Goal Concept:
To fully control pictorial organization, you, the artist must be aware of the psychological forces in a composition and orchestrate them, along with visible elements such as shape, form and color to produce a visual-psychological synthesis.
Access Prior Knowledge:
“A painting speaks only when it is seen as a configuration of forces, generated by its various visual components.” ~ Rudolph Arnheim
New Information:
The Perception of Forms and Forces
Look at the square with the dot inside it.
Ask > “How do I know the dot is in the center of the square?”
It is perceived to be in the exact center because the dot interacts with an “invisible grid” - a psychological force field that is mentally projected to the figure. This psychological matrix is in the form of an “x” which connects the four corners of the square. Ultimately the visible and invisible elements lead us to the correct spatial determination of the dot.
The “invisible grid” is a psychologically projected matrix of visual forces which tells us the dot is in the center. The dynamic forces are equally balanced.
In every perceptive act, there is a similar coordinated effort of eye-brain action which scans and maps the forms and force fields involving thousands of subconscious measurements that determine the size, position, proportion and movement of visual elements.
> Think about parking a car, spiking a volleyball, catching a baseball, squeezing through anything, passing a soccer ball or skiing a mogal.
Art References:
Apply Knowledge and Skills:
Instructional Strategy
- Identifying Similarities and Differences
Learning Activity
Instructional Strategy
- Nonlinguistic Representations
Learning Activity
Create > Shapes and Forces
Goal: Create a visual field showing a network of interacting forces
Studio Activity: Shapes and Forces
Choose one of the following geometric shape compositions.
Understand > the arrangement of shapes creates various relationships between the shapes, the shapes and the edges of the format and the figures and ground.
Visualize > these relationships as the psychological forces in your picture.
Draw > the invisible forces on your picture. There is no ‘right ’or ‘wrong’ way to do this exercise. In your own way, try to sense the invisible ‘push-pulls’ that lead your eyes this way and that way. With a marker, draw big symbolic arrows to suggest powerful forces, smaller symbolic arrows to depict weaker tensions, use dashed lines or solid lines, double lines or skinny single lines..
Day 2, choose from markers, pens, colored pencils or any other media to accentuate the relationships and forces you identified among the shapes.
Trigger Mechanisms:
Repeat, combine, animate
Materials:
paper, glue stick, ruler, compass, scissors, felt-tipped marking pens, templates
Instructional Strategy
- Nonlinguistic Representations
Learning Activity
Create > Energy Encounter
Goal: Combine different force fields in a single plane of reference
Studio Activity: Energy Encounter
Imagine different ‘teams’ of abstract shapes interacting in the same visual space. Symbolize each ‘team’ in a different way, ex, by straight, curved or dotted lines. With a sharpie marker “weave” the symbolic team lines together to produce a hybrid energy texture. Another analogy would be to imagine an army of circles approaches from the right, while an army of triangles approach from the left. Show the approaching armies and also show the ‘messy’ battle of the two interacting forces in the middle.
Trigger Mechanisms:
Repeat, Combine, Superimpose, Animate
Generalize, Reflect & Publish:
Instructional Strategy
- Evaluate the results
Learning Activity
Reflect > Should I go back and rework anything?
- How did you combine art elements (line, color, shape, texture, value) to develop art principles? (Unity/variety, balance, emphasis contrast, rhythm, proportion/scale, figure/ground relationship)
- Where are the dominant shapes, forms, colors, or textures that carry expressive significance?
- Why Is the work ordered and balanced or chaotic and disturbing?
- What gives the work its uniqueness?
- Is symbolism used in the work to convey meaning other than what one sees?
- Does the work evoke any feelings?
Instructional Strategy
- Providing Recognition
Learning Activity
Publish > Share your album to our G+Community > Concepts & Creations category
Display > Add your photos to the Event
Instructional Strategy
- Providing Feedback
Learning Activity
Critique >
- Give positive feedback > +1 every image that deserves it
- Give peer feedback > Give 2 peer images a VTS critique > http://goo.gl/1WWmBY
Self-assess >
- Evaluate > Thinglink Rubric Scoring Guidelines > http://goo.gl/ejQq7B or AP Padlet Scoring Guidelines > https://goo.gl/a70ikP
