Practical Development - thumbnailing

I have been doing some thumb-nailing in reaction to principles of visual perception and gestalt theory. My initial thought was to create a series of illustrations using basic geometric shapes - alike to perhaps William Luz's sketchbook work - however I am finding it hard to express these theories visually without basing my images first on some form of subject (even if it be a simple one).

The struggle here is that I do not have a really stylised form of drawing, instead the subject or context will often determine how my drawing will look. Therefore I think tackling something like figure or animals may be too overcomplicated - but maybe I could work towards this? For now, I need to start off with a simple subject like plants (done this last year), or just an object. Also (as a plus) I would like to be something I enjoy drawing...

Ideas for content/subject:

• Everyday objects e.g. a bunch of bananas?
• Plants (done before, but still like the idea of this)
• Sculpture e.g. Henry Moores, Babara Hepworth. 
• Figure and Animals (work up to)

This is a page of William Luz's sketchbook work.

Dadu Shin

Dadu Shin. I Don't Like Clothes. (ONLINE) Available at: http://dadushin.com/I-DON-T-LIKE-CLOTHES (Accessed 31st October 2017)

I came across this contemporary practitioner who did a series of fashion illustrations that relate to my research, especially to principles of Gestalt psychology. 

This image uses the Gestalt principles of similarity and proximity. The similarity in colour, size and shape of the white lines, as well as the proximity of them even though they are sometimes going in different directions, is what leads us to see this collection of separate elements as a single whole.

This image uses the principles of Gestalt theory in a similar way in that the proximity and similarity of the elements in texture, size and shape leads us to view it not only as a whole, but an abstracted human figure. As the object remains incomplete or separated in some aspects, this image could also be argued to rely upon the principle of closure - which is when the human eye automatically "perceives a complete shape by filling in the missing information". (Creative Bloq, 2017)

Gestalt Principles

Creative Bloq. 2017. The designer's guide to Gestalt Theory. (ONLINE) Available at: http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/gestalt-theory-10134960 (Accessed 30 October 2017)

What is Gestalt Theory?

• Gestalt principles "refer to the way in which humans, when looking at a group of objects, will see the whole before we see the individual parts" 
• "If you collect together your design elements in a visual arrangement using one of the various approaches...your design will feel more connected, coherent and complete." 
• Prominent founders - Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka. 
• Came to prominence thanks to Arnheim's book "Art and Visual Perception". 

01. Similarity

• When elements of an image look similar to each other due to their shape, colour, size, texture or value. 
• "This effect can be used to create a single illustration, image or message from a series of separate elements."
• "The more commonality that individual elements have, the greater the sense of coherence" (links to ideas of visual unity). 

Example:

02. Continuation

• "Continuation is the principle through which the eye is drawn along a path, line or curve, preferring to see a single continuous figure than separate lines. This can be used to point towards another element in the composition." 

03. Closure

• "Closure works where an object is incomplete or the interior space of an element is not fully closed, but the viewer perceives a complete shape by filling in the missing information."

Example: 

04. Proximity

• "Proximity uses the close arrangement of elements to create a group association between those objects. If individual elements are also similar, they will tend to be perceived as a single whole, even though they are separate elements."

Example:

"The arrangement of boxes on the left are not close enough to have proximity, while the group on the right is perceived as a single whole element."

05. Figure & Ground 

• "This principle describes the eye's tendency to see and separate objects from their surrounding background." "It works because human eyes want to see the figure (foreground object) and background (ground) as two different planes of focus."

Example: 

Sky and Water (1938) by MC Escher

06. Symmetry and order

• "This principle says that a composition should not provide a sense of disorder or imbalance, as otherwise the viewer will waste time trying to locate the missing element, or fix the problem, rather than focusing on the message or instruction."
• Symmetry 'provides the viewer with a feeling of harmony." 

Revision of research question / defining the project

Finding a more coherent research question for my essay has been essential at this point to narrow down my research and clarify the direction of my project. 

Potential Questions :

• Are all images formed in relation to rules of composition, even when done unconsciously? 
• Are images most visually appealing when formed according to rules of composition?
• Is visual unity essential to the success/power of an image?
• Is an image more successful/powerful when formed according to rules of composition? 

Essential questions to answer: (outline in introduction)

• What is visual unity and how do you achieve it?
• What rules of composition am I specifically looking at, in order to evaluate how they can/do determine the success on an image. 

Practical Project: 

I aim to create two series of images - one formed according to rules of composition or theories of visual perception such as Gestalt theory and the other created using my own sense of intuition. In comparing these two processes of image-making it may be made clear to what extent rules are necessary in order to form a 'good' image, as well whether these rules stunt/limit creativity and if visual unity is/can be best achieved intuitively. 

Golden Ratio

Creative Bloq. n.d. The designer's guide to the Golden Ratio. [online] Available from: http://www.creativebloq.com/design/designers-guide-golden-ratio-12121546

• "A common mathematical ratio found in nature that can be used to create pleasing, natural looking compositions in your design" 
• "Describes the perfectly symmetrical relationship between two proportions" 
• "A perfectly symmetrical composition is less satisfying and aesthetically pleasing than one in which the proportions are slightly asymmetrical" 

Olsen, S. “The Golden Section” (2006) Wooden Books Ltd: Somerset.

The mystery of Phi pg.2

“One of the eternal questions asked by philosophers concerns how the one becomes many. What is the nature of separation, or division? Is there a way in which parts can retain a meaningful relationship to the whole?”

Phi in Painting pg.36

“By carefully linking the ratios and proportions of a work of art, ensuring that the parts reflect and synchronise with the whole, a painter can create an aesthetic, dynamic, living embodiment of the harmonic and symmetrical principles lying behind nature itself.”  E.g. Leonardo Da Vinci and Salvador Dali

The 100 years Show

This was a program about Carmen Herrera, a minimalist cuban painter mainly working in Paris and New York during her lifetime. Despite now being 94 (in the film, now she is 102) her work has only been recognised in the last 10 or so years. 

Key Quotes 

What do you think about when your working?

"About the line, about the paper about a lot of tiny things that get bigger and bigger and then a picture comes up." 

How do you decide on a colour?

"Whether you like it or you don't, whether it does something to the other colour" 

"If you go to the basic, you can never fail", "Less is more. I do it all the time, I have something that I think is finished and I take something out and it's better"  

"It took a long time till I hit on the hard-edge thing which I love - because I like straight lines, I like angles, I like order. In this chaos that we live in I like to put some order, so that is why I guess I am a hard-edge painter and a geometric painter" 

What is it that drives you about this kind of painting?

"If I could do things with words I wouldn't do them in the painting, I would tell you.", "Usually artists are not the best people to talk about art, I think it's a great mistake. You cannot talk about art, you have to art about art then you know something." 

"There's a lot of vibrancy, a lot of life and almost a spiritual quality to that work" (name of girl)

"The series of black and white paintings that she made in Paris prior to return to the US actually prefigure things that were to come later within New York within painting. You get a little optical thing happening because of the difference between black and white, suddenly the space in which the painting is shown is called into question" (Nigel Prince, Curator)

"She is at that moment in time dealing with the physical structure of the painting, so that the painting is becoming an object"

How is this relevant? 

Firstly I just really enjoy the way she talks about her work, and I think there is a definite connection to be formed between her approach to both colour and composition, and theories of visual perception or even gestalt psychology I have been researching so far within my project. I would like to research more into other artists that created similar work to her during this period (that were mentioned in the documentary), as well as those that would have influenced her work - such as: Bauhaus, Russian Suprematism, Ellsworth Kelly, Leon Polk Smith, Frank Stella & Lyga Clark.

"Art and Visual Perception" R, Arnheim. Chapter I : Balance

Key points and quotes:

What is balance? 

• "In its simplest form, balance is achieved by two forces of equal strength that pull in opposite directions."

How is balance formed? 

• "Factors such as size, colour or direction contribute to visual balance in ways not necessarily paralleled physically"
• "The composition rests on point and counterpoint - that is, on many counterbalancing elements. But these antagonistic forces are not contradictory or conflicting. They do not create ambiguity. Ambiguity confuses the artistic statement because it leaves the observer hovering between two or more assertions that do not add up to to whole. As a rule, pictorial counterpoint is hierarchic - that is, it sets a dominant forces against a subservient one. Each relation is unbalanced in itself, together they all balance one another in the structure of the whole work." 

Why is balance important?

• "In a balanced composition all factors such as shape, direction, and location are mutually determined in such a way that no change seems possible, and the whole assumes the character of 'necessity' in all its parts." (pg.20)
• "An unbalanced composition looks accidental, transitory and therefore invalid" (pg.20)
• "Under conditions of imbalance, the artistic statement becomes incomprehensible", "We have the sense that the process of creation has been accidentally frozen somewhere along the way" (pg.20)
• "Why should artists strive for balance?" - "By stabilising the interrelations between the various forces in a visual system the artists makes his statement unambiguous" (pg.36)
• "Man strives for equilibrium in all phases of his physical and mental existence" 

There can be no science of art

Gottschall, J. (2014) "There can be no science of art" [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/12/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-for-retirement-edge-org (Last Accessed 27/10/17)

• "A long time ago someone proclaimed that art could not be studied scientifically, and for some reason almost everyone believed it. The humanities and sciences constituted, as Stephen Jay Gould might have proclaimed, separate, non-overlapping magisterial - that the tools of one are radically unsuited to the other" (Gottschall, 2014)
• "Our curious love affair with art sets our species apart as much as our sapience of our language or our use of tools. And yet we understand so little about art. We don't know why art exists in the first place. We don't know why we crave beauty. We don't know how art produces its effects in our brains - why one arrangement of sound or colour pleases while another cloys." (Gottschall, 2014)
• "There is nothing so central to human life that is so incompletely understood" (Gottschall, 2014)
• "If we want better answers to fundamental questions about art, science must jump in the game with both feet" (Gottschall, 2014)
• "There's the unexamined assumption that something in art makes it science-proof. There's a widespread, is usually unspoken, belief that art is just a frill in human life - relatively unimportant compared with the weighty stuff of science. And there's the weird idea that science necessarily destroys the beauty it seeks to explain (as though a learned astronomer really could dull the star shine)" (Gottschall, 2014)

This article supports the evaluation of art through scientific theory - such as Gestalt psychology, Arnheim's theories of visual perception and the Golden ratio. The arguments of Gottschall could be used alongside Arnheim, and the views of artist practitioners to discuss whether a psychological analysis of art is an effective one - this provides an introductory statement that hopefully will validate the premise of my written essay. 

Group tutorial

The feedback from this tutorial was generally positive, but in relation to other people my project is progressing too slowly - I need to start putting together a more coherent essay plan. 

Where am I up to now? 

• I have found a clear division between my practical and written project - that I feel will give a greater discussion in my written essay but still facilitate synthesis between the two projects. 
• Written : a discussion between taste and objectivity in relation to artwork, what makes a good image? how do we see/look at things? Key theories :
• Gestalt psychology, Rule of thirds, Golden ratio, Colour theory, Theories of Visual perception and compositional studies.
• Theories in relation to subjectivity and taste (need to research!)

• Practical : investigating whether my illustrations are best when made intuitively (as I have done up to now) or using these learnt theories and rules in relation to composition and colour. Possible practical outcomes:
• A set of intuitively and non-intuitively made screen or mono prints. 

What do I need to do?

• Continue researching, look at:
• Kandinsky 
• Philosophy of harmony 
• Modernism 
• Start putting together an essay plan and chapter structures. 
• Start drawing/making in response to research.

"Art and Visual Perception" Arnheim, R. : Introduction summary

Key points & quotes 

• "Good art theory must smell of the studio, although its language should differ from the household talk of printers and sculptors" (pg.4)
• Vision is "the apprehension of significant structural patterns", meaning "that images of reality can be valid though far removed from 'realistic' semblance" (pg.6)
• "this survey of formal mechanisms aims not to replace spontaneous intuition but to sharpen it" (pg.8)

Looking at images as a whole (relating to Gestalt theory)

• "At no time could a work of art have been made or understood by a mind unable to conceive the integrated structure of a whole" (pg.5)
• "The appearance of any element depends on its place and function in an overall pattern" (pg.5)
• "Before we identify any one element, the total composition makes a statement that we must not lose" (pg.8)

Objectivity in looking at art

• Good art must have "a common core of truth", "potentially relevant to all men"
• Vision is an "interplay between properties supplied by the object and the nature of the observing subject" (What it is were looking at and How we see it). 
• This allows us to "distinguish between adequate conceptions and inadequate conceptions of reality"
• a "line figure imposes itself upon all observers as basically the same shape, regardless...of their cultural background or individual disposition" 

William Luz and Kate Gibb "Touching Elbows"

Touching Elbows "is a collaboration between artists Kate Gibb and William Luz. It is a project focused on the trading of ideas, forms, colours, patterns, thoughts and the intermingling of their practices. Built on mutual respect and admiration as well as friendship, Kate and Will work collaboratively developing prints through the silk screen layering process, creating artworks full of depth and intrigue." 

They have also collaborated with textile company 'Studio Flock' to produce a series of fabrics. 

How is this relevant to my project? 

• It is an example of another project that focuses on visual processes - in terms of both the use of colour, form and texture, as well as the technical process of screen-printing. 
• This reflects both what my practical project could be visually as well as the final application - maybe I could turn mine into a series of textile fabrics? 

Plan of action timelines : Extended Essay & Practical

Individual Progress Tutorial

Proposed Question (temporary) : To what extent is unity, harmony and balance important to the communication of ideas in illustration?

Primary theme : Visual unity / (Aesthetics)

Current/future research : 

• Design principles 
• psychology of composition 
• Is an understanding of composition instinctual...? 
• Euclidian geometry, fractals. 
• Zen gardens, Wabi Sabi. 
• Everyday/non-art examples of humans trying to achieve visual balance in daily life. 

Group Tutorial Presentation

Feedback:

• This is essentially quite an inward looking project, in which I aim to develop new practical methods of working in response to theoretical research. 
• I need to narrow down the content of my project and find a focal point for my research.