Gestalt & Perception in the Visual Arts

How perception affects our lives

Perception helps us interpret the world around us. We rely on it to understand our surroundings. For example, we develop ideas about an upcoming event based on personal and past experiences. We view the world through our individual perceptions.

Visually Communication

Visual communication is a key method of human interaction. If two individuals spent a week together in a room without speaking the same language, they would turn to gestures and drawings to convey their messages. 

Body language is a vital form of visual communication. Although we are often unconscious of it, we depend on it more for cues and information than on spoken language. When talking, 60-90% of the message is communicated through body language, leaving the remainder attributable to the spoken word.

The commercial arts rely heavily on images to communicate with their audience.

The brain at work

Visual information is often altered once it travels from the eye to the brain. The brain simplifies preconceived information, eliminating the details that it deems unnecessary.

Consider a traffic stop sign. We know through learned behavior what a stop sign looks like and its meaning. We don't need to observe all the fine details when approaching a stop sign to understand its meaning or the required action. Because we are familiar with the sign, you know to stop the vehicle at it.

Distance Matters

The distance from the viewer to an object affects how the brain interprets visual information. If you're half a block from the sign, your brain understands its meaning. The same is true if you stand five feet from the sign.

But if you were to observe the same sign while flying overhead in a plane, it would not be recognizable. Your mind would perceive it as a point on the ground.

So, to summarize, the brain will "understand" familiar objects at varying distances, except extreme distances.

Consistency of presentation

Perception begins at birth. Once born, we are regularly exposed to images and symbols. We become accustomed to visual consistencies. We develop expectations of how specific things should look. For example, a stop sign has a particular size, height, and color. The most familiar image is the human face, with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

Let's look at maps of the world. Generally speaking, world maps show the land as brown or green, while oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers are blue. Counties are identified with borders made of thicker lines. When individual states are displayed, the state borders are thinner.

If we were to change the colors of the water (blue) to brown or orange, the color of the land to blue. If the thickness of the boundary lines was changed, made thinker and more organic, it would create havoc with our brains' preconceived idea of the map.

 

 In his book Contemporary Color Theory and Use, Steven Bleicher discusses an experiment using a stop sign. The color of the sign was changed from red to green. Everything else remained the same, including the sign location.

Drivers regularly drove through the intersection without stopping. When pulled over by the researchers and questioned, the drivers often said they saw the sign, but because the sign was green, and the color green symbolized "go," they didn't stop. This is an excellent example of consistency of presentation at play.

 

 Cultural exceptions

Some perceptions are universal, such as understanding the human face, while others are cultural. In Western countries, the tradition is for brides to wear white. In China, the traditional bridal dress is red, and white is worn for mourning.