Following this, Arnheim published the article “Artistic Symbols - Freudian and Others.” In it he again returns to criticism of the aesthetics of psychoanalysis. According to Arnheim, psychoanalysts' excursions into the field of art are absolutely unfruitful.
“Every year we get some other interpretation of the image of Oedipus or Hamlet. These analyzes are either easily swallowed or ignored, and most often cause laughter among readers and do not give rise to any constructive discussion.” Freudian interpretations of works of art are arbitrary and random. By reducing art to the symbolic expression of sexual motives, Freudians, according to Arnheim, belittle art. “Even in that case,” he writes, “when the interpretation is not purely arbitrary, but is based on something, we nevertheless stop halfway in the holy of holies of art when we hear the statement that a work of art is only an expression of sexual desires, longing to return to the mother's womb or fear of castration. The benefit of this kind of communication is extremely insignificant, and one has to wonder why art was considered necessary in every culture known to us and why it penetrates so deeply into our lives and nature.
Polemics with representatives of Freudian aesthetics are also contained in the book “Art and visual perception" Arnheim opposes a number of representatives of the theory of psychoanalysis. He quite wittily makes fun of, for example, the Freudian writer G. Groddeck, who in his work “Man as a Symbol” tries to interpret some of Rembrandt’s paintings in a sexual sense and present the sculptural group Laocoon as a symbolic image of the genitals. “The most common objection to such an interpretation,” writes Arnheim, “is to point out its one-sidedness, which is expressed in the recognition of sex as the most important and fundamental point human life, to which everything spontaneously comes down. Psychologists have already pointed out that this position has not been proven. At best, this theory is true only for certain individuals with a disturbed psyche, or even for certain periods of culture, during which “over-exuberant sexuality overflows all limits.”
Arnheim is no less sharply opposed to the famous English art critic and art theorist Herbert Read. The subject of Arnheim's criticism is Reed's book Education through Art, where Reed, in the spirit of Freudianism, seeks to interpret children's creativity as an expression of innate and subconscious symbols.
Following Jung, Reed believes, for example, that children's use of such universal forms as the circle in their creativity is an expression of archetypes or sexual complexes lying somewhere in the depths of the unconscious. Arnheim refutes this opinion, proving its subjectivity and groundlessness. “Visually perceived symbols,” he writes, “cannot be adequately studied without recourse to perceptual and pictorial factors. A supporter of psychoanalysis who believes that the child begins his artistic activity with the image of circles due to his memories of the mother's breast, which was his first significant object life experience, neglects the elementary motor and visual conditions that cause preference over the shape of a circle or circle. Real symbols such as the sun disk or the cross reflect basic human experiences through basic pictorial forms.”
Thus, Arnheim throughout his book opposes Freudian aesthetics with its search for clinical symptoms and sexual symbols, mystification of the process of artistic creation. True, we must not lose sight of the fact that Arnheim’s criticism of Freudianism is not carried out from the position of a consistent materialist philosophy. But even given this circumstance, it is of great importance.
Freudian aesthetics completely excluded the function of cognition from the field of art. In contrast, Arnheim argues that art is a process of learning. According to him, the main danger that threatens art is the loss of understanding of art. “We deny the gift of understanding things that is given to us by our senses. As a result, the theoretical understanding of the process of perception has become separated from perception itself, and our thought moves into abstraction. Our eyes have become a mere instrument of measurement and recognition - hence the lack of ideas that can be expressed in images, and the inability to understand the meaning of what we see."
The theory of aesthetic perception that Arnheim develops is based on the fact that perception basically represents cognitive process, defined by shapes and type visual perception. This, perhaps, is the main value of Arnheim’s aesthetic concept.
Considering the perception of art as a cognitive process, Arnheim points out the specific features of this cognition. First of all, he emphasizes that aesthetic perception is not a passive, contemplative act, but a creative, active process. It is not limited only to the reproduction of an object, but also has productive functions, namely the creation of visual models. Each act of visual perception, according to Arnheim, represents an active study of an object, its visual assessment, selection of significant features, comparison of them with memory traces, their analysis and organization into a holistic visual image.
Visual perception in Arnheim's interpretation is an active, dynamic process. Vision cannot be measured in static, quantitative units - centimeters, wavelengths, etc., since it includes tension, a dynamic relationship of forces, as the most important, essential element. “Every visual model is dynamic... Any line drawn on a sheet of paper, any simplest form sculpted from a piece of clay, is like a stone thrown into a pond. All this is a disturbance of peace, a mobilization of space. Vision is the perception of action."
This one is active and creative nature visual perception has, according to Arnheim, a certain similarity with the process of intellectual cognition. If intellectual knowledge deals with logical categories, then artistic perception, while not being an intellectual process, nevertheless relies on certain structural principles, which Arnheim calls “visual concepts.” He distinguishes two types of such concepts - “perceptual”, with the help of which perception occurs, and “visual”, through which the artist embodies his thought into the material of art. Thus, perception consists of the formation of “perceptual concepts,” just as artistic creativity is the “formation of adequate pictorial concepts.” Arnheim attaches great importance to these concepts in the process of artistic perception and creativity. He even says that if Raphael had been born without arms, he would still have remained an artist.
According to Arnheim, visual perception in its structure is a sensory analogue of intellectual cognition. “At present, it can be argued,” writes Arnheim, “that the same mechanisms operate at both levels - perceptual and intellectual. Consequently, terms such as “concept”, “judgment”, “logic”, “abstraction”, “conclusion”, “calculation”, etc., must inevitably be used in the analysis and description of sensory cognition.”
This idea of Arnheim, despite the fact that it constitutes one of the main provisions of his theory of visual perception, seems to be somewhat debatable. In the book "Art and Visual Perception" it plays the role of a hypothesis rather than an experimentally proven truth. Nevertheless, Arnheim's assertion about the productive, creative nature of visual perception deserves close attention. To a certain extent, it receives recognition in Soviet psychology. Thus, in the article “Productive Perception” V.P. Zinchenko, referring in particular to Arnheim, writes: “Various functional systems are involved in the generation of an image, and the contribution of the visual system is especially significant. This contribution is not limited to the reproduction of reality. The visual system performs very important productive functions. And such concepts as “visual thinking”, “pictorial consideration” are by no means a metaphor.”
In assessing Arnheim's book, it is necessary to say a few words about its structure. It consists of ten chapters: “Balance”, “Outline”, “Form”, “Development”, “Space”, “Light”, “Color”, “Movement”, “Tension”, “Expressiveness” (in this edition, presenting an abridged translation of Arnheim's book, the chapter “Tension” is missing). This listing of names has its own sequence, its own logic. All chapters of the book reflect certain moments in the development of visual perception, in the movement of cognition from simple, elementary forms to the most complex and significant. The final chapter, “Expressiveness,” represents, in Arnheim's words, the “crown” of perceptual categories. It is the completion of the book and at the same time the completion of the process of visual perception. Thus, the structure of the book reveals the structure of the process of aesthetic perception, as Arnheim presents it, the most significant moments in the formation of a holistic artistic image.
Arnheim's book is written based on the principles and methodology of Gestalt psychology. This orientation to Gestalt psychology is especially noticeable in the “Introduction” and the first three chapters: “Balance”, “Shape”, “Form”. In the Introduction, Arnheim specifically emphasizes that the methodology of his research is based on the experimental and theoretical basis of Gestalt psychology. In this regard, he refers to the works of Gestalt psychologists K. Koffka, M. Wertheimer, W. Köhler, and in the field of psychology of art and pedagogy to the research of the Swiss teacher Gustav Britsch and the American psychologist Henry Schaefer-Zimmern.
Gestalt psychology is one of the most influential trends in modern psychology in the West. Its foundations were laid back in the 20s in the works of German psychologists who put forward the theory of the so-called Gestalt. The term “gestalt” cannot be unambiguously translated into Russian. It has a number of meanings, such as " complete image", "structure", "form". IN scientific literature this concept is most often used without translation, meaning a holistic unification of elements of mental life, irreducible to the sum of its constituent parts. In their works, Gestalt psychologists paid great attention to problems of perception. They opposed, first of all, the associative theory of perception that dominated the psychological theories of the 19th century. In contrast to this theory, they sought to prove that perception is holistic in nature and is built on the basis of the creation of integral structures, gestalts.
It should be noted that in their desire to reveal the holistic structural nature of perception, Gestalt psychologists often came to purely idealistic conclusions, to the recognition that the facts of visual perception are explained not only by the properties of objects of perception, but also by the innate, immanent structure of the phenomenal field, the action of electric fields of the brain.
“Gestalt psychologists,” notes R. L. Gregory, “believed that there were pictures inside the brain. They imagined perception as a modification of the brain's electrical fields, with these fields copying the shape of perceived objects. This doctrine, known as isomorphism, had a disastrous effect on the theory of perception. Since then, there has been a tendency to attribute properties to hypothetical brain fields that supposedly “explain” phenomena such as visual image distortion and other phenomena.”
Similar assessment philosophical meaning Gestalt psychology is given by V. P. Zinchenko. “Taking a position of psychophysical parallelism, Gestalt psychology considered the processes of formation of a perceptual image as a simple reflection. physiological processes of structure formation supposedly occurring inside the nervous system. The position of Gestalt psychologists that perceptual Gestalts are not a reflection of the external world, but of internal structures produced by the brain, is only new option old idealistic concept of physical idealism".
The visual analyzer is perhaps the most powerful of all existing ones. With the help of vision, a person cognizes the surrounding reality and perceives primary information about the world. What he sees causes him positive or negative emotions, helps to better understand how life works around you.
People with visual impairments not only suffer from the fact that they cannot see something, they experience a state of deprivation from the inability to fill their emotional sphere with new impressions. You can often observe how visually impaired individuals begin to listen more carefully to sounding word, trying to somehow compensate for his shortcomings.
Features of visual perception
Like any other analyzer, vision has its own physiological characteristics that allow it to perceive objects and phenomena of the surrounding world as fully as possible.
Color perception
Healthy human eye capable of perceiving all existing colors. This phenomenon is possible due to the perfect structure of the visual analyzer. The scientist Helmholtz formulated the concept of photosensitivity and determined what the perception of green, red, violet and other colors depends on. He also spoke about the excitations that are regulated by visual neurons in the cerebral cortex and create the sensation of the presence of a particular color.
Perception of space
Visual acuity usually refers to the ability to distinguish individual objects. The clearer this feature, the brighter a person’s ability to see well. Visual acuity is checked using specially designed tables in which the letters are arranged in such a way as to most clearly and completely display real picture. The human eye is able to embrace a fairly large space around itself, to catch the smallest units located both near and far. Moreover, at a very close distance, some things are often missed, but at a distance they are seen more clearly.
Perception of distance
Distances may be a sufficient barrier to viewing objects only for a person who is progressing or already has myopia. Otherwise, having healthy vision, people do not have to complain that some objects located in the distance are not perceived clearly. At its core, the visual analyzer can see equally well both near and far.
Perception of darkness
The human eye has unique ability see in complete darkness. If an individual is suddenly placed in dark space, then at first he will not see anything and will not be able to distinguish objects. But after a couple of minutes, the visual analyzer adapts to new conditions and gradually it becomes possible to first distinguish the outlines of individual objects, and then even navigate in space. The protective mechanism, which is included in the structure of the eye, allows a person, finding himself in extreme conditions, to maintain the ability to navigate the terrain.
Visual impairment
Visually impaired people cannot perceive the world with the same acuity that is available to a healthy person. Any visual impairment necessarily affects the eye’s ability to accommodate and actually perceive objects and phenomena. It has been experimentally proven that partially sighted people have a significantly reduced speed of object perception. That is, those who have poor vision first need to approach an object at a certain distance, examine it, and only then form their individual attitude towards it. A healthy person can do these same actions almost instantly, with ease, without thinking about what happens in the next minute.
Violation of the visual analyzer is characterized by a number of signs and features that must be identified separately.
- Decreased ability to see in the dark. People whose eyesight has become impaired to one degree or another often complain that in pitch darkness, even after two to five minutes, it is difficult for their eyes to adapt, and they literally lose their orientation in space. If a person is suddenly moved from a light environment to a dark one, then it will be quite difficult for him to understand which direction to move. In this situation, perhaps, only being in a familiar environment and having an idea of the location of objects helps.
- Feeling of discomfort. A person who has poor vision constantly experiences a feeling of internal inferiority. He has to work hard to get the information he needs. Despite all his efforts, however, he never has information in in full, since part of it is sure to be lost. Often such a person is forced to turn to other people with a request for assistance (for example, to read small text located at some distance), which in itself can sometimes be accompanied by awkwardness and embarrassment.
- Psychological deprivation. This state comes because a person, during his life, one way or another, gets used to the comfortable conditions that surround him. The ability to see is perceived by him not as a huge physical phenomenon, but rather as a given, without which it is impossible to do without. Therefore, when vision suddenly, for some unknown reason, begins to decline, the person finds himself in a situation of confusion. A depressed state of mind arises when it seems that the colors of the world are melting before our eyes and will never get better. If at the same time a person is forced to put aside his activities (for example, working on a computer), then an additional feeling of limitation and often hopelessness arises until help is provided. real help and support.
Correction of visual perception
Any violation of the visual analyzer requires mandatory correction. Unfortunately, nowadays, when most people prefer to spend their leisure time not in communication with loved ones and nature, but in front of the computer and TV, vision deteriorates much faster than in previous years. Young people are quietly spending more and more time in front of the monitor, thereby gradually “sagging” their eyes and not even recording these changes. Below are useful recommendations, which will help preserve vision for a long time and improve it if there are minor impairments.
Preventive examination. You must visit an ophthalmologist at least once or twice a year. During this period it is quite possible to identify visible changes visual acuity and take appropriate steps. If at the next examination it turns out that your vision has noticeably deteriorated, you should definitely consult how you can improve it. Often on initial stage you need to take certain vitamins, and your vision will gradually begin to return to normal. An ophthalmologist will give the necessary recommendations and, if necessary, prescribe corrective glasses.
Take breaks from working at the computer. Activities that require high concentration of attention and concentration of gaze sometimes lead to certain vision problems. If your job requires constant sitting in front of a monitor, there is reason to think and worry about your health. You can’t sit at the computer for several hours in a row and not look away. It has been noticed that in this position we blink much less often, which leads to drying out of the cornea of the eye. It won’t hurt to buy eye drops or purchase special glasses for working at a monitor if you experience stress every day.
Wear glasses if indicated. Many people neglect this simple rule and continue to strain their eyes. Instead of wearing glasses, people for some reason prefer to squint and experience certain inconveniences. Some people are frankly embarrassed to wear glasses, others find it inconvenient, and others simply forget. Of course, when vision is not significantly impaired, it is quite possible to do without this accessory. But if there is severe myopia, then you can’t do without them.
Do eye exercises. Everyone knows that eye exercises are highly effective. But for some reason people use this remedy little, although the benefits from it sometimes cannot be measured. All you need to do is develop the habit of regularly performing these simple actions.
Give yourself reasonable breaks. People whose profession is related to computers should understand that without daily care of their eyes, they can gradually deteriorate their vision. That is why it is so necessary to take short breaks every hour for ten to fifteen minutes. At this time, you can drink a glass of tea or coffee, go outside to breathe fresh air or just walk around the room.
Classes to develop visual perception
Below are exercises to correct declining vision and help maintain it. for many years. The development of visual perception begins with making a conscious decision. If you follow these recommendations every day, the results will be noticeable within a week. The tension and burning sensation in the eyes will go away.
- Palming. This exercise is sometimes called “The Warmth of Your Palms.” Its essence is as follows: you need to close your eyes, place your palms on them and sit in this position for several minutes. It is especially effective when you are very tired and the text on the monitor screen is already difficult to perceive. In five to seven minutes your eyes will rest and you will feel better. An indispensable condition: you need to close your eyes with your palms so that daylight does not penetrate into them. IN in this case darkness will act as a healing factor, having a beneficial effect.
- Let's draw a "snake". At a moment of extreme fatigue, you can try to draw a snake with your eye movement, which crawls from right to left, and then from left to right. This training is perfect for those whose activities require constant concentration and tension. The exercise allows you to relax the eye muscles and restore your previous visual acuity.
- Eyes in a circle. Mentally draw a circle and move your eyes in a circle: up - right - down - left. Repeat several times. The essence of this wonderful exercise is to perform this action as carefully as possible. During the exercise, the eyes relax and rest.
- "In different directions." Try to randomly make simple movements with your eyes: up, down, right, left, look at the far corner of the room and at the tip of your own nose. The point is to perform these actions not in a clear sequence, but separately. This achieves visual acuity and attention to detail.
Thus, human visual perception is a complex and highly organized process that requires a competent, responsible approach. The work of the visual analyzer is very important for the whole organism and, fortunately, it can be corrected.
Self-test questions
1. 1. What is the role of hairstyle in the image?
2. 2. What types of hairstyles do you know?
3. 3. What requirements should be observed when choosing an individual hairstyle?
Konstantinov A.V. Hairdressing. M., 1987.
Lobareva L.A. Lessons in attractiveness. M., 1995.
Shepel V.M. Secrets of personal charm. M., 1997.
Coloristics - aesthetics of tones
The theory of aesthetic perception is based on the fact that perception is basically a cognitive process determined by the forms and type of visual perception.
We will place special emphasis on the fact that aesthetic perception is not a passive, contemplative act, but an active creative process.
According to Arnheim, the author most interesting book“Art and Visual Perception”, each act of visual perception represents an active study of an object, its visual assessment, selection of existing features, comparison of them with memory traces, their analysis and organization of all this into a holistic image.
In the 20s of the 20th century, a new direction in psychology appeared - Gestalt. The term gestalt cannot be unambiguously translated into Russian; it has a number of meanings: holistic, image, structure, form. And it can be used without translation, meaning a holistic unification of elements of mental life, irreducible to the sum of its constituent parts. In their works, Gestalt psychologists focused on great attention problems of perception. They opposed primarily the associative theory of perception, which dominated psychological theories of the 19th century. They sought to prove that perception is holistic in nature and is built on the basis of the creation of integral structures - gestalts. Instead of abstract questions about how we see three dimensions, what sensory elements are, how their unification is possible, Gestalt psychologists put forward real and concrete problems: how we see things as they really are; how the figure is perceived separately from the background; what is a surface? what is form; why is it possible, without changing anything in an object, to “change” its weight, dimensions and other parameters.
Let's try to figure out how we see and help ourselves learn to manage visual perception.
So - any perception is also thinking, any reasoning is at the same time intuition, any observation is also creativity. And each person sees and hears only what he understands, and rejects what he does not understand.
It is often believed that the eye is like a camera. However, there are signs of perception that are completely different from the camera. The eye supplies the brain with information that is encoded into neural activity - a chain of electrical impulses, which in turn, using its code and brain activity, reproduces objects. It's like letters when reading, symbols are not pictures. There is no internal picture! For the brain, this structural excitation is the object.
Our brain groups objects and simple shapes and continues (completes) unfinished lines. A few lines are what the eye needs, the rest will be completed by the brain as it develops and understands.
The process of visual perception also includes knowledge about an object obtained from past experience, and this experience is not limited to vision, there is also touch, taste, color, olfactory, auditory, and other sensory characteristics of this object.
Perception goes beyond the sensations directly given to us. Perception and thinking do not exist independently of each other. The phrase: “What I see is what I understand” indicates a connection that truly exists.
When describing objects and things, we constantly point out their correlation with environment. No object is perceived in isolation. Perceiving something means attributing to this “something” a place in the system: location in space, degree of brightness, color, size, size, distance, etc. Changing our hairstyle, we suddenly notice that our face has become a little rounder. When choosing a dress style, we dream of “stretching” our legs and neck and “reducing” our waist size. We see more than what hits the retina. And this is not an action of the intellect!
It seems incredible, but any line drawn on paper or applied to the surface of an object (in our case, on clothing or on a face) is like a stone thrown into the calm water of a pond. All this is a disturbance of peace, mobilization of space, action, movement. And vision perceives this movement, this action.
This is where perceptual powers come into play. Are these forces real? In perceptual objects, no (of course, your height did not increase because you wore a vertical striped suit), but these forces can be considered as psychological counterparts or equivalents to physiological forces operating in the visual area of the brain. There is no reason to call these forces illusions; they are no more illusory than the colors inherent in the objects themselves, although colors from a physiological point of view are just a reaction of the nervous system to light with a certain wavelength.
I was given the best advice at the university even before entering: during the course on drawing and composition, they suggested reading the book “Art and Visual Perception” by Rudolf Arnheim. I was the only one out of about a hundred people who found the book and started reading. But then things went wrong with the display of pictures on the e-reader, so reading was postponed from July to April.
Arnheim says a lot of smart things about composition, human perception of objects, children's drawing and a lot of other things and does a couple of analyzes of works of art. A must-read for designers to improve their skills.
From each chapter I wrote out what was important and interesting.
Equilibrium
WEIGHT OF ELEMENTS
The weight depends on the location of the figurative element. An element located at or close to the center of the composition, or located on a vertical axis passing through the center of the composition, weighs less compositionally than an element located outside the main lines indicated on the composition. structurally(Fig. 3).
The object at the top of the composition is heavier than the one placed below, and the object located with right side, has more weight than the object located on the left.
When analyzing pictorial composition The lever principle, borrowed from physics, may also be useful. According to this principle, the weight of the depicted element increases in proportion to its distance from the center of balance.
Weight also depends on the size of the object. All other things being equal, a larger object will also look heavier. In terms of color, red is heavier than blue, and bright colors are heavier than dark colors. To cancel each other out, the area of the black space must be larger than the area of the white space. This is partly the result of the irradiation effect, which makes the bright surface appear relatively larger.
Ettel D. Puffer discovered "intrinsic interest" as one of the factors in compositional weight. The viewer's attention can be drawn to the space of a painting either by its content, or by the complexity of its form, or by other features.
The feeling of weight is facilitated by the isolation of an object from its surroundings. The moon and sun in a cloudless sky will appear much heavier than similar objects surrounded by other objects.
The correct form looks heavier than the incorrect form.
RIGHT AND LEFT SIDE
About positive vector
G. Wölfflin noticed that the direction of the diagonal going from the lower left corner to the upper right is perceived as ascending and gaining height, while the direction of the other diagonal appears to be descending.
According to Mercedes Gaffron, the viewer perceives the drawing as if he were focusing his attention on the left side of the drawing. Subjectively, he identifies himself with the left side, and everything that appears in this part of the picture has greater significance.
Obviously, when the viewer gets used to looking at left side, then a second, asymmetrical center appears in this side of the picture. Just like the center of the frame, this subjective center will have its own meaning and can be expected to influence the composition accordingly. As a result, a contrapuntal relationship is created between the two competing centers.
BALANCE AND THE HUMAN MIND
Just as the expressiveness of life is based on directed activity, and not empty, meaningless calm, so the expressiveness of a work of art is generated not by balance, harmony, unity, but by the nature of the organization of directed forces, which are in balance, unite, acquire consistency and order.
Outline
The actual appearance of an object is formed by its characteristic, significant spatial features.
Smart words about counterform
Any stimulating model is perceived in such a way that the resulting structure will be as simple as the given conditions allow.
ABOUT SIMPLICITY
When a work of art is praised for its “inherent simplicity,” this is understood as the organization of all the wealth of meanings and forms in an overall structure that clearly and clearly defines the place and function of each detail in a single whole.
In an absolute sense, an object is simple when it consists of a small number of characteristic structural features. In a relative sense, an object will be simple when it complex material organized with the help whenever possible smallest number characteristic structural features.
Features are structural properties that - when it comes to the appearance of an object - can be described in terms of distances and angles.
Smaller number characteristic features in a limited area often contributes to more of the characteristic features of the whole, or in other words, what makes a part simpler can make the whole less simple.
I believe that the desire for the simplest structure inherent in brain activity makes the result of perception as simple as possible. But the simplicity of the resulting experience also depends on: a) the simplicity of the stimulus from which the perception model arises; b) simplicity of the meaning conveyed by the object of perception; c) the interdependence of meaning and the result of perception; d) psychological “attitude” of the perceiving subject.
A very simple meaning, clothed in a correspondingly simple form, will result in the greatest simplicity. (In a work of art, this phenomenon usually causes boredom.)
A part is a section of a whole that, under given conditions, shows some degree of separation of a particular section from the environment.
These rules [grouping rules formulated by Wertheimer] can be considered an application of one of the basic principles - the “principle of similarity”. This law states that the more the parts of any visually perceived pattern are similar in some perceptual quality to each other, the more they will be perceived as being located together.
Form
Orientation in this case exists only relative to the structure of the object. The perception of the position of an object is actually influenced by not one, but three such structures: 1) the structural basis of the visually perceived objective world, 2) the visual area of the brain onto which the image is projected, and 3) the structural features of the body of the observer, who has kinesthetic perception through muscular sensations and the organ of balance in the inner ear.
So, the dynamic effect is not the result of either the imaginary movement of the viewer relative to the picture, or the depicted object relative to the perceiving subject. On the contrary, the dynamic effect is achieved as a result of the tension created by visually perceived contradictions in the pictorial model itself.
The early stages of art development contributed to the emergence of a simple form. However, it is impossible to assert the opposite: that simple form was always a product of early art.
If we take an Egyptian figure made of stone or a 14th century church altar from its usual surroundings and place it in a museum as independent work, then the limitations of their old form and content will immediately become apparent, since the new context requires them new form and new content.
In fact, the development of artistic imagination could more accurately be described as the finding of new forms for old content or (if we do not involve the dichotomy of form and content) as a new concept about an old subject.
The artist’s choice of one solution or another depends on the following factors: a) who the artist is, b) what he wants to say, c) what are the way and means of his thinking.
Development
About children's drawing
« General concept about the triangle” is the main, primary result of perception, and not a secondary, secondary concept. The distinction between individual triangles comes later, not earlier. The general concept of a dog is realized and felt much earlier than the concept of any specific dog. If this is true, then early artistic images, based on naive observation, must deal with universals, that is, with simple universals structural features. This is what is actually happening.
If I wish to represent the "roundness" of an object such as a human head, I cannot use the forms actually represented in it, but must find or invent a form that sufficiently embodies the visual universality of the idea of a circle inherent in the world of real things . If for a child a circle symbolizes human head, then this circle is not given to him in the object itself. She is his brilliant discovery, an impressive achievement, which the child came to only as a result of difficult experimentation.
The ability to capture the "feeling" of a tomato in pictorial form distinguishes the painter's response from the formless contemplation that characterizes the non-artist when he reacts to the same objects.
The processes of drawing with a pencil, painting a picture, modeling various bodies and figures are types of human motor behavior, and it can be assumed that they developed from the two most ancient and most common types behavior: descriptive and physiognomic movement.
Physiognomic movement is component bodily activity, which spontaneously reflects the character of a given personality, as well as the nature of a particular sensation in at the moment. A person's steadfastness or weakness, arrogance or shyness - all these traits are expressed in his movements. At the same time, the behavior of his body reveals whether he is interested or bored, happy or sad at the moment.
Descriptive movements are deliberate gestures designed to express specific visual sensations. We can use our arms and hands, often with our whole body, to show how big or small an object is, whether an object is round or angular, how slow or fast a movement is, how close or far something is. -or located away from us.
Gestures often describe the shape of objects by their contour, by their outlines, and it is for this reason that the image of a contour is, apparently, psychologically the simplest and most natural method of creating an image with the help of hands. Filling a surface with paint, modeling a sculptural object, or carving wood entail movements that may result in a desired form, but which are not in themselves an imitation of that form.
Due to the principle of simplicity, preference is given to the round shape in visual perception. The circle, with its central symmetry, independent of direction, is the simplest visually perceived model. We know that perception spontaneously tends to roundness when a stimulus provides it with such an opportunity. The perfection of the round shape attracts our attention.
In accordance with this law [the law of differentiation], the perceptual feature of the perceived object, while it is not yet differentiated, is reproduced as far as possible in the simplest way. A circle is the simplest possible shape available visual arts. Until the form becomes differentiated, the circle will not symbolize the generalized concept of a circle, but will mean any shape in general and no shape in particular.
The child will not begin to reproduce oblique relationships before he has fully mastered the stage of vertical-horizontal relationships, unless premature complexity is imposed on him by the teacher or other authority figures. On the other hand, one can easily observe how children grope for higher stages of differentiation because they are dissatisfied with the limitations of the previous stage.
It should not be forgotten that one cannot rise to a higher stage of drawing unless it has been preceded by an earlier stage.
Art student educational institution who imitates the performing style of his adored teacher is in danger of losing his intuitive sense of right and wrong, due to the fact that instead of mastering the visual form, he tries to imitate it. His work, instead of becoming convincing and congenial for him, causes confusion.
Composer Arnold Schoenberg, the author of the most intricate music, told his students that their works should be as natural to them as their arms and legs. The simpler these works seem to them, the better they will actually be. “If anything you write looks too complicated for you, you can rest assured that there is no smell of truth in it.”
Space
In general, the laws of perspective imply that, rather than larger sizes objects, the closer they appear to the subject perceiving them.
Parts located at the bottom tend to be closer to the viewer.
It has been established that surfaces painted with colors located in the short-wave range of the light spectrum, mainly blue or cyan, appear further away from the subject perceiving them than surfaces painted with colors in the long-wave range, primarily red.
For most people, convex columns are most often perceived as figures because, according to one of the laws formulated by Rubin, convexity tends to defeat concavity.
The basic rule is that the variant of the “figure-ground” pattern that creates a simpler holistic model will prevail. For example, the simpler the shape that the spaces between the figures in a drawing have, the more likely it is that they will be perceived as defined patterns rather than as an unbounded background.
As the space of the painting became an independent object and was freed from walls, it became necessary to distinguish between the physical space of the room and independent world paintings. This world begins to be perceived as endless - not only in depth, but also in the literal sense of the word. Therefore, the boundaries of the picture indicate only the end of the composition, but not the end of the depicted space. The frame of the picture was considered as a window through which the viewer looks into outside world, squeezed by the boundaries of the frame, but not limited by it. In the spirit of our modern discussions, this meant that the frame in the picture should play the role of a figure, and the space of the picture should serve as an unrestricted base.
The frame, either narrowing to a thin strip (the limit of such narrowing is the contour), or retreating back, adapts to its new function: to give the picture the character of a limited surface, the character of a “figure” located in front of the wall.
There are various ways to resolve this dilemma [the window - a small limited space on the plane of the base - had to be a “figure” and at the same time it acted as a hole in the wall]. One of these paths is carried out using a traditional cornice. A cornice is not only a decoration, but also a certain way of framing a window. It emphasizes the character of the figure inherent in the opening and forms a protrusion at the bottom that limits the surface of the wall as a base. Another solution is to expand the window area. As a result, the walls are reduced both vertically and horizontally to the size of narrow ribbons or strips.
In architecture, the concave shape is more acceptable. This happens in part because architectural structure is not merely an imitation of organic bodies, but partly because architecture always has to deal with hollow interiors. Any interior, regardless of its appearance there is always a gap.
We see images of depth in flat paintings because we adapt to them our experience of dealing with three-dimensional bodies in physical space.
Conditions of distortion (you can't figure it out just like that)
The outline of a visually perceived model A will appear distorted if it can be obtained by applying to model B, which is more simplified than A, a change in shape C, which is also somewhat simpler than A; this change takes place along axes that do not coincide with the axes of model B and do not abolish these axes.
The frontal position of the diamond gives way to the inclined position of the square. The oblique arrangement of the figure is less simple than the frontal one, so that we gain simplicity and at the same time lose it. Therefore, when we are dealing with volumetric perception, we should keep in mind that the undistorted shape in the oblique position contributes to a simpler situation overall than the distorted shape in the frontal position.
When simple symmetry is achieved in two dimensions, we will see flat figure. If achieving symmetry entails a third dimension, then we will already see a three-dimensional body.
The perception of a model as two-dimensional or three-dimensional depends on the option with which a simpler model is formed.
The strength of the visual experience achieved through perspective focusing depends primarily on three factors: the angle of convergence, the degree of visibility of the distorted object, and the distance of the viewer from the picture.
Convergence will be more impressive when, for example, train tracks are shown as a whole across the entire visual field, rather than just in isolated small sections.
Convergence also depends on the angle at which the subject is photographed. When the camera's line of sight intersects the surface of the photographed object at a right angle, no distortion is observed. But if the angle deviates from 90 degrees, the reduction in foreshortening and convergence increase.
Light
If we have to deal with the frequent repetition of some event or the repeated perception of some thing and have learned to react to them completely calmly, then, in all likelihood, our mind and our feelings will not actively respond to them.
The artist's concept of light is formed under the influence common position person and his reactions. This is done in two ways. Firstly, light is of practical interest to the artist as a means of focusing attention. Secondly, the artist's idea of light is based on the evidence of his own eyes - evidence which in itself differs significantly from the scientist's view of physical reality.
The brightness of objects on earth is perceived mainly as a property of themselves, and not as a result of reflection. Without taking into account special conditions... the illumination of a house, a tree or a book lying on the table is not perceived by us as some kind of gift from a distant source.
An observer cannot make a strict distinction between the brightness of an object and its illumination. In fact, he does not see any illumination at all, although he may be aware of the existence of a light source or even see it.
Whether a handkerchief appears white or not depends not on the absolute amount of light it sends to the eye, but on its place in the scale of the ratio of brightnesses that are observed in the eye. given time. If all the brightness ratios in a given visual field are changed in the same proportion, then each ratio will appear to remain “constant”. But if the distribution of brightness ratios has changed, then each ratio will change accordingly and there will be no constancy here.
Glow is somewhere in the middle of a continuum that starts with bright light sources (sun, fire, electric lamps) and extends to the dim illumination of everyday objects.
One of the conditions, but not the only one, for the perception of luminescence is that the object must have a luminance ratio that is much higher than the scale established for the rest of the visual field. Its absolute brightness can be quite low, such as we see, for example, in the luminous golden tones in the famous paintings of Rembrandt, which have not faded for three centuries. On a darkened street, a piece of newspaper sparkles like a light.
In a uniformly illuminated object, it is impossible to see where it gets its brightness from. Its illumination, as I said earlier, seems to be a property inherent in the object itself. The same can be said for an evenly lit room. A theater stage viewed from a darkened theater does not necessarily give the impression that it is being illuminated at the moment. When the light is evenly distributed, the scene can seem like a very bright world, a huge luminary.
In order to create the impression of a uniformly increasing distance, the scale of degrees of darkness projected onto the retina of the eye must increase at a certain rate in accordance with the laws of perspective in pyramidal space.
Parallel surfaces are “linked” together by the eye regardless of their location on the landscape, and this network of relationships is a powerful means of creating spatial order and unity. If a fly crawling over an object experiences nothing but an incomprehensible and irregular sequence of rises and depressions, then the attentive human eye perceives the whole, comparing all spatially correlated areas.
Modern fashion in the art of interior decoration dictates that the walls containing windows be painted a little brighter than the walls on which the light directly falls. This partially compensates for the effect of lighting and contrast.
In order for the eye to distinguish the illumination of objects from their brightness, two conditions must apparently be met. First, all brightness relationships due to lighting must be summed up into a visually simple, unified system; Likewise, the pattern of dark and light tones on the surface of an object should be fairly simple. Secondly, the structural models of the two systems should not coincide.
Artists such as Caravaggio sometimes used strong lateral light to simplify and coordinate the spatial organization of their paintings. Roger de Pille, French writer XVII century, said that if objects are arranged in such a way that all the light is collected together on one side and the shadows on the other, then such a collection of light and shadows will prevent the eye from wandering. “Titian called this distribution of sources a bunch of grapes, because the grapes, when divided, have their own light and shadow in equal measure and thus split the view in many directions, resulting in confusion; but if the fruits are collected into a whole bunch in such a way that there is one mass of light and one mass of shadow, then the eye embraces them as a single object.”
Shadows can be cast or cast. Superimposed shadows lie directly on objects, but they themselves are formed by their shape, spatial orientation and distance from the light source. Cast shadows are shadows that are cast by one object on another, or by one part of an object on another part of it.
There are two points that our eye must understand. The first is that the shadow does not belong to the object on which it is visible, and the second is that the shadow belongs to the object on which it does not fall.
A few words should be said about the convergence of shadows. Because the sun is so far away that in a fairly narrow range of space its rays become practically parallel, the light creates an isometric projection of the shadow, that is, lines that are parallel in the object are also parallel in the shadow.
But a shadow is subject to perspective distortion, just like any other visually perceived object. Therefore, it will appear to converge away from the point of contact with the object when it is behind the object, and diverge if it lies in front of it.
The object appears illuminated not only because of its absolute brightness, but also because it significantly exceeds the level of illumination of the rest of the canvas. Thus, the mysterious light of rather dark objects is revealed when they are placed in an even darker environment. Moreover, glow occurs when brightness is not perceived as a result of illumination. To do this, shadows must be eliminated or, in extreme cases, reduced to a minimum, and the most bright light must appear within the boundaries of the object itself.
There are two main ways to depict lighting in a painting. The simplest and oldest method reflects the experience of perceptual separation in the very process of creating a picture. The object is endowed with a uniform local color and brightness, on which light and shadow are applied separately. Another method makes it possible to communicate to the eye an already combined stimulus that it receives from physical space. If each location in the painting is characterized by an appropriate ratio of brightness and color, then the viewer will make divisions and perceive the lighting of the painting in the same way as he does in physical space.
Color
Rorschach found that a calm mood promoted reactions to color, while people in a depressed mood were more likely to respond to shape. Color dominance indicates openness to external stimuli. People who prefer color are sensitive, easily influenced, unstable, disorganized, and prone to emotional outbursts. Preference and response to form is characteristic of introverted people, characterized by strict self-control, a pedantic, unemotional attitude towards everything around them.
Like color, emotion evokes only a certain attitude in us. On the contrary, the form seems to require a more active response. We carefully examine the object, establish its structural basis, and relate the parts to the whole. In the same way, consciousness acts under the influence of our impulses, it uses patterns, coordinates various types of experience and resolves issues related to the process of activity. When color is perceived, the action comes from the object and thereby affects the person. To perceive form, organized thought turns to an object.
The inertia of the perceiving subject and the immediacy of experience are more characteristic of reactions to color. The perception of form is characterized by active control.
Charles Feret discovered that the strength of muscle contractions and the speed of blood circulation increase from the degree of coloration of light, and in a certain sequence - least of all from the presence blue, slightly more from green, then from yellow, orange and red. This physiological feature of the human body is fully confirmed by psychological observations of the effect caused by this color, but there is nothing confirming whether we are dealing here with a secondary effect of perception or whether there is a more direct influence of light energy on motor behavior and blood circulation.
In one of his early studies, Sidney L. Pressey had his subjects perform simple motor actions, such as rhythmic finger tapping, under varying degrees of brightness and illumination. He found that in dim light the activity of the subjects froze, but in bright light it increased greatly. The difference in color shades did not affect the change in the actions performed.
Kandinsky says: “Of course, any color can be cold and warm, but nowhere is this contrast so noticeable as in red.” Despite all its energy and intensity, the color red glows within itself and does not radiate energy outward, thereby achieving full masculine strength. He is an inexorable burning passion, enormous strength in yourself. Yellow never carries any deep meaning and is a waste of time. It is also true that Kandinsky spoke of it as a color capable of depicting violence or the delirium of the insane. But here he probably meant a very bright yellow, which seemed unbearable to him, like the shrill sound of a bugle. Dark blue color plunges "into deep thought about all things that have no end," while light blue "achieves silent calm."
The appearance and expression of color changes depending on the content and theme of the artwork.
Movement
Expressiveness
The influence of the forces conveyed by the visual model is an internal property of the object of perception, just like shape and color.
If expressiveness constitutes the main content of perception in everyday life, then this is even more characteristic of the artist’s vision of the world. For him, expressive properties are means of communication. They attract his attention, and with their help he understands and interprets his experience, they determine the form of the models that he creates. The training of art students, therefore, must consist chiefly in sharpening their sense of these expressive qualities, and in teaching them to look upon expression as the leading criterion in every touch of pencil, brush, or chisel.
One of the points of wisdom that belongs to true culture is the constant awareness symbolic meaning, expressed in each specific event, a sense of the universal in the specific. This awareness gives dignity to every daily activity and prepares the ground on which art is based and grows.
The high appreciation of art is determined by the fact that it helps a person understand the world and himself, and also shows him what he has understood and what he considers true. Everything in this world is unique, individual, there cannot be two identical things. However, everything is comprehended by the human mind and is comprehended only because - each thing consists of moments that are inherent not only to a specific object, but are common to many other or even all things.
Expressiveness is the crown of all perceptual categories, each of which contributes to the emergence of expressiveness through visually perceived tension.
Any visual model is dynamic. This most elementary property turns out to be the most significant attribute work of art, since if a sculpture or painting did not express the dynamics of tension, they could not faithfully reflect our life.
Perceptions: visual, auditory or kinesthetic - Efremtsov’s diagnosis of the dominant perceptual modality is used. With its help, you can determine what type of people you and your loved ones are. With what organs do you perceive the world around you: auditorily, visually or by touch? The technique of determining the channel of perception is necessary in order to better understand oneself and others.
Visual, auditory, kinesthetic - each person has a leader who responds more often and faster to external stimuli and signals. If you and a person close to you belong to similar types, this will contribute to your mutual understanding; discrepancies can cause misunderstandings and conflict situations.
Personality types: visual, auditory, kinesthetic
Visual perception is inherent in people belonging to the visual type and characterizes kinesthetics. Auditory - auditory. There is another type - digital, people belonging to it perceive the world around them, listening to their own logic. It remains to determine who you are - visual, auditory, kinesthetic, digital. A test for diagnosing perception was developed by Efremtsov S.
Visual perception
Visual learners are distinguished by their gaze, when they try to remember something, directed upward and to the right. When they are thinking about something or imagining images of the future, they look up to the right. A defocused gaze directed into the distance is the first sign that there are visuals in front of you. Auditory and kinesthetic learners do not react so strongly to visible part peace.
When communicating with visual learners, try to describe images, use facial expressions and gestures. Visual learners first of all pay attention to the interlocutor, and only then to intonation. It is very important for a visual person to be looked at during a conversation, otherwise he feels like he is not being listened to.
Auditory perception
Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners perceive the world around them differently. Auditory learners primarily describe their sensations using sounds. They are characterized by strength and the dominant organ of perception is hearing. Auditory learners do not like silence; they always have music playing and the TV on. For better memorization, a person of the auditory type speaks information out loud, trying to better understand and remember it. Such people do not need to know many details, they are only interested in the facts.
Kinesthetic perception
Kinesthetics react to the world based on their sensory experience, their emotions. They remember movements, sensations, smells. In communication, kinesthetics prefer to feel the physical proximity of the interlocutor. It's difficult for such people long time stay still and listen carefully. They love to touch their interlocutor and put their hand on their shoulder. Many people with kinesthetic perception often twirl, finger, or stroke something in their hands.
Digitals
A person with a digital type of perception is characterized by such qualities as a penchant for analysis, logic, rationality and non-standard thinking. For digital, logical conclusions and facts come first, so in a conversation with him there is no need to speculate or build hypotheses. He is close to signs, symbols and numbers, rather than auditory and visual images. Such people like everything to be logical, clear and without unnecessary details.
Thus, knowing what visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and digital students are, you can make the communication process more comfortable.