Elaborating the relations
of object with different sides of the frame is by large a synthesis of
what was already said about up and down and left and right, with the previous
chapters about the image's edge. The extremes of up and down can, for our
symbolic purposes, unmistakably be represented by heaven and earth. Bottom
edge of the image is a stabile, solid border, suitable for support of the
heaviest weight, and the most appropriate foundation for something to sprout
up and grow out of. Top of the image, on the contrary, is a labile phenomenon
of rather spiritual matter. Left and right sides have their best description
in properties of left and right within the image: intuitive and self-oriented
versus rational and turned outwards. All this is a good testimony about
asymmetry within the frame.
The above mentioned properties make the sides group in pairs: and that
is left and up, and right and down. These are, therefore,
the most opposite corners. (Of course, just to keep our awareness balanced-
whatever is valid for the contact with a particular side, certainly is
felt as an influence throughout the surface of the image.) From all this
follows the difference in impression of a line coming out of a particular
side.
Particularly interesting is a line emerging from a corner (as a diagonal).
The converging sides almost suggest a perspective here, and it really seems
one can go down a diagonal infinitely without ever reaching the frame.
As well, just because this is the farthest point ("of the world"), there
is some mystical power, enhanced by the sharpness of the vanishing point,
"there, on the horizon". Comparing this with the line that comes out from
the side, where the cut is predominant and precise as a momentary
transition into non-dimensional, line coming out of the corner is preserved
in all its length, beginning with the optical perception itself.
Fig.'s
a),
b) and c) show drastic difference in
impression between something that is mechanically indeed minimal change
(such as the small camera movement in film and photography).
mutual influence of the objects
This is where we lose ground under our feet: the abundance of all that's
possible within image sounds threatening to a clear view attempted here.
Not wanting to adopt guesswork as a tool, and realizing that any analysis
of such vast terrain (that surely exceeds interest of this text anyhow)
would consume inadmissible amounts of time and space, we will not undertake
this task. It is highly probable that at least first steps for this exploration
can be found in "Art and Visual Perception" by Rudolf Arnheim, a book that
I gladly recommend.
What we have to say on the issue is general (and our usual): do not
underestimate the effect of objects within the image. Thanks to elementary
nature of many visual phenomena studied and described here, we can use
those as an alphabet in interpretation of more complex events such are
mutual relations of objects inside the image; which will at least suffice
the exploratory interests of this text. |