cornell University

B.A., Physics, 2001 Middlebury College

 

·      Publications

Graham, D. J. 2009. Art statistics and visual processing: Insights for Picture Coding. Proceedings of the Picture Coding Symposium 2009, Chicago, IL.

Graham, D. J., Friedenberg, J. D. and Rockmore, D. N. 2009. Efficient visual system processing of spatial and luminance statistics in representational and non-representational art. Proc. SPIE: Human Vision and Electronic Imaging  7240 1N1-1N12.

Graham, D. J., Friedenberg, J. D., Rockmore, D. N. and Field, D. J. 2009. Mapping the similarity space of paintings: image statistics and visual perception. Visual Cognition, in press.

Graham, D. J. 2008. The relationship between efficient coding of natural scenes in the human visual system and statistical regularities in art. Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University.

Graham, D. J. and Field, D. J. 2008. Global nonlinear luminance compression in painted art. Proc. SPIE: Computer Image Analysis in the Study of Art 6810, 189-200.

Graham, D. J. and Field, D. J. 2008. Variations in intensity statistics for representational and abstract art, and for art from the eastern and western hemispheres. Perception 37, 1341-1352.

Graham, D. J. and Field, D. J. 2008. Natural images: coding efficiency. In Encyclopedia of Neuroscience ed. Larry R. Squire. Academic Press, Oxford.

Graham, D. J. and Field, D. J. 2007. Statistical regularities of art images and natural scenes: Spectra, sparseness and nonlinearities. Spatial Vision 21, 149-164.

Graham, D. J., Chandler, D. M. and Field, D. J. 2006. Can the theory of "whitening" explain the center-surround properties of retinal ganglion cell receptive fields? Vision Research 46, 2901-2913.

Graham, D. J. and Field, D. J. 2006. Sparse coding in the neocortex. In Evolution of Nervous Systems ed. Jon H. Kaas and Leah A. Krubitzer. Elsevier, Vol. III, pp. 181-187.

Cuesta-Lopez, S.,  Peyrard, M. and Graham, D. J. 2005. Model for DNA hairpin denaturation. European Physical Journal E-Soft Matter 16, 235-246.

Graham, D. J. 2004. Efficient retinal ganglion cell coding and the statistics of natural scenes. Master's Thesis, Department of Physics, Cornell University.

 

·      Teaching

I teach Math 126: Current Problems in Applied Mathematics in Fall Term at Dartmouth College. The course focuses on mathematical methods used to study visual system processing.

 

·      Science Writing

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I was the lead researcher of a book for general audiences about e-mail and communication, Send, by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe (Knopf). See thinkbeforeyousend.com. Now in paperback! (UK only)

 

·      Selected Talks

 

Mathematics, Perception, and the Visual Arts: New Perspectives, talk at MathPsych 2009 (Society for Mathematical Psychology), Aug 2009.

Invited Panelist, Special Session on Visual Attention, Artistic Intent and Efficient Coding, Picture Coding Symposium, Chicago, IL, May 2009.

Stylometric analysis of Van Gogh using methods inspired by early visual system neural coding. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct 2008. (part of IP4AI)

Statistical Regularities in Paintings: Connections to Visual Coding and Perception, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany, Sept 2008.

Mapping the Similarity Space of Paintings: Is there a Role for Image Statistics? Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar, Dept. of Mathematics, Dartmouth College, May 2008.

Statistical Properties of Paintings and Their Implications for the Brain, Cognitive Brown Bag Seminar, Dept. of Psychology and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, May 2008.

Relationships Between Human Visual Coding and Painted Art, Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar, Dept. of Mathematics, Dartmouth College, Feb 2008.

The Illuminated World: Art and the Visual System Art for Lunch, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, April 2007. VIDEO is here (440Mb).

Relating Nonlinearities to Statistical Regularities in Paintings. 29th European Conference on Visual Perception, St. Petersburg, Russia, Aug 2006. Symposium on art and perception. Abstract

Neural nets and preferred contrast--A presentation about neural networks and contrast in artworks. Joint IGERT Workshop on nonlinear dynamics in Oak Brook, IL Oct 2002.

 

·      Selected Abstracts

Graham, D. J., Friedenberg, J. N., Rockmore, D. N. and Field, D. J. 2008. Mapping the similarity space of paintings: Is there a role for image statistics? ECVP 2008 Utrecht, NL. [poster]

Graham, D. J. and Field, D. J. 2008. Global nonlinear compression of natural luminances in painted art. SPIE Electronic Imaging Conference on Computer Image Analysis in the Study of Art, San Jose CA.

Cutting, J. E., Graham, D. J. and Field, D. J. 2008. From a neuroesthetics to a neuroarthistory. Annual Conference of the College Art Association, Dallas TX.

Graham, D. J., Page, K. B. and Field, D. J. 2006. Relating nonlinearities to statistical regularities in paintings. Perception 35 supplement for ECVP.

Graham, D. J. Chandler, D. M. and Field, D. J. 2005. How alike are natural scenes and paintings? Characterizing the spatial statistical properties of a set of digitized, grey-scale images of painted art.  Perception 34 supplement for ECVP.

Graham, D. J., Chandler, D. M. and Field, D. J. 2004. Decorrelation and response equalization with center-surround receptive fields. Journal of Vision 4, 276a.

  

·      Support

2008-2009: William H. Neukom 1964 Institute for Computational Science (to Daniel N. Rockmore)

2008-2010: National Science Foundation Small Grant for Exploratory Research DMS-0746667 (to DNR)

2007: Provost’s Diversity Fellowship, Cornell University

2004-2007: National Institutes of Health Kirschstein-NRSA Traineeship EY015393

2002: NSF Locnet Fellowship, Ecole Normale Superieure, Lyon, Fr.

2001-2004: NSF IGERT Program in Nonlinear Dynamics Fellowship, Cornell University

 

·      Links

Science For Everyone: A conference of science writers, including Robert Krulwich and Janna Levin, that I organized at Cornell in May 2004.

Noah Graham  (my brother) studies quantum mechanics and quantum computing at my alma mater, Middlebury College.

 

 

Updated 24 Aug 2009