Figure Ground

Positive/negative shape interaction

Figure Ground defined

• The figure is the subject (emotional focus) of an image and the ground is the area which the figure occupies

• The figure is also referred to as the positive space while the ground is considered the negative space

• The figure and ground define each other and are both necessary in an image (puzzle pieces)

• “One can then state as a fundamental principle: When two fields have a common border, and one is seen as the figure and the other as ground, the immediate perceptual experience is characterized by a shaping effect which emerges from the common border of the fields and which operates only on one field or operates more strongly on one than on the other.”

• Edgar Rubin, 1915

• Both the faces and vase can be perceived as the figure, but only one at a time.

• When one is viewed as the figure it’s surrounding space, ground, is formless and acts only to define the contour of the figure.

• Rubin’s work influenced the Gestalt theorists who later studied many of the same principles.

• Gestalt psychology come out of the Berlin School in the early 20th century.

• It states that humans perceive major shapes and forms before recognizing the parts and details that make up the larger whole.

• The two gestalt systems that most relate to figure/ground relationships are “reification” and “multistability”

Reification: Constructive perception, by which the experience percept contains more spatial information than the sensory stimulus on which it is based.

In other words, we see a shape by what is implied in the provided imagery.

Multistability: the tendency of ambiguous perceptual experience to pop back and forth unstably between two or more alternative interpretations.

Necker Cube and Rubin’s face/vase are perfect examples.

M.C. Escher• Dutch artist known for designing ambiguous

figure/ground relationships in his prints and drawings.

Frank Miller• Author of graphic

novels known for harsh subject matter and jarring imagery.

Mimbres Pottery

Robert Longo

Yayoi Kusama

Kara Walker