{"id":4781,"date":"2010-07-08T06:57:54","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T06:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/?p=4781"},"modified":"2012-07-09T16:04:37","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T16:04:37","slug":"art-and-visual-perception-a-psychology-of-the-creative-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/?p=4781","title":{"rendered":"Art and visual perception, a psychology of the creative eye"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"top\" \/><em>Rudolph Arnheim<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Balance<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>For any spatial relation between object there is a &#8220;correct&#8221; distance, established by the eye intuitively &#8211; p.12<\/li>\n<li>Any line drawn on a sheet of paper, the simplest form modeled from a piece of clay, is like a rock thrown into a pond. It upsets repose, it mobilizes space. Seeing is the perception of action. &#8211; p.16<\/li>\n<li>Even a very simple visual pattern is fundamentally affected by the structure of its spatial surroundings, and that balance can be disturbingly ambiguous when shape and spatial location contradict each other. &#8211; p.19<\/li>\n<li>An unbalanced composition looks accidental, transitory, and therefore invalid. Its elements show a tendency to change place or shape in order to reach a state that better accords with the total structure. &#8211; p.20<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Shape<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The world of images does not simply imprint itself upon a faithfully sensitive organ. Rather, in looking at an object, we reach out for it. With an invisible \ufb01nger we move through the space around us, go out to the distant places where things are found, touch them, catch them, scan their surfaces, trace their borders, explore their texture. Perceiving shapes is an eminently active occupation. &#8211; p.43<\/li>\n<li>When the thing observed lacks integrity, i.e. when it is seen as an agglomeration of pieces, the details lose their meaning and the whole becomes unrecognizable. &#8211; p.44<\/li>\n<li>Perceiving accomplishes at the sensory level what in the realm of reasoning is known as understanding. Every man\u2019s eyesight anticipates in a modest way the justly admired capacity of the artist to produce patterns that validly interpret experience by means of organized form. Eyesight is insight. &#8211; p.46<\/li>\n<li>Perceptual shape is the outcome of an interplay between the physical object, the medium of light acting as the transmitter of information, and the conditions prevailing in the nervous system of the viewer. &#8211; p.47<\/li>\n<li>The shape of an object is depicted by the spatial features that are considered essential. &#8211; p.48<\/li>\n<li>The interaction between the shape of the present object and that of things seen in the past is not automatic and ubiquitous, but depends on whether a relation is perceived between them. &#8211; p.48<\/li>\n<li>The greater the biological relevance an object has to us, the more we will be attuned to its recognition &#8211; and the more tolerant will therefore be our standards of formal correspondence. &#8211; p.51<\/li>\n<li>Any stimulus pattern tends to be seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as the given conditions permit. &#8211; p.53<\/li>\n<li>When things are arranged in such a way that when they are presented to us by the senses we can easily imagine and, in consequence, easily remember them, we call them well ordered and, in the opposite case, call them badly ordered or confused. &#8211; p.55<\/li>\n<li>We may arrive at a good approximate de\ufb01nition of simplicity by counting not the elements, but the structural features. &#8211; p.57<\/li>\n<li>Simple shape, notably symmetry, contributes to equilibrium. &#8211; p.74<\/li>\n<li>The appearance of any part depends, to a greater or lesser extent, on the structure of the whole, and the whole, in turn, is in\ufb02uenced by the nature of its parts. &#8211; p.78<\/li>\n<li>Similarity is a prerequisite for the noticing of differences. &#8211; p.79<\/li>\n<li>A visual object is the more unitary, the more strictly similar its emelents are in such factors as color, brightness, and speed and direction of movement. &#8211; p.88<\/li>\n<li>The same structural skeleton can be embodied by a great variety of shapes. &#8211; p.95<\/li>\n<li>If a given visual pattern can yield two different structural skeletons, it may be perceived as two totally different objects. &#8211; p.95<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Form<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Image-making, artistic or otherwise, does not simply derives from the optical projection of the object represented, but is an equivalent, rendered with the properties of a particular medium, of what is observed in the object. &#8211; p.98<\/li>\n<li>Perception automatically completes the whole body according to the simplest shape compatible with the perceived projection. &#8211; p.116<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Growth<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>We can expect early artistic representations, based on naive observation, to be concerned with generalities &#8211; that is, with simple, overall structural features. &#8211; p.167<\/li>\n<li> The law of differentiation states that until a visual feature becomes differentiated, the total range of its possibilities will be represented by the structurally simplest among them. &#8211; p.181<\/li>\n<li>As long as the two-dimensional view is not differentiated from the projective view, the \ufb02at pictorial plane serves to represent them both. &#8211; p.202<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Space<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Line presents itself in three basically different ways : as object line, hatch line and contour line &#8211; p.219<\/li>\n<li>Figure-ground is not just a matter of static spatial location but involves a difference of dynamics. Bulges and pointed angles are like wedges pushing forward &#8211; p.232<\/li>\n<li>It seems more adequate to speak of patterns distributed over a number of depth levels, the basic \ufb01gure-ground pattern being a special case, namely an organisation of only two levels &#8211; p.233<\/li>\n<li>Pictorial space is best de\ufb01ned as a continuous relief in which areas at different distances border upon one another &#8211; p.236<\/li>\n<li>Concerning the more speci\ufb01c problem of the negative spaces, it may be added that the delicate task of determining the proper distances between pictorial objects probably requires a sensitive attention to physiologically determined attractions and repulsions in the visual \ufb01eld &#8211; p.239<\/li>\n<li>The frame is used as \ufb01gure, with the picture space providing and underlying borderless ground &#8211; p.239<\/li>\n<li>Areas physically located in the same picture plane split appart in depth and assume a \ufb01gure-ground con\ufb01guration because simplicity increases when the one-sidedness of the contour is uncontested and when the ground can be seen as continuating beneath the \ufb01gure without interruption &#8211; p.245<\/li>\n<li>A pattern will appear three-dimensionnal when it can be seen as the projection of a three-dimensional situation that is structuraly simpler than the two-dimensional one &#8211; p.248<\/li>\n<li>If the shape of a physically transparent surface coincides with the shape of the ground, no transparency is seen. Nor is transparency visible when a piece of transparent material is laid on a homogeneous ground. It takes three planes to create transparency &#8211; p.253<\/li>\n<li>Objects can partake of the third dimension in two ways : by tilting away from the frontal plane and by acquiring roundness or volume &#8211; p.258<\/li>\n<li>Deformation is the key factor in depth perception because it decreases simplicity and increase tension in the visual \ufb01eld and thereby creates an urge toward simpli\ufb01cation and relaxation. This urge can be satis\ufb01ed under certain conditions by transferring shapes into the third dimension &#8211; p. 259<\/li>\n<li>Deformation always involves a comparison of what &#8220;is&#8221; with what &#8220;ought&#8221; to be. The deformed object is seen as a digression from something else &#8211; p.259<\/li>\n<li>There is actually a trade off between the simplicity factors of two- and three-dimensional versions. When we call the three-dimensional version the simpler one, we mean that it wins the trade off &#8211; p.261<\/li>\n<li>The rule that controls the rendering of depth in planes prescribes that no acpect of visual structure will be deformed unless space perception requires it &#8211; regardless of what a mechanically correct projection would call for &#8211; p.263<\/li>\n<li>Divergent perspective is one of the devices employed by the draftman to cope with a chatacteristic trait of the pictorial medium : except for the special case of transparency, no more than one thing at a time can ever be directly visible in any one spot of the surface &#8211; p.264<\/li>\n<li>The stimulus pattern recorded by the retinas is invariable, but here again, just as in the case of \ufb01gure and ground and superposition, the third dimension offers an avenue of freedom, which permits the fusion of the two \ufb02at images into one three dimensional image. Thus once again, three dimensionality is brought about by the tendency toward simpli\ufb01cation and tension reduction &#8211; p.270<\/li>\n<li>The changing tension in the muscles that hold and move the eyeballs is correlated to distance in the nervous system. The convergence is activated, of course, by the tendency to make the two images coincide and thereby to simplify the perceptual situation &#8211; p.271<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Constancy of size and shape&#8221; is often taken to mean that despite the projective deformations, visual objects are seen according to their objective physical shape. The objects are said to remain &#8220;constant&#8221;. There is some truth to this observation, but it does not hold as universally as it pretends to, and it substitutes a secondary principle of explanation for the primary one. It is essential for the artist to realize that the constancy of size and shape depends on the tendency to simplest shape, which may or may not produce a &#8220;truthful&#8221; percept &#8211; p.271<\/li>\n<li>The percept will correspond to the shapes of a foreshortened physical object when, and only when, this shape happens to be the simplest \ufb01gure of which the projective pattern can be seen as a deformation &#8211; p.272<\/li>\n<li>The more explicitly the gradient is presented in shape, color, or movement, the more compelling is the depth effect. Fidelity to the physical world is not a crucial variable &#8211; p.276<\/li>\n<li>Isometric perspective has no center but presents a segment of a ribbon-like sequence. As such, it is particularly well-suited to the Japanese hand scrolls, which in fact run endlessly in a horizontal panorama and could not accomodate the image of a centered world &#8211; p.280<\/li>\n<li>There is something curiously paradoxical about the world presented in isometric perspective, which moves away in depth because of its obliqueness but at the same time remains at an unchanging distance because size stands constant troughout. Although tilted, this world never seems to really leave the frontal plane of the picture &#8211; a property that recommends it for a style basically commited to the pictorial surface. But it is too con\ufb01ning for an urge toward the unbound in\ufb01nity of space &#8211; p.280<\/li>\n<li>If the frontal pattern has much simplicity it will in\ufb02uence the percept in the direction of \ufb02atness &#8211; p.288<\/li>\n<li>The vanishing point is not only the re\ufb02ection of the location from which the ideal viewer is looking at the picture ; it is also and mainly the apex of the pyramidal world portrayed in the picture &#8211; p.295<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Light<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>As in the case of the perception of size or shape, we cannot account for the facts by talking about the &#8220;constancy&#8221; of brightness, certainly not in the simple sense of asserting that objects are seen &#8220;as bright as they really are&#8221;. The brightness we see depends, in a complex manner, on the distribution of light in the total situation, on the optical and physiological processes in the observer\u2019s eye and nervous system, and on an object\u2019s capacity to absorb and re\ufb02ect the light it receives. &#8211; p.305<\/li>\n<li> This separation of illumination and object color re\ufb02ected the perceptual split obsered by the painter as he looked at things in the physical world ; it also manifested a practical, object-oriented attitude, intent on distinguishing properties of the objects themselves from transitory effects momentarily imposed upon them. &#8211; p.310<\/li>\n<li>Units of similar brightness are grouped together in perception. Thus a grouping by similarity of brightness indirectly introduces a grouping by similarity of spatial orientation. Parallel surfaces are knitted together by the eye at whatever place in the relief they may occur, and this network of relations is a powerful mean of creating spatial order and unity. &#8211; p.313 <em>Reminds me the idea of appearance clusters!<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Dark shadows will destroy shape not only by hiding relevant portions of the object but also by cutting across the continuity of the curvature with sharp boundary lines between brightness and darkness. &#8211; p.314<\/li>\n<li>Dark shading will make the surface recede toward the contours. Highlights will make it protrude. These variations are used to create roundness or hollowness ; they do not necessarily imply a relation to a light source. &#8211; p.321<\/li>\n<li>In adapting itself to the requirements of composition and shape, brightness is often distributed in a way that would be termed incorrect if judged by the laws of illumination. &#8211; p.321<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Color<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Under strong illumination the reds look particularly bright because the cones of the retina do most of the work and are most responsive to longer wavelengths. Dim light will bring the greens and blues to the fore but also make them appear more whitish because now the retinal rods, which are more responsive to light of shorter wavelentgh, share in the work, althought they do not contribute to the perception of hue. &#8211; p.334<\/li>\n<li>Generative primaries refer to the process by which colors come about ; fundamental primaries are the elements of what we see once colors appear in the visual \ufb01eld. &#8211; p.340<\/li>\n<li>Not the main color but the color toward which it deviates may determine a color\u2019s temperature. &#8211; p.369<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Movement<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The high speed of an object may be perceived as being caused by great motor power in the object, weak resistance of the medium, or both. Slowness is seen as weakness of effort on the part of the object, great resistance of the medium, or both. &#8211; P.386<\/li>\n<li>Large objects seem to move more slowly than small ones. A smaller surrounding \ufb01eld makes for faster motion. &#8211; p.386<\/li>\n<li>In movement, just as in motionless patterns, symmetry creates a subdivision along its axis, which tends to discourage crossings even where local consistencies of the path favor it. &#8211; p.390<\/li>\n<li>What counts is the level of complexity in the observed behavior. If we attempt informally to sketch some of the pertinent criteria, we \ufb01nd the following. In agreement with the opinions of children, there is \ufb01rst the difference between what moves and what does not move. Second, \ufb02exible movement, which involves internal change, is at a higher level of complexity than the mere displacement of rigid objects or parts of objects. Third, an object that mobilizes its own power and determine its own course is higher than one that is moved and steered &#8211; that is, passively submits to being pushed, pulled, repelled, attracted &#8211; by an external agent. Fourth, among the &#8220;active&#8221; objects there is a distinction between those that move merely on an internal impulse and others whose behavior is in\ufb02uenced by external centers of reference. Within this latter group there is lower-level behavior, which requires direct contact by the outer agent, and high-level behavior, which involves response to the object of reference across some distance in space. &#8211; p.401<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Dynamics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The principle of simplicity, a basic guideline of gestalt psychology, holds that any visual pattern will tend toward the simplest con\ufb01guration available to the sense of sight under the given circumstances. However, the tendency toward simplicity alone cannot do justice to what we see ; it leads to one-sided descriptions unless it is counter-balanced by a second, equally in\ufb02uencial principle. &#8211; p.410<\/li>\n<li>Depending on the message and style of work, tension may be low and the order simple, or tension may be high and the order complex. One could try to assign every particular style of art its place on a scale leading from a minimum to a maximum visual tension. &#8211; p.412<\/li>\n<li>Every visual object is an eminently dynamic affair. Although useful for practical and scienti\ufb01c purposes, such metric descriptions overlook the primary quality of all perception, the agressive outward pointing of the triangle, the dissonant clash of the hues, the onrush of the movement. These dynamic properties, inherent in everything our eyes perceive, are so fundamental that we can say : Visual Perception is the experiencing of visual forces. &#8211; p.412<\/li>\n<li>Directed tension is what we are talking about when we discuss visual dynamics. It is a property inherent in shapes, colors and locomotion, not something added to the percept by the imagination of an observer who relies on his memories. The conditions creating-dynamics have to be sought in the visual object itself. &#8211; p.416<\/li>\n<li>Nature is alive to our eyes partly because its shapes are fossils of the events that gave rise to them. The past history is not merely inferred intellectually from clues, but directly experienced as forces and tensions present and active in visible shape. &#8211; p.417<\/li>\n<li>The dynamics of the art of creation has become a valued addition to whatever action was contained in the created shapes themselves. &#8211; p.418<\/li>\n<li>When the artist represents familiar shapes he can rely on the norm image the viewer harbors within himself. By deviating from this norm image, one can create tension. &#8211; p.429<\/li>\n<li>Tension is created by the implicit presence of the norm base from which a shape deviates. Something similar can be seen in colors quite close to a simple hue, for example, a pure red af\ufb02icted by a subordinate admixture of blue. &#8211; p.431<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Expression<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>We de\ufb01ne expression as modes of organic or inorganic behavior displayed in the dynamic appearance of perceptual objects or events. &#8211; p.445<\/li>\n<li>If expression is an inherent characteristic of perceptual patterns, its manifestations in the human \ufb01gure are but a special case of a more general phenomenon. The comparison of an object\u2019s expression with a human state of mind is a secondary process. The willow is not &#8220;sad&#8221; because it looks like a sad person. Rather, because the shape, direction, and \ufb02exibility of the branches convey a passive hanging, a comparison with the structurally similar state of mind and body that we all call sadness imposes itself secondarily. &#8211; p.452<\/li>\n<li>The poetical habit of uniting practically disparate objects by metaphor is not a sophisticated invention of artists, but derives from and relies on the universal and spontaneous way of approaching the world of experience. &#8211; p.454<\/li>\n<li>It is the function of the metaphor to make the reader penetrate the conventional shell of the world of things by juxtaposing objects that have little in common but the underlying pattern. &#8211; p.454<\/li>\n<li>Our analysis shows that the ultimate theme of the image, the idea of creation, is conveyed by what strikes the eye \ufb01rst and continues to organize the composition as we examine its details. The structural skeleton reveals the dynamic theme of the story. And since the pattern of transmitted, life-giving energy is not simply recorded by the sense of vision but presumably arouses in the mind a corresponding con\ufb01guration of forces, the observer\u2019s reaction is more than a mere taking cognizance of an external object. The forces that characterize the meaning of the story come alive in the observer and produce the kind of stirring participation that distinguishes artistic experience from the detached acceptance of information. &#8211; p.460<\/li>\n<li>The visual form of a work of art is neither arbritrary nor a mere play of shapes and colors. It is indispensable as a precise interpreter of the idea the work is meant to express. Similarly, the subject matter is neither arbitrary nor unimportant. It is exactly correlated with the formal pattern to supply a concrete embodiment of an abstract theme. &#8211; p.460<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rudolph Arnheim Balance For any spatial relation between object there is a &#8220;correct&#8221; distance, established by the eye intuitively &#8211; p.12 Any line drawn on a sheet of paper, the simplest form modeled from a piece of clay, is like a rock thrown into a pond. It upsets repose, it mobilizes space. Seeing is the &#8230; <a title=\"Art and visual perception, a psychology of the creative eye\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/?p=4781\" aria-label=\"Read more about Art and visual perception, a psychology of the creative eye\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[621],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4781"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22821,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4781\/revisions\/22821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}