Theories of Perception and Gestalt Theory The example

  • Slides: 39
Download presentation
Theories of Perception and Gestalt Theory The example of Rudolph Arnheim

Theories of Perception and Gestalt Theory The example of Rudolph Arnheim

Key terms • Gestalt • Visual perception • Processes of perception • Bottom-up /

Key terms • Gestalt • Visual perception • Processes of perception • Bottom-up / Top-down • Deduction / Induction • Affective perception

Early and classical film theorists • Hugo Münsterberg (1863 -1916) • Béla Balázs (1884

Early and classical film theorists • Hugo Münsterberg (1863 -1916) • Béla Balázs (1884 -1949) • Siegried Kracauer (1889 -1966) • Walter Benjamin (1892 -1940) • Louis Delluc (1890 -1924) • Jean Epstein (1897 -1953) • Rudolf Arnheim (1904 -2007)

Arnheim’s first study • Film als Kunst, 1932 [Film as Art] • See later

Arnheim’s first study • Film als Kunst, 1932 [Film as Art] • See later books, e. g. , Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye from 1954. Or his Visual Thinking. • He was a theorist of (audio-) visual media and a Gestalt psychologist - from the school of Max Wertheimer • He was one of the founders of Leonardo at M. I. T. See his Editorial in Leonardo, Volume 33 | Issue 3 | June 2000, p. 167 -168

German: Film als Kunst, 1932 (Film as Art) Essay ‘Film and Reality’ (1932) Note

German: Film als Kunst, 1932 (Film as Art) Essay ‘Film and Reality’ (1932) Note that we have a 1933 version in our reader The basic question is: What does the new (technical) medium provide?

Arnheim‘s early work (of the early 1930 s) is already driven by questions of

Arnheim‘s early work (of the early 1930 s) is already driven by questions of perception and what we would call aesthetics of media (technologies) today. The main questions concerning film as art in that context were: • What are the criteria that films, radio sequels and paintings need to fulfill in order to count as art? • What are, by implication, the formal characteristics of film that can make it an art?

Is Film a medium for creation? Must film be understood as a mere transmission

Is Film a medium for creation? Must film be understood as a mere transmission of reality? Or as a creation, a translation into art? Arnheim says that the camera does more than only document automatically (cf. Film as Art, 10) “the work of art (…) is not simply an imitation or selective duplication of reality but a translation of observed characteristics into the forms of a given medium. ” (Film as Art, 3)

Arnheim argues that film offers not just a simple representation but a complex (re)presentation

Arnheim argues that film offers not just a simple representation but a complex (re)presentation or (re)creation of reality. Hence, it is (potentially) an art form. Moreover, he argues that it is possible to define film as art through its unreal (or expressive) features

 • • • Arnheim is interested in all sorts of technological aspects of

• • • Arnheim is interested in all sorts of technological aspects of the image, in particular in the unreal (or expressive) features film image: 3 D worlds (re)presented on a 2 D surface framing the world (in an onscreen / off screen part) colorisation / decolorisation /the absence of color (grey tones) the manipulation of the space-time continuum through editing

Note that the aspects mentioned in the previous slide are not considered by Arnheim

Note that the aspects mentioned in the previous slide are not considered by Arnheim as deviations from reality but as deviations from our perceptual experience of reality. In other words: film art is not a manipulation of reality, but a manipulation of the way in which we, spectators, perceive reality. Note that Gestalt psychology states that perceptions of reality are created in a process of hypothesizing what it is that is seen / heard.

The medium / technology does more “than simply reproduce the required object; (…) sharpen

The medium / technology does more “than simply reproduce the required object; (…) sharpen it, impose a style upon it, point out special features, make it vivid and decorative. Art begins where mechanical reproduction leaves off. ” (Film as Art, 57)

Silent cinema versus sound cinema 2 D versus 3 D For Arnheim, sound cinema

Silent cinema versus sound cinema 2 D versus 3 D For Arnheim, sound cinema is going against artistic creativity, in particular the creativity and highly valued unreality of the silent cinema era… And with regard to the 2 D / 3 D wishes of the industry, Arnheim claims along similar lines that “the lack of depth [in 2 D] brings a very welcome element of unreality into the film picture. ”

Realists like André Bazin argue that film offers “reality”, a WINDOW to the world.

Realists like André Bazin argue that film offers “reality”, a WINDOW to the world. Arnheim argues: the filmic “window” (= medium / technology) will inevitably distort the image of reality. Film art is a product of the tension between representation and distortion • • • “Complexity without order produces confusion (…) Order without complexity produces boredom. ” Too much distortion =>> confusion Too little distortion =>> boredom

Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt, 1927 by Walter Ruttmann [Berlin: Symphony of a Great

Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt, 1927 by Walter Ruttmann [Berlin: Symphony of a Great City]

Gestalt psychology was still a young discipline when the Lumière Brothers presented their film

Gestalt psychology was still a young discipline when the Lumière Brothers presented their film shows with their new invention, the cinematograph, in 1895. In 1890 Christian von Ehrenfels published his classic paper “Über 'Gestaltqualitäten‘” [On Qualities of Gestalt], the first systematic investigation of the philosophy and psychology of Gestalt. Ehrenfels’ paper marked the beginning of the Gestalt tradition in psychology, later associated with the work of Wertheimer, Köhler and Koffka in Berlin. Arnheim worked in this tradition; he worked on film, the visual arts, and visual thinking mainly.

The Gestalt School of Psychology • Important for the study of film and the

The Gestalt School of Psychology • Important for the study of film and the visual arts was the Gestalt School of Psychology, Weimar Republic, 1919 -1933. • Béla BALÁZS • Siegfried KRACAUER • Rudolf ARNHEIM • Berlin: Friedrich-Wilhelm University • Max WERTHEIMER • Wolfgang KÖHLER • Kurt LEWIN

The GESTALT school of psychology’s main concern: • studying visual perception as in the

The GESTALT school of psychology’s main concern: • studying visual perception as in the visual arts • studying perception through time, as in the temporal arts (music, literature) Basic thesis: • The form or Gestalt - perceived as a result of perceptual work - is more than the sum of its components

The notion of a Gestalt – “essence or shape of an entity’s complete form”

The notion of a Gestalt – “essence or shape of an entity’s complete form” (think for instance a circle or a ball). Dominant research methods? • In film studies, Gestalt psychology is used as a scientific tool to study (visual) perception. • It is based on experimental, and empirical research. • Gestalt psychology compensates FREUD’s speculative psychoanalysis: “Freud’s insistence on sexuality as the motivation for art was never clear to me. ” (Arnheim, in an interview)

Processes of perception bottom-up / top-down processes: • top-down: the processes of perception are

Processes of perception bottom-up / top-down processes: • top-down: the processes of perception are shaped by previous knowledge and expectations (deduction – leaving from an assumption, a theory, a scheme) • bottom-up: from details to the whole (induction)

Questions, typical for Gestalt psychology: • • What do I see / hear? How

Questions, typical for Gestalt psychology: • • What do I see / hear? How do I understand what I see and hear? How does this trigger me to reflect on the outer world and myself?

 • → Film is (approached by Arnheim as) an instrument for affective perception.

• → Film is (approached by Arnheim as) an instrument for affective perception. • The question of the relation of film to reality is typical of the day. • → For Arnheim, this takes the form of asking questions with regard to the perception of reality and the perception of film.

“The hidden structure of a square”, In “The hidden structure of a square”, Arnheim

“The hidden structure of a square”, In “The hidden structure of a square”, Arnheim explores basic questions of perception against the background of Gestalt Theory. What may we learn from his perceptual approach that is relevant for the study of film today?

What may we learn from his perceptual approach that is relevant for the study

What may we learn from his perceptual approach that is relevant for the study of film today? • That we take in visual information with help of our eyes, but that we need our brain to process the information. • More specifically, that we process information by hypnotizing with regard to what we think we see (e. g. , one or two or three sides of a cube). • Furthermore, that rules (or laws) of perception guide this process, e. g. , the rule of constancy of size and shape; or constancy of form.

What may we learn from his perceptual approach that is relevant for the study

What may we learn from his perceptual approach that is relevant for the study of film today? • Plus: the rules are the same, whether we perceive of things in real or on a screen. • What is not the same? Things on a screen - in 2 D, or in 3 D - look different than they do in real. (Remember, Arnheim appreciates the unreality of it. ) • Cognitivist film scholars (Bordwell amongst them) learned a lot from Arnheim in terms of how film viewers process the cues offered to them in films; see his discussions of the “viewer’s activities” in Narration in the Fiction Film (1985) in these very terms.

Some notes on quotes from Arnheim… … the space-time continuum 1) Note that perception

Some notes on quotes from Arnheim… … the space-time continuum 1) Note that perception in real is 3) Note that Arnheim is writing about different from perception of a film the shot- reverse-shot system on p. 27 – in as far as perception in real is yet without using the technical term. always embedded in a space-time continuum that cannot be suspended ever. 2) However, the (real) space-time continuum is absent in the film (p. 20). Hence, story worlds in narrative cinema, however, depend on the filmic construction of a space-time continuum. (Much later, Bordwell and others will analyse the pivotal role continuity editing plays as an editing system in film. )

In “Absence of the space-time continuum [in film]” “[…] we can perceive objects and

In “Absence of the space-time continuum [in film]” “[…] we can perceive objects and events as living and at the same time imaginary, as real objects and as simple patterns of light on the projection screen; and it is this fact that makes film art possible. ”(p. 29) On the right: Diane Arbus, The Magic Mirror

4. What may we learn from clumsy childish scribbles of human faces? The impression

4. What may we learn from clumsy childish scribbles of human faces? The impression is strong, though the representation is anything but complete. (p. 29) We can perceive objects and events (1. ) as living (real) and at the same time we can perceive them (2. ) as imaginary: as real objects and as simple patterns of light on the projection screen; and it is this fact that makes film art possible. (p. 29)

5) Our eyes are not a mechanism functioning independently of the rest of the

5) Our eyes are not a mechanism functioning independently of the rest of the body. They work in constant cooperation with the rest of the sense organs. (p. 30) Relevance for cinema studies today? 6) Sensations of smell, equilibrium, or touch are, of course, never conveyed in a film through direct [tactile etc. ] stimuli, but are suggested indirectly through sight. (p. 34) See later reflections on the viewing experience by film phenomenologist Vivian Sobchack (in Address of the Eye) or Laura Marks on so called “haptic visuality” (in The Skin of the Film).

7) Visual experience is dynamic. What a person perceives is not only an arrangements

7) Visual experience is dynamic. What a person perceives is not only an arrangements of objects, of colors and shapes, movements and sizes. It is perhaps first of all an interplay of directed tensions. These tensions are not something the observer adds to static images. Rather, these tensions are as inherent in any percepts as size, shape, location, or color. Because these tensions have magnitude and direction, they can be described as psychological forces [or perceptual forces]. (p. 11, Chapter on Balance) For example: an angle of 93 degrees is not seen as what it is, but as a somewhat inadequate right angle (of 90 degrees). Max Wertheimer empirically constructed the evidence for this. (p. 15, Chapter on Balance)

What is visual expression? 8) What is visual expression? As soon as we open

What is visual expression? 8) What is visual expression? As soon as we open our eyes to the dynamic qualities conveyed by any thing – a chair, a hexagon, a woodpecker – inevitably we see them as carrying expressive meaning.

What is visual expression? We define expression as modes of organic or inorganic behavior

What is visual expression? We define expression as modes of organic or inorganic behavior displayed in the dynamic appearance they are used metaphorically to of perceptual objects or events. characterize non-sensory phenomena: e. g. , low moral, high These modes come with structural costs of living, the lucidity of an properties not limited to the external argument, the compactness of senses (and always active in the resistance… behavior of the human mind): (pp. 444 -5, Chapter on Expression. )

Relevance of Arnheim’s work today – last remark An important statement by Arnheim regarding

Relevance of Arnheim’s work today – last remark An important statement by Arnheim regarding the medium’s technology is that it does more • “than simply reproduce the required object”: • it represents the object with distortions. I will return to this in the lecture on Media Archaeology, in the discussion of Friedrich Kittler and the traces left on the “signifier” by so -called “technical media”

Epilogue: See Rudolph Arnheim reflecting on slow motion and its effects on the spectator

Epilogue: See Rudolph Arnheim reflecting on slow motion and its effects on the spectator • “Slow motion has hardly been applied at all yet to artistic purposes, although it should be very useful. It might, for instance, serve to slow down natural movements grotesquely; but it can also create new movements, which do not appear as the retarding of natural movements but have a curious gliding, floating character of their own. Slow motion should be a wonderful medium for showing visions and ghosts. ” (Arnheim, 100). • Arnheim, Rudolf. Film as Art. Londen: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1969 (1931).

Slow motion Example of the opening sequence of The Fall

Slow motion Example of the opening sequence of The Fall