Negative Space
As a graphic exercise—or tenet, to some optical practitioners—the notion of aligning elements in negative spatial arrangement relies heavily on the intent to immerse prospective onlookers in an illusory experience. The idea is to feign form, deceiving the eye into acquiescing to the whims of its designer. Repurposed in our lives, I believe that this practice can be employed in a more principled manner as an asset to our mentality, delineating zones null of dense sensory concentration that let our innermost operations respire. Areas as such may not always be readily perceptible in the prevailing environment but, self-constructed, dissociation from worldly components can accord deep captivation, and even funnel authentic introspection.
Opposition invites contrast. The usage of black in the above image suggests absence, with light foregrounded focally. Regardless of visual acuity, the centremost shape remains hazy–an impression of the Sun–as the image’s actual emphasis, ironically, falls primarily within the bounds of its surrounding surface area. This is the power of negative space. Available via NVIDIA Developer (Environment Map of the Sun Overhead; Chapter 2: Rendering Water Caustics).
In visual compositions, negative space denotes deliberation behind the choice to omit matter. No doubt, content is still very much present in the scene—minimally or maximally so—but it is through configural associations with the abyss of the periphery itself that new impressions come to form. An analogue is the notion of ma in Japanese culture, which is less about the physicality implied by the features of an image itself, but rather our capacity to discern a complex network of interrelations and act upon that space which is allotted in tandem.
Through such framing, “where nothing exists but space itself” (as Lisa Avellan defines negative space, writing in No Sidebar magazine), suggestions of shape become manifold to the field of view as the lay eye fixates on the emptiness between, which the ideal artist will wield to their own devising—pre-packaging meaning for instant appraisal or imbuing it implicitly, open to interpretation, depending on how one attacks it as a cognitive query. The most meaningful can thus lie within the margins because the technique invites a modification to our default mode of processing: to look at that which is not actually tangibly there, ushering in a preoccupation with proxy.
It is a type of formatting that comic books, at their most subversive, have long experimented with, utilizing what has been traditionally defined as off-bounds (i.e., the white of the page that surrounds panels of art and text) as a medium in and of itself to tell stories, or else augment the overall visual experience through indication (sketched definitively, albeit rendered exquisitely incomplete; see example below).
Creativity as suffused into canvas is therefore not stifled by tabula rasa; in conjunction with 2D units or 3D polygons, translating our structural fascination with seams into its own envoy for messaging (however subtle or targeted that may be) conveys how limitless the tools at our disposal are—we are able to glean detail and significance by extension of what is generally classified as intimation or insignificance.
Applying this now to life domains, rather than looking at negative space as a promise of eventual fulfilment or mere possibility, it should be taken as substantive, something that we have to hemorrhage into existence. This may seem ironic, as vacuousness usually arrives automatically in design to offset the actual elements we create and arrange on a page. However, the landscapes we traverse are already cluttered instinctively, with no signs of backing down due to globalization and our populace’s reliance on manufacture. Hence, in a world marked by constant observation and engagement, conscious removal of the self from distraction can bring the most activity: an appreciation for all that which is in matter, by comparison.
Temporally, this may look like taking moments out of the hours’ continuous flow. Time cannot halt, we have to mold to it. Or, in space, it may look like the incorporation of high-impact, optimal designs in objects to best suit our functioning, or else the entire removal of items that repeatedly plague us in close proximity. For, from this, a more conceptual restoration we don’t even consider may finally flourish. It can even look like reducing one another down to ground zero in relationships, reconceiving someone from nothingness and abstracting what you see before you rather than the jaded subterfuge of ideation. Either way, emphasizing the minute—retooling that which has historically been deemed transitional or transient, now making it available—seems a suitably beautiful tether to have to this reality.
Inverted, meaning changes. A black hole spreads from desolation. T.H. Jarrett, 2009. Image made available by CalTech.