Posted by R. John Howe on November 21, 1998 at 20:43:33:
In Reply to: Re: Color vs Monochrome Images, and Rug Perceptions posted by Marvin on November 19, 1998 at 10:18:08:
Dear folks -
Two Saturday evening thoughts. (There is, alas, neither Scotch nor anything else here to sip as I write.) The first of these responds to Steve's last observation; the second to Marvin's.
Although I think that Steve is right to indicate that there are both gestalt and more analytical perspectives from which rugs can be viewed usefully, I would be hesitant to conclude that those who do so are one kind of "person" or another. It is my own private conceit, perhaps mistaken, that I can appreciate rugs from both of these perspectives and in fact have some control over which I want to adopt at the moment. So to analyze is not necessarily to convict oneself of being outside the possibility of gestalt perception. (Of course, I may have, in this short paragraph provided the materials to refute my thesis. :) )
My response to Marvin's genial thought is that although (alas, again) the tactile side of rugs is not accessible to us here, I suspect that the inter-relationship, yea interdependence of color and graphic design are close enough that we may need to award graphic design a position well above 7 in any listing of desirable traits.
Regards,
R. John Howe
: : I've never before seen the kind of monochrome vs color comparisons of the sort Wendel has made on this rug, and think it is a most interesting (and novel) way of looking at things. On the other hand, if it's true that the three most important things about a rug (in order of importance) are
: : 1. color
: : 2. color
: : 3. colour (a concession to those committed to the peculiar form of English used by the British)
: : we have to be very careful about how we use it. Like nuclear energy, there is great potential for both good and evil here.
: : Wendel's final aesthetic judgment, like mine, is that he likes this rug very much despite its demonstrable flaws. This reminded me that there seem to be two kinds of people in terms of how they perceive faces. Some see and pay attention to features. Others, of which I am one, seem not to pay attention to features but perceive a sort of gestalt image. I could never help a police artist prepare a sketch because I have no image of the individual features of faces, even those that I know very well. This makes me wonder whether this sort of gestalt perception vs feature perception applies to rugs as well. I suspect that it does.
: : Steve Pice
: If color is 1, 2 and 3. then wool quality must be 4, 5, and 6. Design might be 7. Cheers, Marvin