French Translation of Gibson's Ecological Approach to Visual Perception

The French translation of James J. Gibson's "The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception" (1979) has been published, making his interdisciplinary work accessible to Francophone readers. The volume includes a preface by Olivier Putois, a postface by Claude Romano, and an autobiographical note by Gibson. Gibson challenges the traditional view of perception based on the fixed eye and retinal image, proposing instead an ambient and ambulatory perception that involves the whole body moving through an environment. He rejects the stimulus-response model, arguing that perception is a continuous act of extracting information from optical flow. Key concepts include "affordances" (translated as "invite") and the idea that perception integrates self-movement and environmental information. Gibson also critiques the retinal image as a false analogy to photography, and redefines moving images as "progressive images" subject to transformations rather than motion. He applies his ecological perspective to cinema, favoring tracking shots over zooms and emphasizing spatial orientation for viewer transportation. The book connects to thinkers like Gilbert Simondon and has implications for psychology, philosophy, cognitive science, and visual studies.