Foundational Document 10 — Canonical Terminology
The defined vocabulary of Computational Reflective Imaging — its medium, its components, and its perceptual effects. Partial public version; full lexicon available to founding members.
Precise terminology matters in a new medium. The Flective Lexicon establishes canonical names for the components, conditions, and effects of Computational Reflective Imaging — making the technology describable, teachable, and distinguishable from adjacent categories.
Computational Reflective Imaging. The umbrella term for the medium. A method for encoding optical behavior permanently into physical surface geometry, using ambient light as the signal source and a viewer as the receiver. Distinct from emission-based (screen) and absorption-based (print) imaging.
A physical substrate populated with mirror pixels, each permanently angled according to a computational design. The surface is inert and passive — it contains no electronics, no power, and no image layer. The image is encoded in the geometry.
The fundamental unit of a Flective surface. A small, individually angled reflective element whose geometry determines which ambient light ray it redirects toward the viewer. Analogous to a pixel in a screen, but permanent, passive, and structural rather than electronic.
A specific mirror pixel geometry — the physical shape of the reflective element (dome, hex, rect, circle, rhombus, etc.). Different FlecForms produce different optical characteristics, reflection angles, and aesthetic signatures.
The specific pattern of colored light available at a given installation site — the light field composed of directional, spectral, and temporal channels. A Flective surface is computationally designed for the ambient palette of its intended location. The palette is the signal source.
The perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a viewer moves past a Flective surface and an image appears, changes, or resolves. The central experiential proof of the medium. No static photograph can fully convey it; it exists only in motion and time.
The ambient light field as it exists at a specific moment — varying with time of day, weather, season, and viewer position. A Flective surface is always operating within a runtime light field, and the image it produces changes accordingly. The surface is fixed; the image is not.
The fabrication step in which a Flective surface substrate is coated with a reflective material (typically aluminum or silver) to convert the geometric surface into a functional mirror-pixel array. Pre-mirrorizing surfaces are the raw geometry; post-mirrorizing surfaces are operational.
The full Flective Lexicon — including FlecGrid, FlecTess, RSML, structural imaging terminology, and perceptual effect vocabulary — is available to FIAT LUX founding members. For research inquiries write to jim@flective.com.