Gestalt: The Whole Story

Gestalt: The Whole Story

Visual perception is the ability to interpret information from visible light reaching the eyes. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision.

Gestalt is a psychology term which means “unified whole” and “configuration or pattern”. It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.

According to the theory of the Gestalt Laws of Organization, there are six factors that determine how we group things according to visual perceptions. These six factors are as follows:

THE LAW OF CLOSURE

  • The brain may experience things it does not perceive through sensation in order to complete a figure or to increase the figure’s regularity.
  • Closure occurs when an object is incomplete or a space is not completely enclosed.
  • If enough visual information is available the whole is perceived by completing the missing information.

 closure

THE LAW OF SIMILARITY

  • The mind groups similar elements into collective entities. This similarity might depend on relationships of form, color, size, or brightness.
  • Similarity occurs when objects look similar to each other. They are perceived as a group or pattern.
  • An object can be emphasized if it is dissimilar to the other objects. This is called an anomaly.

similarity

THE LAW OF PROXIMITY

  • Spatial or temporal proximity of elements may lead the mind to perceive a collective.
  • Proximity occurs when object are placed close together. These objects tend to be perceived as a group.
  • When objects are given close proximity to each other, unity occurs.
  • In a state of unity, objects continue to be separate shapes but the objects are now perceived as one group.

 proximity


THE LAW OF CONTINUITY

  • The mind continues visual, auditory, and kinetic patterns as a process.
  • Continuation occurs when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object.

 continuity

THE LAW OF SYMMETRY (Figure/Ground Relationships)

  • Symmetrical images are perceived collectively, even in spite of distance.
  • The eye differentiates an object form its surrounding area.
  • A form, silhouette, or shape is naturally perceived as figure (object), while the surrounding area is perceived as ground (background).
  • In the example below, the figure and ground will alternate to the eye as one gazes at the picture.

figureground

THE LAW OF COMMON FATE

  • Elements with the same moving direction are perceived as a collective or unit.
  • In the example below, when dots 1,3,5,7,9, and 11 move up and dots 2,4,6,8,10 and 12 moved down at the same time, the dots that are moving in the same direction are visually perceived as a group, or whole.

commonfatecommonfate

Gestalt grouping laws do not seem to act independently. Instead, they appear to influence each other, so that the final visual perception is a combination of all of the Gestalt grouping laws acting together.

Gestalt theory applies to all aspects of human learning, although it applies most directly to perception and problem-solving. The use of these six Gestalt grouping laws is pervasive in the visual arts and the design arts.

Author: The Artist

Artist, Designer & Photographer