About the Project:
For assignment 2, the objective was to explore how the interplay between space can convey underlying meanings and emotions. Using the gestalt principle, simple black squares can be implied to illustrate pieces of a whole composition. I began with contrasting vocabularies such as rigid and fluid, clumsy and graceful, rhythmic and erratic.
Process:
The process began by a brainstorming of five sketches for each word. I attempted to focus on the mass, arrangement and variety of these squares and how they made me feel. For example, for the word fluid, I would think about how the alignment of squares would create a flow of motion as a bigger picture. For clumsy, I would think about the mass and gravity of these squares and make them seem uncomfortable to the eye, as if they are defying gravity.
Rhythmic and Erratic
Next, I chose the most effective thumbnails out of these word pairs and refined and digitized them. For rhythmic, I wanted to emphasize the element of repetition and a ripple of pace and pulse. I repeated two units of patterns and made nine rows and columns of alternating units. The overall composition is rhythmic because of its seemingly pulsing pattern. For erratic, I focused on the varying size of squares and the positive/negative space. Each black square is connected to each other at the border, creating an illusion of staggered mechanics as if a program is becoming irregular or inconsistent.
Rigid and Fluid
For rigid, I focused on the edges and corners of shapes and emphasized on locking them together. Using three larger masses, I interlocked their corners so that the center square would seem rigid and stuck in between the unbendable space. For fluid, the squares are seemingly moving and diminishing in a downwards motion, just as how fluid always flows in a downward motion following gravity.
Graceful and Clumsy
For the last word pair, which are also the ones I chose for the final presentation, I used graceful and clumsy. For graceful, my initial inspiration was a flower. As flowers are often associated with elegance, delicacy, and gracefulness, I began at the center of the thumbnail and expanded the squares like a blooming flower using symmetry and rhythm. Vocabularies connected to clumsiness are often associated with uncomfort, stumbling, and awkwardness. Therefore, in this composition, none of the squares are exactly aligned or the same size. It seems as though the squares are attempting to follow a pattern or rule of spiraling downwards but failing to do so. There is an illusion of stumbling down a set of spiralling stairs.
Constructivism and Deconstructivism
We were then instructed to create our own contrasting word pair and create a series using one other color. I chose the words constructivism and deconstructivism and began to do research to gain a better understanding of the context and origin of these words. I found that both of these words have been used to describe art and architecture movements at different time eras. While the characteristic of constructivism is associated with abstraction and cubism with lots of straight lines, cubes, and concrete, deconstructivism is a movement that manipulates and fragments regular shapes, creating non-rectilinear shapes and unpredictability. With these characteristics in mind I began exploring on my sketchbook, manipulating the placement of squares until they communicated appropriately.
After brainstorming, I came to an ideal design and digitized the thumbnails. For both designs, I used the color red because red is a predominant color associated with both constructivism and deconstructivism movements. For constructivism, there is a linear movement in two directions; everything is orthogonal and aligned in an order. For deconstructivism, the squares are overlapped and rotated to create a sense of distortion and fragmentation. Though there seems to be a diagonal alignment, there are moments of unpredictability where the size of the squares change and the angle doesn’t match up.
Finally, the last section of the assignment explores the gestalt principle and figure ground relationships. I followed principles of mirroring and counterchange to illustrate the pattern below. The composition began with three layers of black and white squares. Using the center as focal point, two diagonal lines spring from the corners and meet at the middle. As each space crosses the lines, the colors would flip.
