Understanding Gestalt Psychology

I really admire how Shekhar puts it that in western theory of design, they believed in the science of arts and in India, we believe in the art of science.

On the first day, we were taught the different principles of Gestalt in simple terms, like similarity, proximity, continuation, closure, figure and ground and symmetry.

Hence, these principles of gestalt theory for perception is based on the tendency of brain to simplify, group and organize similar objects, etc. We were left free to observe the gestalt principle around our surroundings and record it. Initially, it was difficult for an hour or so, but once I could spot one, I was seeing it everywhere, mostly in complex designed stuffs, rather than in nature.

I sent few of the photos from my stock on our whatsapp group to make sure was I on the right path...to which I was not, for the fact that I need to click new pictures rather than justifying the photos to fall under one of the category of gestalt.

Many people were facing difficulty in understanding the gestalt psychology, Kuntal took us into a more deeper level to understand it better and this defined that why different people perceive things differently. 

Let me list out the principles and then share the one playing the vital role.

Law of emergence 

Law of Invariance,

Law of Multistability,

Law of Retification,

Law of Pragnanz

The most important factor in perceiving and seeing things comes from our past experience and background which is defined by the Law of Pragnanz.

So, here we are little bit clear about the gestalt principles.....and capture compositions showing gestalt in our surroundings.

We were cautioned to NOT force the principle into a frame.

Figure and Ground

I captured this when the brown rotring ink got dried in the small bowl, we can see two faces looking at each other like in ying yang.

Figure and Ground

I captured this when I was washing the bowl of colours and halfway, I suddenly see an elephant on the right and valley kind of area in a half moon shape on the left.

Closure

The hemispherical depressions together become a plus.

Similarity

The irregular shaped holes in the depressions form can be perceived under similarity.

Continuation

The vertical and horizontal bunch of dots show continuity.

Symmetry

Plus sign is showing symmetry.

Continuation

The lines and the circular cut out on the curtain display continuation going in wave like form.

Proximity and Similarity

We can see different things like rice, cereals and dals packed in one bowl, showing proximity.

All these are of similar size, showing similarity.

Closure

The ink mark formed from dripping of ink being settle at the bottom of the ink bottle shows closure in this particular picture as we perceive it to be circle but the ink is not there at places.