The Coherent Composition (Or What We Really Mean When We Say, “It Works!”) In my youth I...

The Coherent Composition(Or What We Really Mean When We Say, “It Works!”)

In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that

liberty is a product of order.

Will Durant

Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.

Le Corbusier

The Coherency Theory

A composition “works” when it establishes its own internal logic: a correspondence between its parts in which all of the elements contribute positively to the overall effect, and in which all of the parts neither lose their individual integrity as parts, nor unduly dominate the composition. A coherent composition feels right because at some level it makes sense; nothing feels arbitrary or capricious. All of the elements seem necessary.

The Coherency Theory

A few of the most important ways of establishing coherence include the Gestalt principles of continuity, similarity and equilibrium (more about these later) and by rationally structuring the visual field with special attention paid to balance; cropping; positive/negative shape relationships; and by establishing dominance through placement, scale and contrast.

All of these factors taken together are what we refer to when we speak of the composition or design of a piece-- and composition is THE syntax of visual grammar. With a thorough understanding of just a few of these principles it is very difficult to be unsuccessful.

The idea of achieving unity in variety is the first, and perhaps most important paradox that we will encounter in design. Successful compositions often make use of a repeated element or motif to establish a sense of predictability and purposefulness. We perceive this underlying consistency as unity. However it is usually important that the artist strike a balance between unity and variety in order to keep the viewer engaged and interested As poet Erica Jong’s quote indicates, even the most exciting thing becomes tiresome if endlessly repeated. Notice how motifs are repeated but never exactly the same in the “skater” image at right. How many instances are there of the “flame edge” motif? The “yellow line” motif? The grid motif? The consistent exaggeration and elongation of forms?

Repetition and the Unity/Variety Paradox“My reaction to porno films is as follows: After the first 10 minutes I want to go home and screw. After the first 20 minutes, I never want to screw

again as long as I live.”

Erica Jong

Too much of either unity or variety can be disastrous from a design perspective. In some ways the brain is a relatively simple thing. If exposed to too much variety or dissimilar information, our brains overload and perception shuts down as a protective mechanism. Excessive variety in a composition is chaos: an unruly, unmanageable mess.

However, too little variety can cause problems too. If there is too much repetition and unity, too much simplicity and sameness, our temperamental crania will get bored, and again, the most common response is for perception to shut down. (Another response is for perception to spontaneously reorganize the information in order to artificially create variety in our field of perception.) The extreme form of unity is precise and exact repetition, more of the same sameness.

Especially when coupled with simple symmetries this can be even more disastrous for a designer than chaotic variety because bafflement will at least encourage the viewer linger a little longer with the artwork then boredom. (For static 2-D images there are no such thing as a bored viewers, they are already gone.) One must strike a balance between unity and variety.

Repetition and the Unity/Variety Paradox


Louise Nevelson


Arthur Dove

Balance

Balance is one of the primary features of a composition that establishes its dynamics. But balance is also an important factor in determining whether or not a composition feels sufficient and complete. An image, if successful, is balanced. It gives the viewer the impression that they are getting “the whole picture”- all information that they need to determine the context and place themselves mentally or spatially in relationship to the scene before them (the spatial relationship is also known as POV, or point of view).

Tyger! Tyger! Burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry? William Blake

This feels whole and complete

Balance



Surprise! It ain’t!

Balance



Ahh! That’s better.

Balance

•Successful compositions are always balanced but this does NOT mean that a composition is always symmetrical. Balance can be achieved without the use of bilateral or radial symmetry by using negative space or dynamic eye movement back and forth across an axis.

Balance

• Bilateral symmetry is when one side of a composition mirrors other along a single, central axis.

•Approximate symmetry is when the two sides are very similar, but not exact mirror images of each other.

Balance Asymmetrical compositions are not symmetrical at all and yet these too are usually balanced. To understand how, we need to use the concept of visual weight. Unlike the real world, where empty space weighs exactly nothing, in design, empty or negative space can actually be quite weighty. In addition, color, value, texture and even our own minds’ patterns of visual perception can add visual weight to an area.

Balance

•Generally, the greater the amount of symmetry that a composition possesses, the more stable and static the image will be.

•Asymmetrical compositions imply movement, change and flux. Usually the more asymmetry in a composition, the more dynamic it will be.

The Perceptual Flip-Flop

If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.

Picasso

A competent portraitist knows how to imply the profile in the full face.

Aldous Huxley

By this time you are all familiar with the face/vase illusion. It is an example of the organizing principle of figure/ground. Normally the mind tends to polarize the visual field, conferring positive value (attention) to objects while assigning negative value (paying no attention) to the space that surrounds it. Designers must learn to modify this response and become accustomed to flip-flopping their perception.

Organizing the image space effectively demands paying as much attention to the empty spaces around objects as to the objects themselves. If the negative spaces are varied, interesting or arranged so that their edges align in ways that the viewer perceives as bounded, logical or complete (they possess the gestalt principle of closure that we will shortly encounter), then chances are the piece is compositionally effective.


Study the negative spaces around these 5 symbols that were sent into space on NASA’s Voyager spacecraft. Notice anything interesting about them?


1 2 3 4 5

Not so “alien” after all! Sorry for the deception. It is actually the very terrestrial word “TEN”.


Thanks to the Gestalt concept of Closure these negative spaces around the word are activated to the point where they almost become positive forms.

Thanks to the Gestalt concept of Closure these negative spaces are activated to the point where they almost become positive forms.


How many shapes are in each image?


2 white squares, 2 white rectangles, 1 white cross, 1 black circle, 4 black “mountain” shapes

1 white square, 1 white triangle, 3 black “pac man” shapes

Thanks to the Gestalt concept of Closure these negative spaces are activated to the point where they almost become positive forms.


•The ways in which the elements within the picture plane interact with the edges of the composition are vitally important to achieving space activation.

•Space activation is the vitalization of the negative space.

Cropping

unsatisfying “bull's-eye” arrangement



•Remember that space and substance are of equal importance in order to achieve a cohesive composition.

Cropping

A much more successful composition achieved by cropping. Notice how our POV has changed. The viewer is closer to the picture plane (or the objects moved

closer to us).



•Remember that space and substance are of equal importance in order to achieve a cohesive composition.

Cropping

Cropping can completely reverse figure/ground relationships. Notice the appearance of the “dancing white figure” on a black ground.

•Cropping can dramatically effect the dynamics and even the meaning of of an image. This is an alchemical image of Apollo eating himself (symbolized as a lion and as the sun god) . Iconographically it is “reason devouring itself”. Apollo was the god of logic and reason as opposed to Dionysus the god of reverie and emotion.•Notice how much more active the second lion is and how much more imperiled is the sun.

Cropping

•Cropping (and rotation) can dramatically effect the dynamics and even the meaning of of an image. This is the same Apollo/lion image yet it becomes fairly easy to see the 4 greek elements: earth, wind, fire, and water.

Reason turned against itself contains and reveals the the whole of the cosmos.

Cropping

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