I love the idea of measuring emotional temperature by analyzing the surrounding space: does seeing empty space inspire loneliness/alienation ?Does a density of visual information imply social interaction/stimulation ? The great visual theorist Rudolf Arnheim would likely respond yes to both but the “Light and Space” artist Robert Irwin might not.

It might be interesting to compare iO with this work by Romare Bearden:

Bearden’s work is brimming with visual stimulation: color, textures, shapes and stories collide in a bustling memory of family life. Based on a collage of many papers, “The Family” is a actually a print made from several metal plates, one holding photographic imagery (“the key plate”) and others acid-etched with texture to hold color. Look carefully at these slightly transparent “background” areas of red, maize, olive and steel blue; how do they distinguish and define the central intersection of imagery?

Unlike in iO, here the space surrounding the main imagery is filled with color and the few white areas focus attention on the main point of the story: an empty plate that is being filled by the family’s collective work. As if shining a Broadway spotlight, Bearden brings our attention to the compositional core, the “eye” of the family activity storm. Depending on whether you are a child fighting over a stool or the weary parent peeling potatoes, that mostly empty plate is a sign of good things to come or a continual challenge to adequately fill. What other compositional elements of this print contribute to telling this family’s story?

(Feel free to shout out one-word answers…)