We know that the eye is a sense organ, and that it takes in data in the form of light waves, which are then transmitted to the brain. It is in the brain that this data is organized into recognizable chunks of information. Gestalt theory is a

theory which seeks to explain this process. Understanding this theory and how to use it, is an essential skill for designers and artists.

OBJECTIVES:

• To explore the concepts and principles of Gestalt design theory.
• To identify the principles in current visual culture.
• To demonstrate understanding of the principles by creating an original composition using the basic abstract shapes.

ACTIVITY 1- Exploring Gestalt Theory

• View the video and take notes in your sketchbook.
• Photograph or scan your notes and post to your e-portfolio. 
• Publish and submit the URL link in onCampus.

Gestalt Video

Gestalt Presentation

Another resource on Gestalt theory.

ACTIVITY 2- Gestalt in Action

• Clearly label and date the assignment in your sketch/journal.
• Find one graphic work (Print Advertisement, company or organization logo, etc)  that demonstrates each of the principles of Gestalt theory. Since the principles seldom exist in isolation, look for examples where one principle clearly dominates.
• The Principles are: Similarity, Proximity, Closure,  Figure/ground 
• and continuance.
• That makes a total of 5 images.
• Paste and clearly label each example in your sketch/journal (you can put more than one image on a page.
• Photograph or scan your pages and post to your e-portfolio.
• Submit the link in onCampus. 

PROJECT - Gestalt Compositions - 2D

Pick 3 of the 5 gestalt principles and create one original design for each.

Try to use the basic shapes (circles, polygons, etc) instead of representational imagery.

Draw them freehand  to the best of your ability and try to create original solutions to this visual problem.

Use one full page for each final composition. Paper will be provided (9x12")

Process:

Start this project in your sketchbook

• Clearly label and date this assignment in your sketchbook.
• Work out your compositions first by making small "thumbnail sketches in your sketchbook. Make at least 2 different "solutions" for each of the three gestalt principles  you have chosen (A total of 6 thumbnail sketches at least)
• Select what you feel is the most successful solution for each of the  principles and re-create it using ink (black sharpies only!)  and using the paper provided
• Photograph or scan all of your work (prototypes and final version) and upload to your portfolio clearly label everything.
• Write a short reflection using the prompt below
• Publish and copy the URL link into onCampus and submit the assignment in the text box.

Reflection Prompt:

The rendering of the principles is a fairly simple task -since I have provided examples, but adding the "creative" element takes things to a different level. Describe your creative choices - how and why you did what you did. What do the words "Creative" and "original" mean to you?

PROJECT - Gestalt Composition - 3D

Choose one of your compositions from the 2D project and make it in 3D using

found or made objects. Some of the principles will be easier to translate than others!Your composition can change and evolve, but should show some clear connection to the original 2D project. Your 3D composition can be attached to some kind of base, be freestanding, or suspended.

Process:

• Choose one of your compositions from the 2D project, that seems most interesting and use it as a starting point for a 3D project.
• The largest dimension (size) of your project should be approximately the size of the paper used in the 2D project.
• Find or make objects to use in your project.
• Select a material for a base (if you are using one) for your composition.
• Assemble all of your materials, combine and attach them as required
• Photograph your work and upload image(s) to your e-portfolio.
• Write a short reflection using the prompt below, and post underneath your image.
• Publish and copy the URL link into onCampus and submit the link in the assignment text box.

Reflection Prompt:

• Consider the problem of translation from 2D to 3D. What were some of the challenges that you encountered?
• Do you feel that the composition changed or evolved, did it improve?

The creation and use of images and objects is at the core of all design. All images and objects have meaning and how the designer chooses to present those meanings are of the utmost importance. We will focus on the different ways of making images/objects as well as the different kinds of meaning that they can produce. 

Introduction to Semiotics - video

Semiotics - presentation

Getting Around

A car is just a car - or is it? The Semiotics of transportation.

Group discussion.

Images can be experienced and understood in two different ways: DENOTATIVELY and CONNOTATIVELY. Denotative and connotative meaning may be examined individually, but in reality it is difficult to understand an image as purely one or the other. Nevertheless, we will attempt to look at them separately for the purpose of clarity.

Watch the videos and take notes in your sketchbook. Class discussion to follow. 

Watch the videos and take notes in your sketchbook. Class discussion to follow.

Unpacking the apple

Apple unpack

Watch the video and take notes in your sketchbook. Class discussion to follow.

Watch the videos and take notes in your sketchbook. Class discussion to follow.

Create multiple  images of an everyday object in a wide range of traditional and non-traditional media, techniques and processes. At least four of these must be connotative. 

A successful project will have a strong willingness to take creative risks resulting in a wide range of interesting and creative visual solutions. I am less interested in you creating perfect and safe images than in using the various strategies of idea generation: iterative, process, and generative to explore many visual possibilities.

Objectives:

• To Understand the terms Denotative and Connotative and the difference between them.
• To make images that have Denotative and Connotative meaning.
• To use  generative, iterative and process strategies of making- producing many possibilities.
• To explore a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional image making media, techniques and processes to achieve innovative, interesting and unexpected results.
• To present the work in an appropriate way for critique.

Thoughts on the denotative images:

What are the core communicative elements of your image, that need to be included in order for the viewer to recognize and understand the object?

Thoughts about the connotative images:

One good place to start is with a dictionary!

Think of common figures of speech (idioms) that you might know or heard that use the item

Think of other objects you can add to the original to add meaning.

Symbolism- what do these objects symbolize in other cultures or at other times

Brainstorm with your partner in the sketchbook – as many possible ideas as you can

Process/Criteria:

• Select a common everyday object that is neither too complex or too simple. The object should be interesting enough to potentially produce multiple visual possibilities.
• Create many  6"x6" squares of white drawing paper - 24 is a good number to start with - add more if needed.
• Use the three strategies of making: process, generative, iterative. Review the video above if you don't remember what these mean.
• Explore a variety of different approaches to making your image. These should not be limited to traditional art materials or techniques. Consider and experiment with other ways of producing images. The more creative and innovative your experiments are the more valuable this project will be.
• SAVE all 18 of your images - no matter how good or bad they are.
• Scan or photograph all 18 of your pieces.

Specific Criteria for this version of the project:

You will make a total of 18 finished drawings. Of these you will select 12 to mount and present.

You must include the following in your project.

• 3 -Photographs (no manipulation)
• 3 -Digital (using Photoshop or Illustrator may use any of the tools available in these programs)
• 3- pen/ marker (color /black and white)
• 3- pencil /charcoal/ pastel 
• 3- collage (may use multimedia /found or repurposed objects)
• 1- acrylic or watercolor
• 2 -non-traditional art material or substance

Some suggestions for image making:

• drawing 
• painting 
• colored pencils
• non traditional mark-making tools and media - any thing that you can think of.
• markers
• printing
• rubbing/charcoal 
• Photocopy/Scanning
• photography - altered photography
• photoshop
• illustrator
• combinations of digital and analog techniques
• combinations of FOUND 2d and 3d materials and techniques (collage and assemblage).

Reflection Prompts:

Please respond to the following:

• Explain what techniques and media you used in the creation of your work. Were they things you were familiar with or did you try something new and different?
• Did you produce a wide range of unexpected and/or creative visual solutions in the project?
• Did you find the making of either Denotative or Connotative images, more interesting or challenging?

Like images, objects and materials can also carry both denotative and connotative meaning. Designed objects can possess  utility (they function in some way) and/or signification (they can be symbols that stand in for something else). The object in the upper photograph above is an art object created by the Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim. Oppenheim was a Surrealist artist working in Europe, and among the very few women artists associated with that group of artists.

This work is interesting for several reasons:  By taking a typical cup, saucer and spoon and then covering them in fur, the artist is upending our notions of these objects - forcing us to see them in a completely different way. She also negates the utility of the objects since they could no longer be used as intended. Finally the choice of the material (fur) is both sensuous and (to some) repulsive, creating different meanings and confounding our notions of these objects. So combining material and objects in different ways can change the meaning for the viewer.

This project is inspired by the work of the American artist Richard Serra. 

In this project you will transform, and explore how 

to visualize an abstract concept (a verb) in a simple material (paper) by subjecting it to an action (cutting, folding, etc). This process based exploration is a different way of approaching the making of form.

Richard Serra

Richard Serra is an important American process/ minimalist sculptor. His work is usually large scale and rendered in steel. You can learn more about him by watching the video below. Also read about the art movement: Minimalism.

Minimalism

Richard Serra art 21

Richard Serra: Tools& Strategies

In the mid-1960s Richard Serra began experimenting with nontraditional art materials like fiberglass, neon, and rubber, and also with the language involved in the physical process of making sculpture. The result was the list of action verbs, compiled by Serra and then enacted on the materials he had collected in his studio.

As Serra explained, "It struck me that instead of thinking what a sculpture is going to be and how you're going to do it compositionally, what if you just enacted those verbs in relation to a material and didn't worry about the results?"

Objectives:

• To explore the process of making work from a different point of view, that of  allowing a physical action to work upon the material.
• To visualize an abstract concept in a physical form.
• To work individually and with others to explore and expand the form-making possibilities of a simple material.

Criteria/Process

Step 1

In your sketchbook write a series of action verbs following Serra's example (image above). Fill one entire page.

Step 2

Taking a single sheet of white drawing paper, visualize one of the verbs you have written down by forming the material into a 3d object. Try to not do the obvious or simple thing. For Example: If you had chosen the verb "STIR" , do not make a spoon because that is only visualizing the noun associated with the verb NOT the verb itself.

Step 3

Repeat step 1, this time with a partner. Each, select a new verb from your list. Work together to visualize the both of the verbs. 

Step 4

From your previous iterations of this project, and with your partner, select the most interesting or successful version and EXPAND the concept to a larger work.This should include multiple pieces of paper. This final work should be conceived of as either something that hangs on the wall, or lies on a table top.

This work will be presented for critique.

Step 5

Photograph all iterations of your work and post in your e-portfolio.

Step 6

After your critique write a short reflection about this project. Post to your e-portfolio.

This project asks you to approach the creation of forms in a different way. It also explores how a common material can be " activated" by performing a simple action upon it thus transforming it into something different. This project was inspired by the work of American sculptor, Richard Serra.

Objectives:

 .

• To use a simple process to activate the material.
• Using quick iteration to explore a wide range of possible solutions to a problem.
• To display the finished pieces as a unified whole work.

Process/Criteria:

You have received 5 white coffee cups one of which contains a piece of paper with an action verb.

• Transform the 5 cups by VISUALIZING the action verb you were given on the material. There must be 3 distinct solutions. 
• You may use only the cups themselves for the five transformations. No additional materials, no color, mark-making, glue, tape or fasteners of any kind.
• Display all of your cups in the order in which you made them in some way that allows the viewer to see the process and creates a unified work.
• Photograph your work and post to your portfolio. Make sure you label the photograph with the Verb you were given. 

Reflection:

What were the main challenges of this assignment for you? 

Just as Images can signify different meanings, the same is true of objects. In this project you will explore the meaning making power of objects. As we have seen when working with images, that connotative meanings are cultural dependent. So people may "read" the meanings of objects differently.

As we have also seen with images, that by adding another object to the first object that its connotative meaning can change - often radially, and sometimes even flipping to its opposite.

In this project we will play with manipulating the meaning of objects.

Objectives:

• To select an everyday object and to identify its utility (function) and its connotative meaning.
• To understand that objects can function as signifiers (signs carrying meaning)
• To change and hopefully "flip" its meaning by using a different object or material and either placing it in juxtaposition with, or in some way combining it, with the first object.
• To use generative and iterative processes to create the work

Process/Criteria:

• Select an everyday object that is not too complicated or simple, and that you think has both symbolic value and clear utility. You can use the same object as in the first project, or a different one.
• Consider and record your thoughts as to what you think its connotative meaning might be.
• Find a second material or object that you think might radically change or even completely flip or invert the original object's meaning.
• In your sketchbook explore at least 3 ways that you can combine these two objects/materials. GET AND DOCUMENT FEEDBACK BEOFRE PROCEEDING TO THE NEXT STEP.
• Using actual materials Try at least 3 ways and document your results with photographs.GET AND DOCUMENT FEEDBACK BEOFRE PROCEEDING TO THE NEXT STEP.
• Select your best solution and refine it if necessary.
• Photograph and post your final version in your portfolio. Underneath the image write a short "artist's statement that explains the new meaning of your combined object and why you made the choices you did.

Critique/Reflection

At the conclusion of the project you will be expected to fully participate in the critique and write a short reflection. This reflection must be posted in the e-portfolio in order for the project to be considered complete. It is highly suggested that you use your sketchbook to write down your thoughts and the suggestions of classmates and the instructor as you work through this project as well as the final critique. Use these notes to craft your final reflection which will be posted in the e-portfolio.