1. Etymology: German, literally, shape, form
Date: 1922
: a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

2. n.
The school or theory in psychology holding that psychological, physiological, and behavioral phenomena are irreducible experiential configurations not derivable from a simple summation of perceptual elements such as sensation and response.

(Encyclopedia Britannica)

3.
Gestalt is a general description for the concepts that make unity and variety possible in design. It is a German word that roughly translates as “whole” or “form.” Gestalt theory is involved with visual perception and the psychology of art among other things. It is concerned with the relationship between the parts and the whole of a composition.
(A designer named James T. Saw)

My example of the figure/ground principle of gestalt: turtles, or bell?

Chunky sans-serif headliner fonts

Rockwell

Rococo

Dentist-office style wall murals of birch trees

Neons

Hand-drawn patterns

White space

Pull quotes

Dividing bars

Stags

Sketches of burlesque ladies

Triangles

Hands

Complicated geological maps

Vintage photos

Old wallpaper

High fashion

Cardboard

Graphs

&

Sculptures

An image that immediately comes to mind is that of the “do not enter” sign that is prevalent on U.S. streets and the “underground” sign seen so commonly in England. One is an index for a mass transit system, and the other is an index warning someone to stay out. Both are composed of a circle and a bar, and could be confused by someone who did not have a firm grasp on English or a child.

The color orange is often associated with vibrance, warmth, and happiness in the U.S. It may bring up images of construction workers, or oranges, but for the most part is a pretty neutral color in our culture. In Ireland, however, the color orange is associated with members of the Protestant religion, who frequently clash with the Roman Catholics in Ireland.

I came across an ad that was run in China (and promptly banned) that was intended to warn people about the dangers of smoking. The ad reads that one person dies every eight seconds from smoking, but the first and only thing people see when they see this ad is the twin towers. It is impossible that this effect was unintentional, and the purpose was to shock the viewer. This subject is much too touchy to ever recreate in advertisements, and the ad was banned.

Sources: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/shockvertisements-banned-morbid-ads

ICONS

This is an icon because it is a recognized visual representation of a gas pump. The pictorial representation is directly related to the concept.
Source: http://www.clker.com/clipart-gas-station-black.html

Works for Icon since it is universally recognized as sign of Los Angeles and movie making.
Source: http://www.visitingdc.com/city/hollywood-sign-address.asp

The danger: electricity sign is an icon because the visuals are clearly demonstrating a universal warning to beware of electrical consequences.
Source: http://www.labelident.com/images/static_content/w51.gif


INDEXES
This is an index because it is providing information for the viewer. In this case, the viewer would come to the conclusion that the escalator is to the right.

Source: http://cgtextures.com/login.php?&texid=19438&destination=texview.php?id=19438PHPSESSID=ae8e1ae94ca2397c3e4af77ff4780855

Works for index example because definitely shows meaning through illustration.
source: http://www.edfenergy.com

This duck crossing sign is an example of an index because it is informing the viewer to be aware of the potential presence of ducks and ducklings. It can be assumed that the driver should try and avoid them, even though it does not directly say so on the sign.
Source: http://www.signs-up.com/prod_images/Duck_xing_thumb_640.jpg

SYMBOLS

The swastika is a symbol because its visual form is not a logical, direct representation of what it stands for. The swastika has cultural significance and experience has taught people to associate it with racist German Nazis and WWII.
Source: https://amsu-english.wikispaces.com/file/view/swa.png/33650219/swa.png

This works for symbol example as it does not have a direct logical connection to what it represents but has been learned as luck, Irish, St. Patricks Day, etc.

source: http://www.theme-party-palace.com/images/stpatty-coloring-page.gif

The rainbow is a symbol of gay pride. Rainbows have nothing to do with homosexuality, but the image has become associated with it.
Source: http://www.northcentric.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/rainbow.jpg

A. Interpenetration
Official definition: The action of penetrating between or among.
My definition: When unrelated elements of an image come in contact with one another, they are interpenetrating.
Illustration explaining concept: a Jugendstil print with interpenetrating elements.

My concept-explaining illustration:

B. Simultaneous Contrast
Official definition: An involuntary response that occurs when the eye is not at rest, If the eye is stimulated by a single hue, any nearby neutral area appears to take on the hue of the missing complement.
My definition: When surrounded by a hue, a neutral object will take on the tint of the hue’s opposite on the color wheel.
Illustration explaining concept:
My concept-explaining illustration features a neutral-faced woman in front of a block of red and a block of green. The woman in front of the red has a greenish tint to her skin, and the woman on the green has a  rosy tint to her skin. Some makeup companies use this concept to market a green-tinted acne gel to help offset the redness that zits cause.

Albers, Joseph. (1975). The Interaction of color. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press.

Holtzschue, Linda. (2006). Understanding color. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Itten, Johannes. (1970). The Elements of color. Hoboken, NJ.: Wiley.

Wendy stated that one of three (but preferably all) things needed to happen in order for web content to become more accessible. One, technical accessibility needs to be automatically built in. Two, there needs to be a cultural shift in the way people consider people with disabilities. Finally, people with disabilities need to be included in the creation of web content. Being someone fortunate enough to have decent vision and hearing, I have no idea what it is like to have trouble accessing web content. When I was first learning web design I designed my pages with no consideration for the disabled. I ignored alt tags, relied on images, and focused on appearance rather than content. Once I had a web accessibility class, however, I began to realize that some of the websites I had once found boring were actually functional, and function was much more important that aesthetic pleasure. One of the tools that can be used to check web accessibility is the WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool). Located at http://wave.webaim.org/, the WAVE allows the user to upload an url or input html, and then tells them if the page is compliant with web accessibility standards. The free program also comes in a handy firefox toolbar, so there is no excuse for building inaccessible websites. I don’t personally know anyone who has a disability that would affect their ability to find information on the web, but it would be ignorant of me to design without them in mind. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 49.7 million people in America with disabilities. They have the same right to information and those without disabilities, yet they are systematically ignored.

Going back to the Seattle Metro example, one thing I have noticed is that bus stops themselves are inaccessible. The times for buses are located behind a plastic sheet, and would be impossible for a blind person to make any use of. Considering the fact that the Seattle Metro website is also challenging to navigate, I am amazed that vision-impaired Seattleites can get around at all on public transportation. I think that there should at least be a voice-activated phone system to guide people around bus schedules, as braille on every bus stop sign would be impractical due to constant changes in bus times and routes.

Web accessibility is something that needs to be considered heavily in the future, as it appears to have fallen off the radar since the 2000s began. Considering the amount of people in the United States that have disabilities, it is imperative that their needs be met, in order to support equality.

Ferris, Brian. (2010). One bus away. Retrieved from http://www.onebusaway.org/

United states department of labor. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/ODEP/FAQS/people.htm

WebAIM. (2010). Wave. Retrieved from http://wave.webaim.org/

Camouflage is not a new concept to me, but I have never considered the reasoning behind it. I have always wondered why an animal with lighter belly fur would have an advantage, seeing as how white is not a common forest color. I originally thought that an animal with a lighter stomach would be easier to see, and that an animal with minimal amounts of color change would be easier to hide. After reading the text I found that the opposite was true, and once explained it completely makes sense. Animals like dogs that keep their backs facing the sky and their bellies facing downward tend to have lighter coloring on their undersides. This is because the light source above them illuminates their fur, making the dark parts look lighter. Their lighter undersides, which are naturally shaded, are then a visual match for their illuminated backs. Animals with a uniform color have less camouflage because there are no visual effects to hide the shadows they cast. Humans do not have countershaded hides because we are mammals that change position often, and do not have a side that typically faces the sun.

When learning how to read English as a child, I experienced visual agnosia. At the time, I was not sure what was happening and thought that it was a phenomenon that I alone was experiencing. Reading aloud in class was especially difficult for me, because when I got nervous the words on the page would dance around and become illegible, and I would be forced to guess what they were. Most of the words we read are discernible because of the laws of proximity and similarity, so once I became a more confident reader I relied more on the word lengths and spacing to identify them. There are still moments now that I experience mild visual agnosia, usually when I am giving a presentation. My mind goes blank and words seem illegible because my fear soaked brain is abandoning the gestalt principles that allow people to read and comprehend. I also related to an example about visual misrepresentation, which is extremely common when reproducing images. A study was done in which a subject was asked to reproduce an image made up of squares. The squares were copied almost perfectly, but the intermediate spaces between them were incorrect. In this case, the brain recognized the squares immediately, and was able to recreate them easily. What the brain did not see was the equally important space surrounding the squares. To overcome the inability to see intermediate spaces, I had a teacher who made me draw only the negative spaces surrounding an object. Surprisingly, my ability to render scenes improved. Putting focus on only one part of an image is not conducive to recreating scenes from life, because everything in a scene is contributing visually. Things that we may not notice immediately (eyebrows, for example) would be extremely noticeable if left out.

Color change as boundary is a concept that I continuously struggled with when learning how to draw. I could not understand why none of my line drawings looked realistic, and it was only after several life drawing classes that I discovered that relying more on shading would produce a more realistic image. There are no boundary lines in real organic shapes, but people add them in when trying to signal a boundary or color change. I think that a lot of this is due to the fact that drawings are typically attempting to record a color scene in black and white. I have noticed that a lot of animated movies will make their animated outlines a lighter color, making the images more visually pleasing. Darker comic styles still use black as an outline, even with colored images, and the effect is rather jarring.

I noticed a lot of the concepts from Gilchrist’s Seeing Black and White in Metzger’s writing. Both authors covered perception and gestalt in their books, outlining the principles and laws of seeing. Metzger’s explanations for illumination and contrast were much easier to understand, probably because of his simplified word choice and large amount of visual aids. I feel as though my understanding of gestalt increased after reading Metzger’s work whereas Gilchrist’s work confused me.

Determine how related and unrelated images impact a viewer’s ability to see an image made up of seemingly unrelated parts in increasing proximity to one another.

Participants:

1. Anna (Creative Administrator at work, 30).

2. Kelly (My roommate, 21).

3. Ian (Upstairs neighbor, 22).

Experiment Round One:

1. Anna went through all 20 slides and could not identify the horse and rider. She said that it looked like a man with giant shoulders.

2. Kelly could tell that the horse’s head was an animal head by slide 16, but could not figure out which animal it was.

3. Ian went through all 20 slides and could not see the image. When asked to take a stab at it, he said he saw pangea.

Experiment Round Two:

1. Anna went through all 20 slides again and could not figure out what the image was. When told that it was a horse and rider, she asserted that the image was too abstract to be considered a whole.

2. After seeing the images of the animals, Kelly saw the horse and rider by slide 10. She said that the rider was honestly a guess, and could tell that the animal was a horse from the implied movement of its legs and feet.

3. The addition of the animal images did not help Ian, and like Anna, he said that the final image did not represent a horse and rider at all.

Conclusion:

When I did this experiment, I could not see the horse and rider until they were clearly pointed out to me. Therefore, it is easy for me to believe that my subjects could not see it either. Perhaps Kelly has horses on the brain or a leftover horse obsession from her girlhood. I understand the logic behind this experiment, but I think that the image used definitely could have been more clear. (There is one image in particular that I have seen that looks like a set of splotches but is really a cow.) I do think that the related images did help, but so did seeing the slides for a second time.

As for Katie Paterson’s Vatnajokul, I do think that her implementation of multimedia added perspective. Berger mentioned in the first chapter that people are jaded by images, and I agree. The pictures of the glacier alone did little for me, but the addition of the sounds (an eerie, melting, trickling set of sounds) earned my full attention. Just as painting styles took a turn once the photograph became mainstream, so must our current methods of capturing history. In this day and age, photographs (however stunning) are not enough.