Exercise Ten: Space Analysis

“The study of planes in space is all about relationships — about how the planes look in relation to each other. The answer is not yes or no — it’s yes in relation to something else or no in relation to something else.”

You will start by constructing space boxes: rectangles of your chosen dimensions. Starting with a sheet of foam core, cut a top, bottom, and three sides and glue (or pin) them together. Make at least two boxes in the same dimensions. One box will be your design box. The other will remain empty. This box will be the control against which you will measure your progress.

Now, we introduce planes into the space. The goal is to create an organization that expands the negative volume. Using the axes of the planes and the tension between them, your challenge is to enhance the awareness of the negative volume, activate the negative volume, and make the overall organization as three-dimensional as possible.

We will work with static, dynamic, and curvilinear planes, starting with the simplest and moving to the most complex. As the visual character of the planes becomes more complex, the exercise will require more restraint, refinement, and subtlety. Moreover, you will find it challenging to maintain focus on our top priority, expanding the negative volume. When you have created a successful organization, the negative volume in your design box should appear larger than in your control (empty) box. The careful positioning of planes and the tensional relationships between them will give the negative volume its character and make it come alive.

Regardless of the types of planes you are working with, the general rules for this space analysis experience are the same:

  • The planes should be complementary and vary in character and proportion. They should be placed as three-dimensionally as possible, moving along the X, Y, and Z axes.
  • All planes must float. Use a monofilament line or white thread to hang them. The planes should not pierce or touch each other or the box. (We do not deal with connections now because this would be distracting. Getting hung up on them would distract your attention from the issue at hand, which is the negative volume of the space.)
  • Place the first plane with consideration. It will establish the main movement in the space and set up a vibration that should affect how everything else works. The first plane sets up the environment. Place it and then build on it.
  • Beware of the temptation to divide your box into symmetrical parts. To expand the space, you want a sense of volume, and as soon as you create a focused orientation point, you restrict that sense.
  • Establish dominant, subdominant, and subordinate relationships between planes and between spaces.
  • Make the planes aware of each other and activate the spaces between them. Use the movements of the axes and the tensions between the surfaces of the planes to activate the space. Your two most giant planes should pull apart. It is not the planes themselves but the spatial tension between them that is the key to visual organization. Be careful never to allow the spaces between individual planes or groupings of planes to feel like separate spaces. They are all part of the whole. It is not just a matter of flow--it is a matter of unity.
  • Do not lose sight of the whole. This exercise is not about the planes’ forms. Concentrate on looking at all the planes within the box and their relationships to one another regarding their impact on the negative volume. The planes should be aware of each other in proportion, character, and axis. Use this awareness to expand and activate the space.
  • It is hard to stay focused on the negative volume. We are used to concentrating on positive forms. We cross a fine line when the forms grab the attention and become more interesting than the negative space. It is more difficult to make the negative volume the most exciting thing. However, the challenge is to do that and to use forms that complement each other and are the appropriate size for the box.

After you have made several exploratory sketches, take the temperature of the boxes. (Think hot and cold.) Compare your design boxes with the control box to see how successful you have been. You may find that within a single box, the temperature is higher in some places than in others. You just have to satisfy your eye and feel it in your gut. It is like your first three-dimensional exercises. You have to persevere. If you spend a long time looking critically, you will train your eye to respond to spatial relationships. This sensitivity will open up a whole new world.

As you incorporate new ideas, do not throw out the old. Keep them and compare your new work with your old ones to see whether you are progressing. It is not unusual for students to have six boxes in the classroom: two empty, two original, and two revised. “You will find that you can gain better control of your design if you know the abstract relationship between the axes. If I can impress that on you, I can almost retire. The axes create an abstraction in themselves that is very satisfactory. It is three dimensional; there is opposition, there is balance, and there is structure.”

“This calls for meditation and prayer — and proportion sketches.”

When you have completed your space box, ask yourself: Have I expanded the negative volume? Have I activated the negative volume? Is it just a construction of planes, or does the space have a life of its own? Have I achieved an interesting abstract organization? What is the dominant element, movement, gesture? Is there tension between the surfaces and the axes? Does the design look pleasing from all directions? Finally, after telling you all this, I want to stress that the steps in the method and the suggested techniques are not a bag of tricks. There are no tricks. Negative volume is an abstraction, and your task is to find your way to see, feel, and control it.

Static Planes

In the first problem, we work with at least three planes, all cut from foam core of the same thickness and all with 90-degree corners. The proportions of the planes are up to you. In this exercise using static planes, all planes must be parallel or at right angles to each other and the box. Arrange the planes in your design box following the rules we have discussed, which apply to all of the space analysis exercises: static, dynamic, and curvilinear.

Do not forget to work with planes moving along all three (X, Y, and Z) axes. Never put a plane down the middle of your space. In a static box, the cross it creates with the edges of the box will distract the eye from the space you are trying to activate. Once you have expanded the total negative volume in your white box, you will add grey values. Use at least three grey values with two steps between each on the color chart. The grey can be placed on any surface—on the top, bottom, or sides of the box, on planes, or on edges. It is not meant to be decorative. Its purpose is to add complexity—to create additional tensions (tensions between grey values as well as between shapes) that expand the negative volume and make your grey box look larger than your white one.

Be selective in your use of grey values. If you use them on all of your planes, you will begin to lose the sensation of space, and the planes will become a graphic presentation of your idea. Remember, in this exercise, you want to force the eye to see the space created by the placement of planes, not just to see the planes themselves.

After gaining experience using grey values to expand the negative volume, experiment with color. You may use as many colors as you choose or one color in many values. Apply them to any surface, but do it in a disciplined way. Do not create poster solutions; your goal is to use the energy of the color to expand the negative volume.

Dynamic Planes

In this exercise, we work with dynamic (tapered) planes that should not have right angles or triangular (arrowhead) tips and are never positioned at right angles to other planes or the top, bottom, or sides of your box. Once again, the planes should not pierce or connect. You may use complex planes—that is, planes that change direction. However, each such plane must be a single bent plane, not two connected planes.

If you decide to work with simple planes, use three. You can use only two if you include complex planes in your design. Do not forget to work with planes moving along all three (X, Y, and Z) axes, and with these dynamic planes, all axes in between. You will find that the way planes are cut impacts your design. Dynamic planes must be tapered. A plane cut on the table may look quite different inside the space box. Design the planes in the context of the box. Start with a tapered plane, hold it inside the box, and cut the edges to reinforce the axis, always paying attention to the relative proportion, character, and complementary relationships between planes.

The movement of the axes is the top priority in this experience. Position the planes so that you become aware of the axes and create tension between them.

Remember not to divide your box into symmetrical parts. Just as you need to be careful not to cut your static box in two or four, you must guard against bisecting your dynamic box on the diagonal.

As in the static spaces, you must establish dominant, subdominant, and subordinate relationships. The dominant and subdominant should constitute more than half of the balance of directional forces, leaving room for completing the balance with some smaller shapes.

The largest plane should be the most dramatic and visually structural, and it should have an axis that sets up vibrations in the whole box. Once you get that, you can think of the other ones. I cannot emphasize the importance of your first move in the box. It can make or break it.

Now, focus on the axes. Start with a tapered plane. Use 1/16” black charting tape to mark the axes of the planes. Analyze the lines made by the tape. Do the planes support the movement of the axes or distract the eye and draw it to their edges?

The relationship between the axes of the planes is the most crucial in this exercise. Do not allow the outlines of the planes to become more important than the axes. (Never do that in any art form.) Making the outline stronger or more interesting than the axes weakens the design. It flattens space, making it graphic instead of three-dimensional. You see the line instead of the thrust; if you look at the outline, you do not see the volume.

The problem of dynamic planes in space includes all the challenges of the static problem, plus it adds speed to the equation, which will make you aware of the importance of structure. The organization of planes should be visually structural. A plane moving across space cannot be too heavy, or it will look like it will fall. Think of how an airplane changes direction in space and banks as it slows down. Do not create planes that appear to be clouds floating in the atmosphere. Create an organization in which the planes look like they are structurally comfortable. Choose a gesture that’s appropriate to the situation. (It is inappropriate for a hippo to do a pirouette.) You will discover that a plane that looks fine in one box will not necessarily look like it can sustain the same speed in a box of different proportions because of the space around it. Tapering a plane will increase its speed.

The tensions between dynamic planes are more complicated than in the static situation. In this exercise, you have two kinds of tension: the tension between the surface of the planes and the tension between the axes. You have to make those two forces create the abstract organization. Meanwhile, you must continue trying to activate the negative volume. It is getting harder and harder.

In this problem, you experience how the balance of directional forces, the speed of the axes, and the tension between the planes relate to the space around them. You begin to see how the space between planes is activated. Space takes on a heightened sense of energy. It plays an active role in the design. Space is pushing against the surfaces of the planes.

Curvilinear Planes

Finally, we work with curvilinear planes. First, for a warm-up, refer to the curve chart you created for the wire problem. The vocabulary of curves is the same - whether you are working with lines or planes. This is the vocabulary you will work with here. In order to be able to make the curved planes, you will need to switch materials from foam core to bristol board. Be aware of the importance of taking the axes through your planes. The shape of the plane should reflect where the movement starts and where it is going.

Start with a tapered plane and curve it. Hold the plane in space and tape the axis. Note that the edge does not do what the curve is doing. You will discover that the edges must be trimmed to clarify the plane’s movement. Do not radius the edges of the plane. Your planes should not look like Frito’s.

Use two or more planes. If you use only two, one must be a complex curve (a curve combining two curves, like a reverse curve) to ensure you move in all three directions. Position the curves in your box to move through space in the most exciting ways possible. If you are working with more than three planes, create groupings.

Follow the guidelines for all the space analysis exercises, establishing dominant, subdominant, and subordinate relationships. Once again, do not let your planes touch or pierce each other. Crafting your design will be more difficult in the curvilinear space analysis exercise than in the static or dynamic. Each plane may need up to six hanging points to make it work.

Remember, this problem has three challenges: First, expand the space and activate the negative volume. Second, establish unity in the space. Third, create a design in which space and form are equally important and so interdependent that they cannot be separated.

As with dynamic planes, you should also be aware of speed when working with curvilinear planes. Analyze your curved planes in terms of speed. Ask yourself how fast the curves of the planes must be moving for the planes to sustain their positions in your design. This exercise requires restraint and subtlety. There is a temptation to create axes that roll and become objects in space instead of movements.

Curvilinear planes can be exciting shapes. It is tempting to concentrate on them and forget the space. Students often work hard to put something beautiful inside the box but forget about the box itself. They create objects in a box instead of space. The two must be inextricably linked. The design should not be able to live without the box--or the box without the design.

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Forward
The principles of study that Rowena helped formulate were embodied in a foundation curriculum that became the primary, universal first year of study for all Pratt Institute art and design students.
On Sketching
For those of you who have never worked in three dimensions, it provides an introduction to the three-dimensional world and to that complex and exciting set of relationships that will challenge you for the rest of your life.
Exercise One: Rectilinear
“At first working with 3-dimensional forms in this way is difficult. But soon you will begin to speak this language. You really have to make these beautiful. That sounds pretentious. How can you make three blocks beautiful? But I know that you can.”
Exercise Two: Curvilinear
“The second experience involves the organization of curvilinear volumes in a dynamic relationship. In addition to mass, proportion and character, you will now deal with the additional challenge of the diagonal axis. We will work with the following curvilinear solids.”
Exercise Three: Rectilinear + Curvilinear
“In this problem we introduce the notion of group movements. Be aware of inherent, comparative, and overall proportions.”
Exercise Four: Fragments
“The objective of this exercise is to choose a solid, cut it apart and reorganize the cut fragments in a new composition that is more beautiful than the original form from which it was derived.”
Exercise Five: Planar Construction
“The objective of this exercise is to gain an understanding of the characteristics of planes and how they relate to each other in space. In this problem you are asked to create a beautiful construction using a variety of planes.”
Exercise Six: Lines In Space
“Lines have many uses in design. They can be used as the axes of solid forms, to describe planes or volumes, and to delineate.”
Exercise Seven: Construction
“The abstract experience based on construction involves the design and organization of contrasting forms, the new experience of grouping forms to create related movements, and a deeper understanding of the balance of directional forces and of tensional positions in space.”
Exercise Eight: Convexity
“The exercises in convexity and concavity are based on organic forms. They present the opportunity to explore the properties of a single, specific form. Unlike the dramatic quality of the construction exercise, the convexity and concavity exercises deal with subtle gesture.”
Exercise Nine: Concavity
“In the convexity exercise you were already learning about concavity — about how negative volume affects form. Now, the focus will be on concavity.”
Exercise Eleven: Space Design
“This project follows the abstract exercises in space analysis and cannot be successfully completed until the student has mastered those exercises.”
Exercise Twelve: Development
“These are examples of more advanced work in which students continue to explore abstract forms but also begin to apply some practical criteria to their work.”