SURFACES ARE THE PROBLEM

“The mind is not held back by the surfaces of things.” Yesterday we had an Arnheim inspired page, and today another Arnheim jewel.MS09-010 TRANSPARENT DRAWING

On page 88 of Visual Thinking, he discusses our perceptions of forms. In these passages, he discusses our perceptions of the inside and the outside of forms.

“Given the visual nature of such knowledge, there is no break between what is knows and what is seen. The inside fits snugly into the outside. This continuity extends perception beyond what is depicted on the retina. The mind is not held back by the surfaces of things.

In previous pages, we have expressed a fervent belief in a simultaneous holistic understanding of the inside and the outside of a form. In Transparent Drawing, when you understand the outside, you understand the inside, and vice versa.

He finishes this passage with a general presentation of the problem of an enclosure which “prevents us from knowing what we want to know or when (the enclosure) appears as an impediment to something that wants to get out from inside.”

Don’t let the enclosure prevent what is inside get out into your mind. Don’t let surfaces create an obstacle.

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