A SYSTEMIC GESTALT
SYNERGY ICON
Directions: This gestalt figure forms a foreground/background gestalt
figure. In this particular example, the idea is to focus on the black and
then focus on the white. Notice how it mimicks the perceptual shift between
parts and wholes. Notice in particular how it is either one or the other...
A similar gestalt figure is presented below at which demonstrates
the dominance of one side over the other. We like to believe we have control
over our perceptions, but these figures tell a different story, perhaps
perspective is hard wired, or at least "trained" and that a shift
actually requires concentrated effort.
An even more interesting phenomenon can be seen when the figures are
viewed in different dimensions.
I visited a Synergetics site today, and happened across a page of
stereo viewing techniques. http://www.wolfe.net/~setebos/springspace.html
Seems by crossing one's eyes the right , a pair of identical pictures will
merge into third three dimensional view. The trick is to overlay the right
image over the left image. Once done, the brain will lock into this "3D"
view. So I thought I would try it with our gestalt figure, the (s) Icon.
Cool. it works.
Out of curiousity more than anything else, I changed the colors in
the middle expecting to find the blue and yellow merge into a green. They
don't! What happened is that the blue dominated the yellow. Only by intense
concentration was I able to bring the yellow on top, and then only for a
moment. Reversing the colors did not seem to make a difference
Interestingly, if I focus on the upper two, both being blue, I notice
out of the corner of my eye that the figure below is sometimes yellow. In
fact I seem to be able to control which color I want to "notice"
when I am not looking...