So you guys who went to art school: What's the art theory/psychology behind repeating patterns in art? They've been there forever, so somehow there's a subconscious trigger in the brain to find repetition aesthetically pleasing.
Something like Joseph Cambell's universal myth theory, maybe?
Because we see it so often in nature?
Because it's mathematically sophisticated?
Because it reminds us of the concept of excess, which was a good thing to have in hunter gatherer days?
3 comments:
In the sculpture studio at RISD, there was a common joke that if you had made an object that maybe wasn't so interesting, you could make a compelling piece out of it by making 10 or 12 more, identical to the original, and showing them together.
We never discussed this idea with our professors, although we probably should have, because it actually does work, in a kind of weird way. I did it once, and got a better crit than I probably deserved.
I'm not sure if that relates to what you're talking about here. I love the theory about excess exciting our ice-age brains. I've never heard anything like that before, but I do think a lot of human mysteries can be solved by remembering that our species grew up in a place where it was snowing all the damn time and there was nothing to eat.
Also, I think it helps when the repeated element is pretty girls.
That's totally what I'm talking about. I did the same thing when I took bronze casting and got the extra "crit". But the objects have to be organized, too. That purposeful organization part appears important.
So this never came up in class? It's gotta go back to our primitive brains somehow since you see it absolutely, positively, fucking everywhere.
And of course excess didn't have to be good back then, either. Like them terra cotta soldiers. More things=bigger army than you=bad.
Mmmm. Army of pretty girls...
Post a Comment