which [two] things belong together // grouping

Art, Design and Gestalt Theory: The Film Version

 

Alan Watts / merely a philosophical entertainer?

from Art, Design and Gestalt Theory: The Film Version

Currently I am reading the autobiography of Alan Watts (1915-1973), the British-born philosopher (whom some have dismissed as a “philosophical entertainer”), who popularized Zen Buddhism and other aspects of Asian philosophy. To my dismay, I am not enjoying it.

That said, I remain indebted to his introduction to The Two Hands of God: The Myths of Polarity (NY: Braziller, 1963), which I first read secretly (since books were banned as “contraband”) while undergoing US Marine Corps infantry training. Back then, I was enamored by the resemblance between Watts’ essay and my own understanding of Gestalt theory (which had influenced him as well), which I had discovered as an undergraduate art student.

I wish his autobiography had been as precisely and sparingly phrased. But I would like to share the following passage, in which he bemoans his own education, and provides a list of components that he regards as more essential. Do not try this at home.

•••

Alan Watts, In My Own Way: An Autobiography, 1915-1965. NY: Pantheon Books, 1972, pp. 92-93–

[In an ideal education] I would have arranged for myself to be taught survival techniques for both natural and urban wildernesses. I would want to have been instructed in self hypnosis, in azkido (the esoteric and purely self-defensive style of judo), in elementary medicine, in sexual hygiene, in vegetable gardening, in astronomy, navigation, and sailing; in cookery and clothesmaking, in metalwork and carpentry, in drawing and painting, in printing and typography, in botany and biology, in optics and acoustics, in semantics and psychology, in mysticism and yoga, in electronics and mathematical fantasy, in drama and dancing, in singing and in playing an instrument by ear; in wandering, in advanced daydreaming, in prestidigitation, in techniques of escape from bondage, in disguise, in conversation with birds and beasts, in ventriloquism, and in classical Chinese.

she spent half her life in a pink chenille robe

Above Image sequence from a talk I once presented on the history of chair design, called Sitting Down with Frank Lloyd Wright.

•••

Richard Critchfield, Those Days: An American Album. New York: Dell, 1986, pp. 376—

In one corner of the dining room, by the hot-air register, was a big old Morris chair, where Betty, when she still worked at the bakery, would sit and fall asleep, she was so tired. Billy used to say, "Betty's spent half her waking life in a pink chenille robe." The stairwell to the attic was always loaded with things left there by somebody intending to take them up later: books, clothes, tennis rackets, skates, Tinker Toys, little trucks that always seemed to have a wheel missing. Like the road to hell, the stairs were paved with good intentions. 

tao te ching / the space within defines the pot

Above One of a series of posters (2023) intended to commemorate the Index of American Design, a Depression-era US government program, which commissioned unemployed graphic designers / illustrators to make detailed renderings of historic craft and folk art. The original paintings, now in public domain, can be accessed on the website of the National Gallery of Art.

I was first introduced to Lao-Tse’s famous sayings from the Tao Te Ching in the summer of 1964 when, at age seventeen, I studied for the summer in California at Pond Farm with Marguerite Wildenhain. In 1919, she had been among the first students at the Weimar Bauhaus, where Itten was one of her teachers. A few days ago, I found the passage noted below.

•••

Jack Pritchard, “Gropius, the Bauhaus and the Future” in Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. Vol 117 No 5150 (January 1969), pp. 75-94—

When discussing problems of space, Johannes Itten [head of the Bauhaus foundations course] was fond of quoting from Lao-Tse, who in the sixth century BC wrote [in revised wording]:

Thirty spokes converge at the hub,
But it is the space between the spokes that forms the essence of the wheel.

The walls of a vessel are made of clay, but its essence is determined by the space within the pot.…

• This saying is also referred to in a recent video on ART, DESIGN AND GESTALT THEORY: The Film Version.

the offense of telling the same thing twice

Alan Fletcher

Above Alan Fletcher [British designer], model of one of twelve proposals for outdoor drinking fountains (made in stone, one meter high), in which each fountain is shaped to form the silhouette of a famous cultural figure, through reversible figure-ground. This one is the silhouette of Albert Einstein. As reproduced in Fletcher, Picturing and Poeting. London: Phaidon, 2006, p. 103.

•••

Vyvyan Beresford Holland [the second son of Oscar Wilde], An Evergreen Garland. London: Cassell 1968, Page 156-157—

My next case [of how to deal with boring people] is that of the horrible habit of repetition, often known as "twicing." This is the offense of telling the same person the same thing twice. Unfortunately, everyone over the age of forty is to some extent a "twicer," because he refuses to remember to whom he has told his stock stories, and he is apt to forget any new stories he has heard. He is also apt to be much too interested in his past life to care very much whether his victim has heard his stories, so long as he can get someone to listen to them once more, particularly if they happen to be true, or were true before they were embroidered out of all recognition. And it is almost worse if he says, "Do stop me if I’ve told you this before," because one should never run the slightest risk of repeating oneself to other people. On the whole, it is far better not to tell stories at all unless either you invited them yourself or they are very short.

The remedy for "twicing" is contained in: 

Rule VI.—As soon as one is certain that a case of "twicing" is about to occur, one should interrupt the "twicer" roughly by telling him that his story reminds you of another one, and then proceed to tell him his own story, with added detail. That is, if he will let you.

graphic design / indispensable tools of the trade

Above and below Still frame excerpts from a video talk, titled Art Design and Gestalt Theory: the film version (2023), about the organizing principles that are fundamental to human vision, including accents (above), unit-forming factors, and closure (below). Nothing is more indispensable to design-based organizing skills, including graphic design. 

Art, Design and Gestalt Theory: Video Version

Recently completed: Our most popular video talk, titled Art, Design and Gestalt Theory: The Film Version (40 mins). It traces the emergence of Gestalt psychology (c1910), as well as its connections to holism, Taoism, yin and yang, displacements of attention, contrast illusions, color, camouflage, graphic design, and architecture. Ideal for classroom screenings, and library discussion events. Non-monetized, free full online access for anyone at YouTube.

hot water fed by volcanic underground springs

how shifts of attention enable innovation

In so many, all but countless ways, let us hope that our fortunes are better this year.

Casey Clabough, Elements: The Novels of James Dickey. Macon GA: Mercer University Press, 2002, pp. 93-94—

In a memorable description of Adolph Hitler and fascism, Arthur Koestler declares: “Half of Hitler’s genius consisted in hitting the right unconscious chords [aka "dog whistles"]. The other half was his alert eclecticism, his flair for hyper-modern avant-garde methods in Economy, Architecture, Technique, Propaganda and Warfare. The secret of Fascism is the revival of archaic beliefs in an ultra-modern setting. The Nazi edifice was a skyscraper fitted with hot water pipes which drew on underground springs of volcanic origin.”

The blooming, buzzing confusion of daily life

Digital montage © Roy R. Behrens 2020

Lee Simonson, The Stage Is Set. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1932, p. 51—

[Newspaper columnist] Walter Lippmann, in analyzing the creation of stereotypes that make public opinion, says: “For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which has been picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture.” And he goes on to demonstrate how largely our conclusions about the world we live in are based not on a fresh perception of experience, but on the stereotyped pictures of the world already in our heads.

David Suter Poster | Kaycee Miller 2016

David Suter Poster | Kaycee Miller 2016

Above Poster designed by Kaycee Miller, graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa, commemorating the work of American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era. •

A two-day campus visit by the artist took place on October 24-25, 2016,at the University of Northern Iowa. Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event was part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series.

Suter's editorial illustrations have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there were exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters (including the one shown here) by UNI graphic design students that celebrated his drawings.

•••

Frank Swinnerton, Swinnerton: An Autobiography. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1936, p. 28-29 [recalling the bullying he observed in a school that he attended in London]—

All [six boy] pupils were taught in the same room [and were largely unsupervised]…two horrid little devils declared a vendetta against the only other boy of roughly their own size, the spectacle of which moved me to such helpless rage that in thinking of it now I still feel embarrassed distaste. While the master was there these wretches did no more than stick lighted matches into the boy's tweed coat. When the master was away, as he often was, they had greater liberty, of which they took instant advantage. They wrenched their enemy's arms, speared, pinched, and kicked him until his shins must have been black and his flesh purple; and at last forced his head  murderously back over desks and parallel bars until he became blue in the face. It was appalling. I was too weak to lend an effective aid; the boy was too plucky to tell tales and was not strong enough to resist such implacable foes; and these foes grew every day more and more reckless, more and more outrageously brutal. At last, when he was being tortured one morning to the limit of endurance, I (a sort of Sister Anne at the window) caught sight of the master without, frantically summoned him by means of a wild rapping on the pane, and so brought the horror to an end.

• The drawing in the poster is the copyright of David Suter. All rights reserved.

David Suter Poster | Eldina Siljkovic 2016

David Suter Poster | Eldina Siljikovic 2016

Above Poster designed by Eldina Siljikovic, graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa, commemorating the work of American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era. •

A two-day campus visit by the artist took place on October 24-25, 2016,at the University of Northern Iowa. Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event was part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series.

Suter's editorial illustrations have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there were exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters (including the one shown here) by UNI graphic design students that celebrated his drawings.

•••

Frank Swinnerton, Swinnerton: An Autobiography. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1936, p. 17 [remembering his father, an impoverished copperplate engraver in London]—

If, on Saturday, he was lucky enough to draw some larger money he would be induced to have two or three glasses of beer (which he could never stand), and would arrive home late in the evening a little stupid, with glassy eyes and a painfully courteous manner, carrying some bags of squashed tomatoes and other peace offerings, which he would put mutely upon the kitchen table. It is terrible to think that his marketing had always been bad, so that what he brought was largely useless and unvalued; but if he had silver in his pockets he always produced the whole of it, keeping nothing back, but setting it down with a truly distasteful gesture beside the tomatoes. On such occasions I fancy we were all rather brusque with him, my mother particularly so; and yet I do not recall that there were at any time outspoken quarrels between them. My mother frowned and marched about with her head in the air, dry-eyed, as if she were out of patience with anybody so fatuous; and he sat sighing, very quiet and polite, rather drowsy, at intervals saying humbly: "Can I help you, Ma?" and receiving the briefest courtesies in reply.

• The drawing in the poster is the copyright of David Suter. All rights reserved.

Artist David Suter | Suterisms

American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era, is coming to the University of Northern Iowa. The artist's two-day visit will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

After working as a courtroom artist during the Watergate indictments, Suter went on to become a prominent OpEd and book review illustrator for the New York Times, Washington Post, Time magazine, Harper's, The Atlantic, The Progressive, and other major publications. His distinctive drawings at the time were comprised of puzzle-like political images that were in part inspired by the work of M.C. Escher. His selected drawings were later published as a book titled Suterisms (see cover above).

Suterisms have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Although he still makes drawings, in recent years Suter has turned primarily to painting and sculpture, and currently exhibits his work in art galleries. While on the UNI campus on Tuesday, he will informally talk to students and faculty about his working process, the evolution of his career and related subjects.

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters by UNI graphic design students that commemorate his work. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

David Suter Poster | Jordan Goldbeck 2016

Drawing © David Suter / Poster by Jordan Goldbeck 2016

Above Poster designed by Jordan Goldbeck (graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa), commemorating the work of American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era.

A two-day visit by the artist will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

Suter's editorial illustrations have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters (including the one shown here) by UNI graphic design students that celebrate his drawings. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

David Suter Poster | Ellen Holt 2016

Drawing © David Suter / Poster by Ellen Holt 2016

Above Poster designed by Ellen Holt (graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa), commemorating the work of American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era.

A two-day visit by the artist will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

Suter's editorial illustrations have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters (including the one shown here) by UNI graphic design students that celebrate his drawings. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

David Suter Poster | Chris Hall 2016

Drawing © David Suter / Poster by Chris Hall 2016

Above Poster designed by Chris Hall (graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa), commemorating the work of American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era.

A two-day visit by the artist will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

Suter's editorial illustrations have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters (including the one shown here) by UNI graphic design students that celebrate his drawings. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

Artist David Suter | Hearst Lectures 2016-17

Image © David Suter / Poster by Allison Rolinger

Above Poster designed by Allison Rolinger, graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa, advertising the first event in this year's Meryl Hearst Lecture Series.

Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, this year's series (with the theme DOUBLED OVER: Wit and Irony in Art and Design) will begin with a public presentation by American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era. His presentation, titled "Studies in Form," will take place at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111).

The series is free and open to the public.

David Suter | OpEd Artist Coming Soon to UNI

Above American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era, is coming to the University of Northern Iowa. The artist's two-day visit will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

After working as a courtroom artist during the Watergate indictments, Suter went on to become a prominent OpEd and book review illustrator for the New York Times, Washington Post, Time magazine, Harper's, The Atlantic, The Progressive, and other major publications. His distinctive drawings at the time were comprised of puzzle-like political images that were in part inspired by the work of M.C. Escher. His selected drawings were later published as a book titled Suterisms.

Suterisms have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Although he still makes drawings, in recent years Suter has turned primarily to painting and sculpture, and currently exhibits his work in art galleries. While on the UNI campus on Tuesday, he will informally talk to students and faculty about his working process, the evolution of his career and related subjects.

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters by UNI graphic design students that commemorate his work. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

Miami Art Deco Postage | Gina Hamer

Gina Hamer © 2014

Above Block of synergistic postage stamps by University of Northern Iowa graphic design student Gina Hamer (2014), commemorating historic Art Deco architecture in Miami. Scroll down to see the single stamp from which the final block was made.

•••

Peter De Vries—

Life is a zoo in a jungle.

I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.

I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning.

Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.

 

Gina Hamer © 2014

Miami Art Deco Postage | Bailey Higgins

Block of stamps © Bailey Higgins 2014

Above Block of synergistic postage stamps by University of Northern Iowa graphic design student Bailey Higgins (2014), commemorating historic Art Deco architecture in Miami. Scroll down to see the single stamp (one of several variations) from which the final block was made.

•••

Ralph C. Wood, The Comedy of Redemption (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988, p. 230—

[American comic novelist] Peter De Vries is so funny a writer that it may seem inappropriate to take him seriously. His puns are unabashed. Like the cleaning lady, he says, we all come to dust. The mere thought of cremation turns one of his characters ashen. De Vries's aphorisms are no less outrageous. The American home, we are told, is an invasion of privacy. Never put off until tomorrow, we are advised, what you can put off indefinitely. What is an arsonist, we are asked, but someone who has failed to set the world on fire? De Vries's vignettes are even more discerningly surreal. A chiropractor attending a patient throws out his own back. A husband who demands that his wife explain why she bought a mink coat is told that she was cold. Another wife sues her husband's mistress for alienation of his affections, and asks for $65 in damages.

Art Deco Stamp © Bailey Higgins 2014

 

Miami Art Deco Postage | Kat Bartlett

Miami Art Deco Stamp © Kat Bartlett

Above Block of synergistic postage stamps by University of Northern Iowa graphic design student Kat Bartlett (2014), commemorating historic Art Deco architecture in Miami. Scroll down to see the single stamp from which the final block was made.

•••

Alec Guinness, My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor (New York: Viking Penguin, 1997), p. 46—

During one Christmas holiday in London I was taken to a fancy dress ball at the Town Hall in Kensington and I went as a candle and candlestick. I was sixteen. I fashioned a white tubular arrangement out of cardboard to go on my head, and from crepe paper a yellow and blue candle flame; also a wide white cardboard collar. I won the first prize, which was a large, brown, fiber suitcase. But it was a humiliating experience as so many people flicked their cigarettes into my collar and then said, "Sorry, thought you were an ashtray."

Miami Art Deco Stamp © Kat Bartlett