Eye candy Armitage, or: superficial Armitage anatomy

Servetus loves exact analysis. And I spent a crazy amount of time talking to a retinologist, an opthalmologist, an optometrist, and an eye surgeon in 2011, none of whom seemed capable of speaking to each other. That said, analysis is not everything.

I know it may seem superficial, but for instance, it’s almost a shame to take this:

Richard Armitage, from a DVD extra on the Spooks series 9 DVDs, which I have not watched yet. Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

and make it into this:

The same. With a few annotations.

Superficial in this sense doesn’t mean trivial — it means, occurring on the surface. I didn’t include any eye muscles in these diagrams because you can’t really see them. Interesting, however: I learned that the pronounced inferior palpebral sulcus here may make Mr. Armitage’s face look slightly more childlike, as a pronounced sulcus is unusual in adult faces.

And, of course, zeroing in, we have:

Richard Armitage’s left eye. Cropped from photo above.

The iris is an unbelievably complex structure, right down to the kinds of cells that make up its pigmentation. Did you know that the grey-blue pigmentation of the iris that allows the eyes to appear to change color depending on their surroundings is a relatively rare human phenotype? Incidentally, this is what pigmentation looks like, physically, in a photo taken from an electron microscope. The arrows point at the pigmentation granules in the surface of the iris:

But back to the topic:

Another crop of the photo above, showing Richard Armitage’s left eye.

To be noted:

• there are many more structures in the iris than can be seen in this picture; again, these are just the superficial ones.
• there’s an ongoing discussion in the fandom about the dilation of the pupils (mydriasis) as a sign of sexual arousal, with some fans claiming that Armitage can dilate his pupils at will in order to appear aroused. Pupil dilation during arousal is normally a function of the parasympathetic nervous system, so that it is involuntary. So I don’t think that he can dilate his pupils on purpose. However, two possibilities remain: one, I think unlikely, that he has somehow been conditioned to respond to a particular external stimulus with pupil dilation (this effect has been produced in certain animals). A second, more probable, that he produces in his own mind and body a condition of arousal (he thinks or acts himself into arousal for a scene in which his eyes will be filmed during lovemaking), which then, in turn, produces the parasympathetic reaction of the dilated pupil as an arousal signal. What do I think? That directors in these scenes light him in ways, intentionally or unintentionally, that cause pupil dilation. Most love scenes just don’t take place in broad daylight. I know that’s an awfully prosaic explanation. Sorry.
• stubble is not a part of the structures of the eye, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t forget it was there. I wouldn’t want to be … superficial.

~ by Servetus on January 9, 2012.