The method, preamble
So far we have talked about my professional profile,
my personal projects,
and my relationship with the waste material.
And I think the time has come
to explain the reason why it's interesting
to work with waste material.
Obviously, apart from the ethical reasons
and environmental benefits
of working with waste material,
it is a way of calling out mega consumerism
of the society in which we live,
it is also a question of redemption for the material itself.
On the one hand, the material gets a second chance
and doesn't end up in the trash.
But apart from the ethical and environmental reasons,
I believe the fundamental reason, and the interest in working
with waste material, in this course and for our work
with the principles of visual perception,
are the limitations and conditions imposed by this type of material.
Waste material offers a lot of interesting things.
It offers forms and values,
it provides textures and a series of elements
that are very important and very interesting.
But on the other hand, waste material cannot be expanded
or reduced; at least in the way I use it.
It can't be modified either.
And that leads the artist, or the one handling it,
to a series of limitations that must be overcome.
And those limitations
sometimes give rise to the solution itself.
And that reminds me a lot of the designer's work
when faced with an assignment.
For example, if someone is given a series of texts
with some headlines, like in this case,
a series of headlines that have to be highlighted,
with a series of texts that must be evaluated,
with a number of pages that must be contemplated,
and with a series of images with titles
that must be laid out and ordered within the pages.
These limitations are very similar to the ones we have
when we work with waste material
and they are circumstances that one has to overcome.
These texts and these images
must be converted using principles,
applying the principles of perception,
to an attractive form and placement on the page.
So, we had some texts, like these ones,
with headlines that we wanted to highlight.
We had some images
that we wanted to highlight, as well as the headlines.
So, the concept that we followed
was to make a kind of grid
in which the headlines appeared across the page.
These headlines were inserted with images
that contained an important title.
And each headline carried its own text.
So, this way of ordering it,
by applying two concepts,
one being the grid, and the constant repetition
that gives unity to all the pages;
and secondly, the text,
where some are longer than others,
adds variety to the page within the grid.
Some are long and some are short.
And then the accompanying captions,
and the comments for each image
act like small brushstrokes
that break the rigidity of the structure of the page.
This is an example
of how we were able to use the limitations of the project
to create the page structure we needed.
Another reason I consider it
to be interesting,
in addition to the limitations it offers us,
is that we can work with waste material
working only with the structures,
with the structure of the image,
and that focuses us much more on the principles of perception;
and on the core idea of each of the exercises.
We leave aside the narrative
of what the image itself can tell us
and we rely solely on the form.
I think it's an interesting example of work
that we can apply to many disciplines;
the exercises we are proposing
and some principles of visual perception,
such as the composition,
how to organize the elements within a space,
within the compositional space.
The second point is categorization;
so, adapt the series of elements in relation to the format,
the color and the presence that the format should have,
the weight of each element in the image;
which one is the primary visual element,
which one is the second, third, and so on.
Then we'll talk about balance and imbalance,
what the expression of the form entails, or its equanimity,
and how the tension and internal forces
created by the imbalance
lead us to the last exercise, which is movement.
How tension and internal movement translate into a visual movement.
In the next lesson,
we'll look at the work method we're going to follow.
I'm going to show you some...
examples of inspiration that I have had
and how the great masters have taught us
to use the principles of perception.