Perceptual Frames

introduction [ Here you are. Looking at a screen, a framed rectangle of light. Within the border of the screen starts the actual screen. In that screen a complex interface is shown, which is also shaped in multiple rectangles. In this interface we get used to the functions and aesthetics of it, and can function within. A browser is open, possibly with multiple tabs, buttons, and a search bar that all function as different frames. We see the cursor, showing where you are.]

organisation [ After all, we are looking at a screen, an image. The image has a composition that relates to its own grid. Both the composition and the grid exist in the frame, and outside the frame we see the environment of the frame. The environment of the frame, the screen, the laptop, is probably your table. On the table you could have a phone, including notes, but also papers or books. In the notes one could have a structure to organise and arrange the notes on different topics. These notes are structured, to later in time, zoom out and reflect on it. An organisation of the experiences is created.]

perceiving [ The way we perceive the world around us, is the same way we present the same world. We know how images and spaces look, because we’ve seen them, but also because we’re seeing them in our daily lives all the time. We see images, such as photos or videos, that are framed in a rectangular shape and we use devices, such as phones, books or posters that do the same. The way we perceive is constantly being shaped and organised in a certain frame or frames. I want to investigate the nature of frames, what the function of frames is and what it does to our perception?] graphic design [ The reason why it is relevant to my study in graphic design, is that within graphic design we frame; that is, we organize visual preception and experiences. Using a frame not only means in the way we use it to perceive, but also how we use it to create images. Content is framed in posters, books, websites, videos, screens, etc... Graphic design is always framed, as it is always a frame by itself. The right medium is used for the right content and as a result, every medium has its own characteristics and limitations. Its own borders. By framing experiences it is good to know the relationship between content and the frame.] function [ In my thesis I’m interested in the way frames influence our way to perceive images. I believe that as human beings we need guidelines. We use calendars to give order to our lives and we use schedules to organise our days. We have shelves on which we order our books and we use digital folders to give order to our documents. Frames emphasise or erase its content by cropping, using borders and/or margins. By using frames we choose what we show and what we don’t show. By using frames we create focus and understanding of an image or an object. The meaning and impact of an image can change depending on how it is framed. The everyday frames we see things through, have a dominance on the frame itself and its visual system. ]

approach [ In my research I focus on five frames that have a relevant meaning. The different frames in historic chronological order are: the window frame, the painting frame, the photography frame, the film frame and the screen frame. They all create different openings onto different worlds. Also none of the frames are created equally. While researching these perceptual frames, I focus on the history, material, size, shape, function, behaviour, the placement of the image, differences, environment, metaphorical aspects, spectators and I compare them to each other. When examining the frames, such as the painting, it is not only the content of the painting, but also the context in which the painting exists, such as the physical wooden frame and the usual environment of the frame. This makes me specify and focus on the function of the frame.]

“There is no such thing as a frame in the natural world -- it is a man-made, man-created device, a diagrammatically sharpened and regulated reaction to his own irregular horizontal view of the world bordered by the brow and the cheek-bones when the face is held rigid and the eyes kept steady. It is an ironic curiosity that the Japanese have tried to reverse the game by forcing man-devised frames into landscape design using the sea horizon as the absolute horizontal, and planting tall straight-trunked trees to make the vertical frame-lines ironic and curious, since Oriental picture-making has stead fastly, until it came in contact with Western practices of seeing, eschewed the frame, not finding it at all necessary to use a frame to contain and shape the world. If the frame is a man-made device, then just as it has been created, so it can be un-created. The parallelogram can go.” - Peter Greenaway¹