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Figure Ground
Positive/negative shape interaction
Figure Ground defined
• The figure is the subject (emotional focus) of an image and the ground is the area which the figure occupies
• The figure is also referred to as the positive space while the ground is considered the negative space
• The figure and ground define each other and are both necessary in an image (puzzle pieces)
• “One can then state as a fundamental principle: When two fields have a common border, and one is seen as the figure and the other as ground, the immediate perceptual experience is characterized by a shaping effect which emerges from the common border of the fields and which operates only on one field or operates more strongly on one than on the other.”
• Edgar Rubin, 1915
• Both the faces and vase can be perceived as the figure, but only one at a time.
• When one is viewed as the figure it’s surrounding space, ground, is formless and acts only to define the contour of the figure.
• Rubin’s work influenced the Gestalt theorists who later studied many of the same principles.
• Gestalt psychology come out of the Berlin School in the early 20th century.
• It states that humans perceive major shapes and forms before recognizing the parts and details that make up the larger whole.
• The two gestalt systems that most relate to figure/ground relationships are “reification” and “multistability”
Reification: Constructive perception, by which the experience percept contains more spatial information than the sensory stimulus on which it is based.
In other words, we see a shape by what is implied in the provided imagery.
Multistability: the tendency of ambiguous perceptual experience to pop back and forth unstably between two or more alternative interpretations.
Necker Cube and Rubin’s face/vase are perfect examples.
M.C. Escher• Dutch artist known for designing ambiguous
figure/ground relationships in his prints and drawings.
Frank Miller• Author of graphic
novels known for harsh subject matter and jarring imagery.
Mimbres Pottery
Robert Longo
Yayoi Kusama
Kara Walker