390

391

IN PRAISE OF VAGUENESS Diffuse Perception and Uncertain Thought (2010)

A PERSONAL CON FESSION

Among the books that have had the most dccisiw imp

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

In the 1>rcface to his f1rst book, Ehrenzwcig makes the thought-pro-voking argument: An's substructure is shaped by deeply uncon -scious proces:;cs and may display a complex organization that is superior to the logical structure of conscious thought."7 For all the strength and suggestiveness of rhis statement, I do not recall hav-ing heard the concept of the unconsciousness even once during the years of my education. Ehrenzweig suggests further that, "In order to become aware of inarticulate forms [nrlistic expressions rhat seep -into rhe work past conscious intentionality and control] we have to adopt a mental attitude not dissimilar to that which the psycho-analyst must adopt when deali ng with unconscious material, namely some kind of diffuse attention.'"8 The laycrcd nnd "polyphonic structure of 1>rofound artworks, appreciat ed through "multi-dimen-sional attemion," has also been pointed out by anists, such as Paul 392 Klee. Ehrenzweig cmphasizcs the sign ificance of this layeredness and merging of motifs, and observes that it calls for a specifiC mode of attention. "All artistic structure is cssemially 'polyphonic' : it rvolves not in a single line of thought, but in several superimposed mands at once. lienee creativity requires a diffuse, scattered kind of attention that contradicts our normal logical habits of thinking.'"'0 This requirement for diffuse attention co1H.:crns both the condition of creative llcrccprion and thought. Ehrenzweig also uses rhe notions of "allover strucrure and or-or structure" to describe layered and vague anistic images.'1

The overwhelming role of the unconscious realm over our con-scious awareness is revealed by a theoretical calculation of rhe informa-tion nansrnission capacities of our conscious and unconscious neural systems in the brain. The abili ty of a nerve flhcr to transmit in formation is approximately 20 bits per second or, according tO some estimaks, a maximum of 100 birs per second. As there arc some 1015 nerve f1hers in the brain, the total information conveying CaJ>acity of rhe brain is about 10'7 bits pt>r second. Yet, we arc only capable of conveying a maximum of an estimated 100 bits per second of conscious information coment. Thus the total information transmission capacity of the brain is 10" times its conscious capacity.' 2

THE DYNAMICS OF VISION

Dynamic vagueness and absence of focus arc also rhe conditions of our normal system of visual perception, ;Jilhough we do not usually acknowledge these qualities. Most of us who have normal eyesight tend to believe that we see the world around us in relative focus at

225

390 Anton Ehrenzweig, The Psychoanalysis of Artistic Vision and Hearing: An Introduction to a n>eory of Unconscious Perception. Sheldon Press, t967. Cover.

391 Anton Ehrenzweig. The Hidden Order of Art. Paladin. 1973. Cover.

392 Paul Klee. Room Perspective with lnhabi!illlts, 1921. wate1color and oil on paper mounted on cardboard, 48.5 x 31.7 em. Klee Foundation. Kunstmuseum. Bern.

all times. The fact is thai we see a blur. and only a tiny fraction of the visual field at any time- about one-thousandth of the entire field of vision- is seen distinctly. The f1eld outside of this minute focused center of vision turns increasingly vague and hazy towards the periph-ery of the visual field. Focal vision covers ahout four degrees of 1he approximate 1otal angle of 180 degrees. llowever, we are unaware of this funda men tal lack of accuracy because we constanlly scan the f1eld of vision with movements of our eyes-that for the most part remain unconscious and unnoticed- to bri ng one part of the blurred periphery at a time into the narrow beam of vision that is brought to a focal pinpoint at thejo1;ea.

Experiments have revealed the surprising fac t that the unconscious eye movements are not merely aids to dear vision, bu l :111 absolute pre-requisite or vision altoget:her. When the subjecl's guze is experimemally forced to remain eomplel'ely f1xed on a stationary object, the image of the object disintegrales and keeps disa ppearing, and reappearing again in distorted shapes and fra gments. ''S1aric vision docs not ex ist; there is no seeing without exploring," argues Hungarian-born writer and scholar Arthur Koestler ( 1905- 1983).' 1

We could think that our visually acquired image of the world is nol

Koestler s uggests u c

395

395 Jackson Pollock, Untitled, c. 1951, black and septa ink with green gouache on mulberry paper, 62.5 x 95.5 em. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Ehrenzweig convincingly esl

tion in creativ ity, he shows how the two difT~r~nt manners of perception also apply to artistic he

396

396 Jost Amman. Portrait of Jamniczer in His Studio with a Perspecttve Machine, ca. 1565. Bri1ish Museum, London.

397 Georges Braque, Stili Life with Harp and Violin, 191 1, oil on canvas. 116 x 81 em. Kunstsammlung Nordrhe-in-West lalen. Dusseldorf.

EMBODIED EXPERIENCE OF SPACE

Sinct: its invention in [he Renaissance, the perspectival understanding of space has emphasized and strengthened the architecture of vision. By its very dt"r1ni1'ion, perspectival space turns us into outs iders and observers; Lhe picture frame and vantage poin t push us outside the realm of the object or rocused perception. SimuiLaneous and hap-tic space encloses and enrolds us in its embrace, making us insiders and participants. In the relinal understanding of space we observe it, whereas haptic space conslitut~::s a shared and lived existential condi-tion. The world and the pcrceivt:r are not separated and polarized as they art: borh ingredients of the shared "flesh of the world."

The quest to libera te the eye from iLs perspectival Ftxation has gradually brought nbout conceptions of mul ti -perspectival, simultane-ous, and haptic space. This is the perceptual and psychological essence of Impressionist, Cubist, and Abstract Expressionist painterly spaces, an essence that pulls us inlo lhe painting and make us cxpcrknce space as insiders in a fully cmboclil:d s~::nsat ion. Visual space thus is trans-fomlt:d into an embodied and cxislt:ntinl space. a qualitative space thai is essentially n dialogue and exchange bel ween the space of the world and the internal space of the perceiver's mental world. The experience of intetiority and belonging is a merging of the outside and inside worlds, the cvoccJ lion of a Weltinnenra.um-the inlerior experience or the world (a bcau til'u l notion of Rainer Maria Rilkc).10 "Th(' wo rld is wholly inside, and I am wholly outside myself," as Merleau-Pomy states.31 This is the unique, personal existential space that we occupy in our lived experience. In an ex pnience of place, particularly that of one's home, the external world and space become internalized: they arc sensed as intrapersonal conditions, ratht:r lh

existential experience. As Lhc consequence of this ;,impurity" or experi-ence, it is beyond objective, scientific descripl ion, and approachable only through poetic evocation. This is 1he innate structural vagueness of human consciousness.

In architecture, a clear cli!Terentt:: exists between an architecture rhat invires us to a multi-sensory and full embodied experience, on the one hand, and that of cold and distant visuality, on the other. The works or Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, Louis Kahn, and more recently, of Renzo Piano. Glenn Murcutt, Steven Holl. Peter Zumthor, Tod Williams and Billie Tsicn, and Patricia and John Patkau, among those of numer-ous other profound archi tecrs of today, are examples of a multi-sensmy architecrure that draws us into ils sp

The vagueness and softness of boundary has yet another meaning in c reative thought, and that concerns Lhc experience of self. In Salman Rushdie's 1990 essay written in memory of I Icrben Read, he observes the softening of the boundary between the world and Lhc self that takes place in the artistic experience: "Literature is made at the boundary between self and the world, and during the creative acr this borderline softens, rums penetrable and allows the world to flow into rhe arrist and the artist flow into the world."33 At the moment of creative fusion, even the artist and architect's se-nse o r self becomes momentarily fused with the world and with the object of the creative efforr. In psychoana-lytic li terature this experience of sameness with Lhe world is frequently called an "ocea nic" fusion.

Creative activity and deep thinking s urely call for an unfocused, undifferentiated, and subconscious mode of v ision which is fused with integrating tactile experiences and embodied identification. The creative vision mrns towards the ins ide, o r in fact, it is directed om-wards and inwards at the same lime. Deep thought takes place in a t ransformed reality, a condition in which Lhe existential priorities and alarms are momentarily forgotten. The obj ect of the c reative acr is not only identified and observed by the eye and touch, it is inlrojected (the psychoanalytic notion for the internalization of an object through the interior of Lhe mouth at the earliest phases of infancy), and identi-fied with one's own body and existential condition. In deep thought, focused vision is blocked, and thoughts travel with an absent-minded gaze accompanied by a momentary loss of surface control of tl1e exis-tential situation. This is why deep thinking ca nnor rake place in the unguarded outdoors, but usually occurs only in the protective embrace of architecture, in the ~crad l e of the house," to usc a notion of Gaston Bachclard.3 '1 Bachelard points out that a rchitecture allows one to dream in safety: "The chief benefit of the house [is that] the house shellers daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace. "1s

THE POOL OF VAGUENESS, PERIPH ERAL VISION

Photographed architectural images are centralized and precise pictures of focused perceptions. Yet. the quality ol' a lived a rchitecrural real-ity seems to depend fundamentally on the nature of peripheral vision, and a deliberate suppression of sharpness thar enfolds the subject in the space. PhoLOgraphed imagery, particularly ones taken with wide angle and deep focus, are alien to the fundamental faculties of vision. Consequently, t11crc is an evident discrepancy between architecture as experienced through photographs and a real lived experience, to the

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degree that imposing images of arch itecture in photographs often prove to be decisively less impressive when experienced live.

A forest context. a Japanese garden, a richly molded architectural space, as well as an ornamented or decorated interior, provide ample 398 stimuli for peripheral vision. These settings weave us into the fabric of the space, and center us in it in a haptic manner. As we move our position in the space, even slightly, the unconsciously and peripherally perceived details and distortions invigorate the experience of interio rity like an unconscious haptic massage. Rega rdless of the object- like exter-nality, the very strictly bounded nature o f our fo cused gaze, and the cont inuous fl ow of individual fragm entary images, we sense the conti-nuity and completeness of space a round us as we sense an embrace. We 399 even sense the s pace behind our backs ; we live in worlds tha l surround us, not in fro ntal rel'inal images, or mere perspectival pictu res fac ing us. The im1ate ~patia l i ty of perceprion is refl ected in the fact that our ~kin has the surprising capacity Lo d istinguish and identify light and color.16

The preconscious perceptual realm w hich is experienced outside the sphere of focused v ision is existentia lly as important as the focused image. In fact, there is medical evidence that peripheral vision has a higher priority in our perceptual and mental system. Ehrenzweig offers the medical case of hemianopia as a proof of the priority of peripheral vision in the psychological hierarchy of our mechanism of sight. In this r

a more focused world than was the case in earlier times. The fact Utat the human sensory world has dramatically changed through time has been convincingly argued in literature. Th is rather newly ucquired pre-cision-in an evolutionary perspective-could well have been supponed by the central role of reading and pictures in our culture, as both call lor a foc used and ftxed eye. The visual experience of the world clearly has ga ined strength at the expense of auditory, haptic, and olfm:t01y experiences, a message emphasized in Walter J. Ong's significant book Orality and Literacy.38

The current ly unchallenged hegemony or the eye m;ly be a fairly recent conditiou, regardless of its philosophical grounding in Greek thought and optics. In lucien rcbvres view : "The sixteenth centllly clid nol sec fnst': iL heard and smelled, it sniffed the air

school of insecurity and uncertainty ... !P]oetry- writing it as well as reading it- wi ll teach you humility, and rather quickly at lhat. Especially if you are holh writing and reading it."41 This observation surely applies to architecture as well, and is pmticularly humbling if you arc both maldng architectun and theorizing about it! But !he poet suggests thaT these mental states Lhat are usually considered detrimental, can actually be turned into a creative advantage: If this (uncertainty or insccuriry] does not destroy you, insecurity and unceJtainty in the end become your intimate friends and you almost attrihu1.e to them an intelligence all their ow n," Brodsky advjses.2 Uncertai nty and insecurity are espe-cially receplivc states of mind that sensit ize it for crcutive perception and insight As Brodsky clarifu:s, " ... When uncertainty is evoked, then you sense bcaurys proximity. Uncertainty is simply a more ulcrt state than cerli tude, and Lhus it crt:ales a beLLcr lyrica l climate. "43

l fully share the poet's views. In both wriling and drawing, the tm and image need to be emancipated from a pre-conceived senst: of purpose, goal, and path. When one is young and narrow-minded, one wants lhe word and the line to concretize and prove a precon-ceived ide;l, to give the idea nn instant and precise formulation and 400 shape. Through a growing capacity to tolerate uncertainty, vagueness, lack of defmition,

I began my essay with a personal conlcssion, and I am going to end it with another. The modes of 'diffuse

2 Bachelard, 'f'hc Poetics of SpiH'I', 6. 3 Louis Kahn, "form and Design," ( t960), Louis I. Kahu:

Writiugs, l.rtlures, lmcrvicw~. t>dited by AJess:mdra Larour (N and Building Behaviour. l.ongman, london (1971) HanscU, Mil'had tL: Animal Construction Company. Humcrian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow (1999)

6 Gaston BachdanJ. Tire Pocrics of Space (Roston: Beacon J>r~ss, 1969).

9 Part! Ambroise. 1.1' li1rc des a11imtw.r er de l'i~rtclligcm:e tlr 1'/wmmd as a la'II'Jer hut also deeply interested in modern an and music and ~gnized as a pianist and singer. After th~ "Anschluss" with Germany. Ehrenzwcig

~

...

Ehrenzweigs second book is considered one of the three classics of art psychology.

4 Ehrcnzweig, The Hidden Order of Arl, 59. 5 As quoted in Ehrenzweig, The Hidden Order f!( Arl, IlL 6 An ton Ehrenzweig, "Conscious Planning and

Unconsc: iou~ Scanning," Education in Vision. F.dited by Gyor!{y Kepes (New York: George I:Jrazil ler, 1965), 27-49.

7 t: ltrenzweig, The Hidden Order of Art . VIII. 8 Ehrenzweig, The Hidden Ortler of Art, XL 9 See Paul Klee, Tltc Thinking Eye (london: Hutchinson,

1964). 10 l:hrenzweig. Tlte Hidden Order of Art, 14. II Ehrenzweig, "Conscious Planning and Unconscious

Scanning," Education in Vision. Edited by Gyorgy Kepes (New York: George Braziller, 1 'l65), 2.8, 30.

12 Matti Bergstrom, A iJJojenfysiologinsta jn psyykcslli [On the Phys iology of the llnl in and the Psyche], (Helsinki: WSOY, 1979), 77-78.

13 Arthur Koestler, [he Act of Crention (London: Hutchinson Cl Co LTD, 1964), 158.

14 Merleau-Ponty describes the notion or ''the nesh of the world" by stating, "My body is made of lhe same nesh as the world ... this nesh of my body is shared by the world 1---1' and "The Resh of the world or my own is 1---1 a texture that returns to itself and conrom1s to itself." The notion initially derives from Merleau-Ponty's dialectical

principl~ of the intenwining or the world and the self. He also speaks of the 'ontology or the nesh' as the ultimate conclusion of his phenomenology or perct'p tion. This on tology impl ies that meanin~ is both wil'h in and without, subjective and objective, S1Jiritual ;111d material. Maurice IVIerleau-Ponty, "The ln tt'rtwining-The Chiasm," in Tlte Visible and the lnvisibk, ed. Claude Lefort (F.vanston: Northwestern University Press, 1992). 248, 146

IS Albert Socsman, Our Twelve s~nsrs: Wcllspriltgs of rlre Soul (Stroud, Glos: Hawthorne, t998).

16 Semir Zeki, lmrer Vision: An rplornrio11 of Arl and rite Brai11 (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999), 66.

17 Koestler, The Act of Cr~atio11. 158. 18 Koestler, The Act of Creatio11, 180. 19 William James, Principles ofPsycllology ( 1890). (Camhridge,

Massru.:husetts: Hatvard University Press, 1903). 20 As quoted in Eric Shanes, Constan ti n Bnwcusi (New

York: Abbevi ll e Press, 1989), 67. 2 t Ebrenzweig, Tlte 1/iddett Order of Arl, 46. 22 Ebrenzweig. Tlte Psychoanalysis of Artislir Vision, 18. 23 Ehrenzweig. Tlte Psychoanalysis of Arlislic Vision. 35. 24 Ehrenzweig. Tlte Psychoanalysis of Artistic Vision. 36. 25 As quoted in Ehrcnzweig, Tire Hidtlt'n Ordrr of Art, 59 26 As quoted in Eluenzwcig, Tire Hidt/~11 Ordrr of Arr, 58. 27 Juhani l'allasmaa, The Tit inking 1/and: F..ristcntial ar1d

Emllodicd Wisdom i11 Arcl!ilet'lure (Lontlon: John Wiley ft Sons. 2009), 95-100.

20 Conversation with the au thor in New Delhi, India, October 1969.

29 l!hrenzwcig, Tile Hidden Order of Art, 43. JO "Lukijallc," [To the Keader) Rainer Mnrin Rilkc, Hi/jainen

raitccn sisin: kirjeitii mwsi/ra 1900-1926 [The Silem lnnennost core or art; letters 1900- 1926] J;dited by Liisa Enwald (Helsinki: TAl-tens, 199'1). 8.

31 Mau ri ce Merleau-Ponty, Tit~ Pltmomcnology of Perception, Translated by Colin Smith (London: Routledge and Kcga n Paul, 1962), 407.

32 For lhc i magin ati v~ reali ty of att, sec eg. Jean-Paul Sarlrc, ?'Ire Psychnlngy of Imagination (Secausus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1948); Jean-Paul Sa nrc, Tile Imaginary. (London ~nd New York, Routledge, 2004), and; Kichard Ke~mey, Tlte Wake of Jmagi1tatioll (london: Routledge, 19AA).

33 Salman Rushdie. "Eiko mikaan ole pyhaii?" [Isn't Anything Sacred?] Pamasso I (1996): 8.

34 Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Bos1on: Beacon Press, 1%9). 7.

35 Barhelard, Tile Poetics of Space, 6. J6 .fames Turrell, "Plato's Cave and ligh1 With in", lilcplwnt

(I lid nom:rjly: permanence a.ml cltallf}e ill (//'i'hil'cctorc, Etlitcd by l'vlikko Heikkinen (Jyviiskylii: Alvar A alto rounclation, 2003), 144.

7 Ehrenzweig, The Hidden Order of Art, 284. J8 Walter J. Ong, Orality am/ Literacy- Tltc: Tcclt~~ologizillg

ofrlrc World (london and New York: Routledge, 1991). 39 As quoted in Man in Jay, Dowucast Eyes - Tile:

De1rigration of Vision in Twentietlr Century Frc:nclr Tllougltt (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University or Cali forn ia Press, 1994), 34.

40 Joseph Brodsky, "Less Than One", Less Titan One (New Yo rk : 1-'flrrar, Straus (t Gi roux 1998), 17.

41 Juseph ll roclsky, On Grief and Rea sort (New Yo rk: Fa rrar, Straus and Giroux., 1 997), 473-4.

42 Brodsky, On Grief and Reason, 473. 43 Brodsky, Le~s Tltnn One, 340. 44 Milan Kundera. Romaanin taide [The Art or the Novell.

(Hlsinki: Werner Soderstrom Ltd., 1986). 165. 45 Ehrenzwcig, conscious Planning and Unconscious

Scanning," Educarion in Vision. Edit~d by Gyorgy Kepes (New York: George Braziller, 1965), 32. 34.

46 As quoted in Arnold H. Modell, lmanination a111i rite Menninafill Brain (Cambridge, Massarhusetis and Lo ndon, r.ngland: The MlT Press, 2006, lil'le page.

ON ATMOSPHERE

Jain McGilchrisr, Tlte Masrer and His Emissary: The Divideti/Jrain and tltc Making of /Ire Wc:s1em World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 184.

2 Pewr Zunnhor, Atmospheres - Arclrileclllml i:lwirosmrents - Surrouuding Objects (Bascl: Birkhauser, 2006), 13.

J .John Dewey, Art As Experic11ce (1934) as IIUO ied in Mark Johnson, Tile Meaning of tlte Body: Aeslllelil's