Lecture Series #2
visual theories
gestalt.
german - ‘form’ or ‘shape’
emerged in the 1800s, which was a period of question and with it means to visually perceive. Victorians were interested in visual perception.
Gestalt was just one of the theories.
a holistic theory.
Gestalt is a branch of psychology relating to the visual and psychological ideas of patterns and how we perceive patterns.
The psychological practice and therapy is used for people who want to get out of habits.
The industrial revolution was a massive progression in science and technology.
concentration on vision, as it was seen as the ultimate sense.
miller lyer illusion. 1889.
questions reliability of our vision, we don’t see it as it is.
thaumatrope:
victorians created visual & optical toys on the basis of gestalt theory.
1 + 1 = a 3rd thing
they are more than the sum of their parts.
zoetrope, the inspiration for moving image
1 still image + lots of other still images = moving image.
Gestalt Theory: an understanding of the way we perceive things.
Max Wertheimer:
the Phi effect.
Illusory movement created only with the power of light.
Creating movement by turning lights on and off consecutively.
“We can create movement by turning something on and off in a sequence”
The basic thesis of Gestalt might be formulated...
“The whole is other than the sum of its parts”
often mistaken with ‘greater’ it is simply ‘other’
Key Principles forming the basis:
Emergence:
the whole thing is identified before the parts.
Reification:
a need to fill in the gaps, our minds create order.
hard wired to make sense of a chaotic world.
Multi-stability:
our minds seek to avoid uncertainty.
Invariance:
we are all experts in recognising similarities and differences.
Laws of gestalt:
The law of figure & ground:
hard wired to make order. and tell where figures and background are.
Apple ipod ad.
simplicity in its simplest form.
The law of prägnanz:
we don’t need each individual element to make sense of image and text.
we are able to read an image in 3 milliseconds.
Janet Cardiff 2001. the forty part motet.
example of ‘the whole is other than the sum of the parts’
The law of Proximity:
seemingly take random sets and they will belong together.
objects close to one another are perceived as belonging together.
e.g. toffs and toughs.Jimmy Sime 1937
The law of similarity:
objects with similar characteristics, shape, size, colour, are seen as belonging together.
e.g. lee villarreal. cylinder 2011
led light rain.
out of chaos comes order.
e.g. jim campbell. exploded views. 2011
example of the Phi effect.
The law of closure:
incomplete objects seen as a whole by adding information.
mime artists show the audience objects in an empty space.
negative space in logos.
René Magritte. the human condition 1933.
surrealist artists often used optical illusions in their work.
The law of common fate:
things that move together are perceived as being together.
murmurations.
negative space in logos. LA 1984 olympics logo.
the idea of using line and colour in groupings.
The law of continuity:
objects that follow a line or a curve together are seen as being together.
Saul Bass links graphic with the moving.
John Baldessari:
his work abides by some of the gestalt laws.
The law of symmetry:
how we make sense of the world by recognising and familiarising shapes.
2 faces or a vase?
what you perceive you simply cannot control.
like that gold and white/blue and black dress:
e.g. Dazzle Warship 1918
using gestalt theory to confuse the enemy at sea.
Camoflage in nature: zebra’s, butterflies.
Applying laws of gestalt to the BBC website:
Menu = law of proximity
Spaces between columns = law of closure
Headline boxes = law of similarities
Roll over cursor = law of continuity
Latest news & latest sport = law of symmetry
Good design should be based on the principles of gestalt.
