Cousin, Jehan: Livre de pourtraiture"Turning from full face to profile causes every single feature of the face to change beyond recognition in terms of abstract form. But in the total likeness no change occurs. The recognition of real objects is not dependent on memorizing their many formal aspects. Understanding of reality comes before the appreciation of abstract form." - Anton Ehrenzweig, - The Hidden Order of Art.
Can it be that some people don't appreciate reality?
Am I becoming frustrated with some students because they can't - or won't allow themselves to - see two points of view simultaneously? Why won't they believe that volumes of empty space are perceived with the same geometrical fidelity as volumes of solid matter? Even if I stand them on railroad tracks and the parallel lines are perceived to meet at perceptual infinity, while at the same time they are perceived as parallel and with uniform separation throughout their entire length, the student's faces contort with disgust.
Ack. What am I getting at? I'm just a painter. But it has something to do with gestalt and I'd sure like to get to the bottom of this.
The students who have the most trouble, or the audience members who don't "get" my painting, seem to live in a primitive black or white world. I haven't championed the whole Fish or Cut Bait thing for over a year - I haven't felt like I needed to - but after my morning Introduction to Painting class, I learned a couple new terms that have me thinking again. One is: Monocular Rivalry
Can it be that some people don't appreciate reality?
Am I becoming frustrated with some students because they can't - or won't allow themselves to - see two points of view simultaneously? Why won't they believe that volumes of empty space are perceived with the same geometrical fidelity as volumes of solid matter? Even if I stand them on railroad tracks and the parallel lines are perceived to meet at perceptual infinity, while at the same time they are perceived as parallel and with uniform separation throughout their entire length, the student's faces contort with disgust.Ack. What am I getting at? I'm just a painter. But it has something to do with gestalt and I'd sure like to get to the bottom of this.
The students who have the most trouble, or the audience members who don't "get" my painting, seem to live in a primitive black or white world. I haven't championed the whole Fish or Cut Bait thing for over a year - I haven't felt like I needed to - but after my morning Introduction to Painting class, I learned a couple new terms that have me thinking again. One is: Monocular Rivalry
Another term is "multistability which is a system property. It refers to systems that are neither stable nor totally instable, but that alternates between two or more mutually exclusive states over time." It occurs to me that some people don't like to be in a multi-stable state. I suppose that state is similar to liminality.
But back to the faces of Jehan Cousin the Younger.
"Invariance is the property of perception whereby simple geometrical objects are recognized independent of rotation, translation, and scale; as well as several other variations such as elastic deformations, different lighting, and different component features. For example, the objects in A in the figure are all immediately recognized as the same basic shape, which are immediately distinguishable from the forms in B. They are even recognized despite perspective and elastic deformations as in C, and when depicted using different graphic elements as in D."
Sheesh. . .
But back to the faces of Jehan Cousin the Younger.
"Invariance is the property of perception whereby simple geometrical objects are recognized independent of rotation, translation, and scale; as well as several other variations such as elastic deformations, different lighting, and different component features. For example, the objects in A in the figure are all immediately recognized as the same basic shape, which are immediately distinguishable from the forms in B. They are even recognized despite perspective and elastic deformations as in C, and when depicted using different graphic elements as in D."Sheesh. . .
