Yes! You want to believe you’re completely open to new ideas, that your experiences won’t dictate your aesthetic choices, but they do — based on something called predictive memory. Tonight I was showing my friend and client (srqchildspace.com) my logo re-design and we hashed around brain plasticity and ways to teach…which led to her digging up information in a book titled, The Body Has a Mind of Its Own, by Sandra Blakeslee. Here’s the gist — within the brain exists a hierarchy which passes information from a low to high area, it processes this information, reviews it based on what it expects or knows, etc. then kicks it back down the ladder to confirm what it already thought. So, if I’m following this, what I already perceive and believe and experienced affects how this is both reviewed and confirmed. Consequently, to get you to change your perception and see something fresh is a darn lot of work. Many of your perceptions — what you think, feel, hear — are affected by your prior beliefs and expectations. The good news? You can change that pattern. But imagine the “work” involved as a designer, as a visual communicator, to get noticed.
My point. Look at my Kangaroo with a broad perspective. Even if the colors don’t work for you. Even if you think this primitive illustration looks like an abstract donkey. You get the point. Think outside your box (mind). I chose this because I love Aboriginal artwork. It happens to be in my experience. Being born in Australia, we did eat Vegemite, had Aboriginal artwork around, etc. An earth palette speaks to me — deep terra cotta reds, rich browns, golden, sun-drenched yellows. Warm colors stimulate the senses. I filled in the body of the kangaroo with a repetitive pattern of circles and lines. Then you begin addressing design principles of balance, repetition, etc. What’s worth noting here is that designers use tools to get your attention. And that can be color, or line, or shape….we’re trying to find a way to speak to you. And that’s more successfully done by understanding your audience. And implementing design principles.
Which leads me to the explanation of Australian Aboriginal Art, beyond simple aesthetic satisfaction. But first, Dreamtime needs to be explained — In the time before time, the earth was dark and flat and barren. There was no form to its surface. The only life was in spirits who lived below the earth’s crust. As the earth parched and cracked, these spirits emerged and moved across the land. Each footstep, each rest, each depression from a walking stick shaped the natural features of the land. The spirits then returned to their subterranean world, leaving behind the Dreamtime ancestors, who continue to cross the land as humans and animals and who continue to shape the earth. For eons immeasurable, Aborigines and their forbearers have told this and other stories of the Dreamtime through various art forms. First were the paintings on rock faces, which have been dated back to 26,000 years and beyond. They were followed by body painting and paintings on smooth earth and on bark.
In each case, the works are filled with symbolic objects that tell the myth of the original and on-going creation on several levels. The meaning of these secret/sacred representations is revealed to initiates in stages as they mature in tribal understanding. On each level a new interpretation may be revealed for any symbol. At one age, a circle may represent a sandhill. Later, it becomes a water hole. Still later, it may be identified as a sacred gathering place. Only the clan elders know the full Dreaming portrayed by these images.
(Understanding Australian Aboriginal Art taken from www.tribalworks.com; a big “thanks” to Susan Waites).
So, explore the works of this culture. Move your mind. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s fun. You may even get this urge to spread Vegemite on your toast instead of jelly.
Tags: Australian artwork, breaking patterns, Design with pattern, Kangaroos
I didn’t think the donkey looked abstract at all.
Clearly art is up for interpretation. ; )