Looking Too Far Into It?

After reading Zettl's chapter, "The Two-Dimensional Field: Forces Within The Screen,"I realized just how much information you can retrieve from a single image. People can look at the same image and see different things. The notion of looking to far into things suggests that you are seeing something that wasn't intended to be there in the first place. This chapter shares the importance of arranging objects within images to obtain specific meanings.

Main Directions: Horizontal and Vertical

• Horizontal Arrangement suggest calmness, tranquility, and rest.
• Vertical space is harder to manage than horizontal space. Vertical lines seem more dynamic, powerful, and exciting than horizontal lines.

I didn't realized the connection of these aesthetic principles throughout civilization until the reading this chapter. The author pointed out that religious buildings tend to be vertically oriented, reflecting the orientation towards heaven God. Whereas buildings that emphasize the importance of human endeavors tend to be horizontally oriented. 

I looked up famous buildings after reading this from the article, and my Google Image search left me with a lot of vertically oriented buildings. I think these vertical lines more so signify power rather than religious association. Two examples of horizontally oriented buildings that came up in the famous buildings search were The Colosseum and The Sydney Opera House. Both structures hold large audiences and are intended for entertainment purposes. I found it interesting that these horizontal-oriented buildings were some of the few that served a distinct function, rather than just a visually interesting piece of architecture (like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the CN Tower).

Magnetism Of The Frame

• Can be so strong that it counteracts our natural reaction to gravitational pull
• Most stable position for an image is the screen-center
• Sides of the screen exert a strong pull

Example of a positive pull of side edge: Leaning Tower of Pisa

Example of centered object with even pull: 

When looking for an image to use to represent a centered object with even pull I automatically thought of an image that incorporated meditation and yoga. I found it interesting that a lot of images concerning these subjects involve very "equal pull" poses. Even more interesting was the idea of yoga and meditation as a way to center your thoughts. This yin/yang integrative practice focuses on finding your center.

Asymmetry Of The Frame

• Two sides of the screen seem structurally unequal
• To intensify a scene, use a downhill image (diagonal from left to right)
• To soften a scene, use an uphill image (diagonal from right to left.

We tend to look at things starting in the center and then move from left to right. It's interesting how you can look at the same image two different ways and focus on different elements each time.

Figure and Ground

• This relationship is hierarchical 

The urge to organize our environment into figure/ground relationships can make us see the same image differently, based on what elements of the image we assign to each. Take a look at this image and assign a figure and a ground, now switch that relationship. See two different images?

Psychological Closure

• Tendency to mentally fill in gaps in visual information to arrive at complete and easily manageable patterns and configuration

We do this all the time, not only when viewing images. When we receive a portion of information and not the whole story we try and fill in the gaps in order to make sense of what we were told. Here's an explanation of how we do that while viewing images.

Vectors

• Any aesthetic element that leads us into a specific space/time/emotion/direction
• Find in color, music, and structure of a story

How can images lead us in a certain direction? By suggesting movement throughout the image. Here's an example of an index vector, which is created by something that points unquestionably in a certain direction. In the following image the person is clearly moving to the left. Movement is suggested by the multiple images of the woman all burned into a single image.