LOGIC OF IMAGES

“I am inclined to believe that the logic of images is the prime mover of constructive imagination.” This quote is taken from Arnheim, who is quoting Ribot.

When we have a concept or thought in our minds, what is that image like? Is it even an image? Can we say it is a visual fact?

Early psychological thinkers suggested that we do not have mental images. When you are setting up experiments, what you conceive of as possible dictates how the experiment is set up. You can’t see what you don’t test for. Thus experimenters such as Berkeley did not admit the existence of mental images.

Our understanding of mental processes certainly has evolved since the 1920s. Arnheim, on page 113 of Visual Thinking, gives us the following experiment. Imagine a large transparent sphere floating in space. (Hey, he used the concept transparent sphere, not me.)  Now imagine that there are many people around this sphere, and that their heads are contained within. And imagine that their heads are separated from their bodies. What do you see in your mind? How literal and accurate is your mental image of this fantasy reality?

My guess is that your mental image is rather clear. There is a large transparent ball. And there are people’s heads floating inside this ball. The size, reflectance, material, etc., of the sphere is likely different for each of us. How much detail that any of us sees is assuredly very different.

Nevertheless, there is a high degree of commonality for each of us. And if you were to make some sort of drawing of what you see in your mind, the drawing would likely communicate this fantastical reality. And our drawings would likely look similar.

I cite this mental exercise as a way of asking where our design concepts come from. How clear are our design concepts in our heads before we draw them? Are they merely generalities? Or are they complete and total before we commit them to paper? Your likely response is that they are somewhere in the middle. And that is likely correct.

When problem solving, it is interesting to consider how logically resolved those images are before they come out at the tip of your pencil.