Organizing Principles Outline

Art has three essential components:
- Form
- Subject
- Content
No single one can exist without the other.
Form refers to the arrangement of the composition and to organizing and composing it.

Principles of Organization:
  - Artist must bring order out of chaos.
     - Integrated visual whole out of different elements.
  - The elements (line, shape, color, texture, and value) are applied to the principles:
     - Harmony, variety, balance, proportion, dominance, movement, and economy.
  - This creates visual unity
  -Affect and influence eachother
  -The organizing process is a mix of intellect
  - Visual composition controls eye movements, is speed and direction, provides pauses, and manipulates volume.
  - Harmony:
     - Pleasing relationship between different sections of a composition
        - Elements have something in common
        - Different areas or images will harmonize if they are treated similarly
     -Repetition:
        - Things repeated or used more than once
     - Rhythm:
        - Depends on likeness, direction, type, value, and size
        - Is continuance that results from repeated beats
        - Pauses create rhythm
     - Pattern:
        - Arrangement or design of elements and act as a model
        - If pattern is repeated numerously then it would be called a motif which creates an allover pattern
     - Closure:
        - Assembling to create a pattern
        - Visual grouping
        - Artist provides minimal information and observers provide closure
        - Shapes have harmonious relationship because of spacing
        - Proximity and similarity at work
     - Visual Linking:
        - Shared space becomes cohesive factor
        - Shapes of same size or related color or value will unite compositions
        - Can restrict illusion of three-dimensional effect
     - Linking through Extensions:
        - Dissimilar images can relate through extension
        - Extending edge of a shape across a composition can establish new objects
        - Reveal hidden relationships

-Variety:
   - Counterweight to harmony
   - Essential to unity
   - Arouses viewers curiousity
   - Visual contrast
   - Differentiating the components
     -Contrast:
       - Opposition
       - Opposites placed in same area
       - Area becomes more dominant
     - Elaboration:
       - Introduce visual difference to attract attention
     - Dualism of Harmony and Variety:
       - Affect eachother
 - Balance:
   - Fundamental to unity
   - Gravitational equilibrium of a mark on a plane
   - Placement, size, proportion, character, and direction of elements
     - Moments of Force:
       - Points of interest that represent moving and directional forces
     - Symmetrical Balance:
       - Units exactly the same on both sides
       - Unity achieved
     - Approximate Symmetrical Balance:
       - The artistic components are different instead of identical
       - Altered in size, color, number, etc.
     - Radial Balance:
       - Can create true and approximate symmetry
       - Visual forces are around the central point and radiate from it
       - Jewelers use this for rings, pins, necklaces, and brooches
     - Asymmetrical Balance:
       - Informal balance
       - Balances forces horizontally, vertically, and diagonally
       - Visual center in any location
 - Proportion:
   - Ratio of individual parts to one another or the whole
   - Personal judgment
   - Scale is used when proportion is related to size
   - Changes in scale for emphasis
      - Artist can sustain observer's attention
 - Dominance:
   - Emphasize areas by using contrasts to create more dominance
     1. Isolation- separation of one part from others
     2. Placement- "Center Stage" is often used
     3. Direction- A movement that contrasts with others
     4. Scale of Proportion- Unusual scale attracts attention
     5. Character- Significant difference in general appearance is striking
   - Artwork without dominance fails to communicate
   - Must combine different methods to achieve dominance
 - Movement:
  - Looking at artwork is like being taken on a tour
    - The artist is the tour guide
  - Eye movements directed by lines, shapes, and shape edges that seem to relate
  - Degree of dominance determines amount of time spent at each great interest location
  - Repetition and variations entice eye movement from one part to another
 - Economy:
  - Some solutions appear to be unnecessary because artists work on one segment at a time
     - Can result in lack of visual unity
  - By applying the principle of economy, the work can gain a sense of unity
     - Composing with efficiency
     - Expressing idea as simply as possible
  - Associated with word abstraction
     - Process of selecting the essentials that strengthen the conceptual and organizational aspects of the artwork


Space: Result of Elements and Principles:
  - Space is the result of the elements as they are put into action and altered
  - Some use the frame as a window into the space
    - 3-D or plastic
  - Artists who choose to work with a flat or 2-D interpretation is decorative space
  - Look for consistency of relationships

Three-Dimensional Form and the Principles of Organization:
  - Organizational principles used in 3-D art are same at those in 2-D art
  - 3-D artists deal with forms that have multiple views
  - What works for one view might not work for other positions
  - 3-D work may be tectonic with few and limited projections
     - Closed, massive, simple
  -3-D work may be atectonic with frequent and extensive projections
     - Open to a large degree

 - Harmony and Variety:
   - Concerns in creation of 2-D artworks
   - 3-D work must be balanced by harmony for benefit of work's totality
   - Extensions are important in producing harmony
     - Imply connections with other lines and shapes
     - Create a continuous movement
   - Repetition of elements help establish harmony
   - Artists use closure, proximity, interpenetration, transparency, and overlapping to create harmony
   - Variety is achieved by increasing the dissimilarities between areas or by reducing the means by which harmony is provided
   - Goal is effective combination of harmony and variety
   - Sculptural work in low relief is closely related to 2-D work
   - High relief is a hybrid production

 - Balance:
   - Symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial
     - Symmetrical and radial are formal and regular
     - Radial balance is spherical
       - Parts that radiate from this point are similar
       - Artists use more asymmetrical balance because it provides the greatest latitude and variety

 - Proportion:
   - Relationships of the parts to the whole
   - Determines basic form
   - Scale is most dramatic of the extremes

- Dominance:
  - Create differences through contrast to call attention to significant parts

- Movement:
  - Implied movement is illusionary
  - Actual movement is the physical movement of the work itself
    - Kinetic sculpture
  - Infuses element of time and emphasizes moving parts
  - Actual movements are set into motion by air, water, mechanical devices, and computer-activated programs

- Economy:
  - Express ideas as simply as possible
  - Primary structurists or minimalists focus on economy
     - No emotional, psychological, or symbolic associations

Form Unity: A Summary
  - Artists select a picture plane
  - Create elements
  - Make adjustments that accelerate harmony and variety to achieve balance, proportion, dominance, movement, and economy
  - If successful it has unity
  - Elements are guided by principles of organization