Form and Composition

Gestalt states that every stimulus, every part of a composition is perceived by us in its simplest form. Everything is viewed as part of a whole, and to demonstrate this we were assigned the task of producing a composition made up of only squares. Specifically, given three word pairs (which include rigid/fluid, active/passive, and clumsy/graceful), we needed to make a composition which embodied these traits.

Conception

I started trying to think of the definitions of these words, especially since many of those words seemed similar, like graceful and fluid. I decided that rigid meant less blocks, arranged in very straight configurations, where as fluid meant a more curvy structure, yet inside the body it was more chaotic, with less order in the squares. Active meant randomly placed squares of different sizes all over the page, whereas passive meant small squares with as little deviation as possible. For clumsy, I imagined the squares would be in weird angles and out of place, affected by gravity, whereas graceful meant the squares had a purpose, whether it was a pattern or consistently changing sizes. Once I got that down, I went into my sketchbook with a pencil and started sketching out some ideas.

For each step I tried to make multiple variations based on the words given. Would this look better with random squares? Should I put more order in it and do a pattern? How would this look like if the squares were all the same size? Once I found an idea that I liked I iterated on it with another idea I had to see if I could make it better. Once I found something I liked, I brought my sketches to Adobe Illustrator before printing them on 80 lb cardstock.

Creation

On 6.5" x 6.5" frames, I chose to represent rigid/fluid as well as clumsy/graceful. For rigid, I set several blocks of different sizes overlapping each other at the bottom of the frame, so as to simulate a rocky structure on the ground. I made the blocks really big and few in number in order to emphasize the already rigid structure of a square.

For fluid I chose one of my designs that looked like a river with its curves (I mapped them out first with the pen tool in Illustrator). The squares that made up the structure were very random, however, in order to emphasize the chaotic nature of water. Also, I put random squares outside the structure to make it seem like it was fluid splashing off. Both the rigid and fluid works have a rusty brownish orange color (we were only allowed one color other than black for a word pair). The orange on rigid made it seem more like boulders in the desert whereas on fluid made it almost look like sand or lava.

For clumsy I went with a design that acted as if there was gravity in the piece. Different sized squares litter the bottom of the frame as if something had just dropped them, colliding with other squares. There’s no pattern in this piece.

By contrast, in my graceful interpretation, I decided to go with a pattern of squares that slowly increased then decreased in size, since I interpreted grace as meaningful and with purpose. I went with a curvy shape to sort of resemble wind or a dress, which represent grace to me.

Our last piece revolved around a piece that was based around the figure/ground reversible relationship (or 50% white 50% black). I decided to do one based around the rising sun, a popular Japanese motif. The black looks like the sun rising or a burst of energy, with the white looking like daggers piercing into a point. It’s up to you to decide which one it is.

This project helped to teach me the importance of Gestalt, as well as the relationship between the figure and the ground. Our eyes often perceive the whole, and I hope to use this principle more in my work in the future.