How to interpret works of art, interior design, architecture, 2

How to release or free attention energy we understood in article ”How to interpret works of art, interior design, architecture, 1″ and practising exercise 1.1 we master a method how to increase amount of attention energy required to get insights into works of art, interior design or architecture.

If you more or less recovered ability to collect or get back your potential attention energy from your environment, the next step would be a little bit to extend limits, what and where you can reach with your attention.

2. Collection of information and capacity of memory

living / dining room

When we did Exercise 1.1 (see “How to interpret works of art, interior design, architecture, 1„), we ” threw out” attention everywhere around and tried to get attention particles back. Some of us may have tried it and have been doing this exercise on a daily basis and it became part of our day-to-day routine. We kind of woke up our attention and made it more “fluid”. I could be compared as, we already have a ready-made rod – attention and we can start fishing – retrieve and collect information.

Collection of information

Exercise 2.1 

Details

We will “collect” details now. You look in the same manner as you did in Exercise 1.1, but we add some complexity to the task. Your attention visits some points, lines, shapes, materials, proportions and fast, in a split of a second, instantly you compare it one with the other. Look at the detail – compare with the other one, the next – compare with the third and etc. You can look at some painting, for example. You take a red line, compare with the blue line, a circle with an oval. You compare lines, colors, shapes and whatever you could find in a painting. If you become to much introverted in a painting (to get inside of something), go out of painting colors – compare it with walls, ceiling, floor etc. and go back to the painting. If it is interior design of the room – the line between the ceiling and the wall compare with a table`s edge line, square floor tile – with the kitchen cabinet door, rectangle red cushion – with pink curtains, glass doors with glass lighting fixture. Look and instantly compare. Look and compare the observed detail. There are more details and see more details. More and more, attention goes deeper and deeper into a piece of art. You get better and better to know the object of observation – painting, sculpture, interior design or architecture.

Exercise 2.2 

Materials

There is another variation of observation exercice. The first task of the course “How to understand works of art, interior design, architecture” as described in Exercise 1.1 was to “collect” points, lines, shapes, forms. During Exercise 2.1 as described above points, lines, forms was instantly compared with each other. Now break out of 3D, three-dimensional space encirclement to the subjective reality. Look to the wall and let your sight “enter” a few inches into the wall, or more, depending on how thick the wall is you are looking at. Stop your attention inside of the wall. How could a wall look at that point? What is the structure of the material, color inside of the wall? What about 1 inch deeper from the surface of the wall, 4 inches? There is wooden interior detail – look and stop your attention several inches inside of wooden detail. What is the structure of the material? Your glance does not stops on the wall surface. Your attention walks into walls, furniture, curtains, blinds, inside of door material.

Turn on the other senses to experience the material details. Feel as you touch with your fingers the inside of the floor, 2 inches below the surface. What kind of material is there – smooth, dry, rough? Sense the smell of wooden parts at 1 inch depth. What it could be? Lift and weigh materials mentally – lighter or heavier? Which absorbs sound, which reflects it back?

Switch from one to another or connect both Exercises, 2.1 and 2.2. Hold your attention at the wall surface, go inside to the wall, hold attention on your furniture, on the surface of the material, go inside to the furniture material, go to the plane of the door – inside of the plane.

One more variation of exercise – cross with your “glance of attention” through the wall, be on the other side of the wall, what could be there? Cross with a glance through the table leg and stop attention about 2 inches on the other side of table leg. Have you felt varnish, paint, wood structure and paint, varnish layers on the other side of chair leg, when your attention crossed and went out of a chair leg?

How does the painting looks like? What paint is beyond this layer? What is on another side of the canvas?

Exercise could be called “Awakening of subjective reality”.

Capacity of memory

It was mentioned in Exercise 2.1, if you became to much introverted, went to deep into the observed object – it would be good if you, your attention, return from analysed object to the environment around yourself. What`s happening, why is it?

Exercise 2.3 

“Compression” of information 

Time after time you will feel that your attention and thought is no longer so sharp and penetrating. Attention “got blunted” as a written off pencil. What happened? You have reached your full or nearly full attention energy limits or all or almost all of your mind`s memory is filled with open and not fully closed programs and visited websites, when compared with the computer. If your focus energy and memory resources reached limits, – there are piles of lines, dots, colors, shapes, proportions, contrasts, scales in your mind, – what do you do?

2.3 a Leave observed object

You leave observed painting, interior or architecture and put your attention on your surroundings. You do exercise 1.1 around yourself to get back your attention energy.

2.3 b Compression of information

if return to the comparison with a computer or computer programs, you could to ”zip” – to compress information which was collected. How you do this?

You disconnect a little bit yourself from the observed interior design, architecture or painting, but you perceive at the same time that certain amount of information was collected. You keep that new collected amount of information as in a peripheral way of thinking. You could be said, let collected information to “settle down”, to store more compact, to compress itself somewhere in a memory up to the time when the information will be necessary for analysis and connection with a new information.

Keep collected information in peripheral mind, as somewhere behind or beside your head, and look outside through the window, “scatter” fast your “eyes”, look around the room in a way of exercise 1.1. Try to recover possible to get back amount of attention particles. Your renewal may occur within a few seconds or minutes, and you continue collect the information, keeping in peripheral mind already collected amount of information, compactly compressing it layer after layer. You collect more information and when you feel as losing freshness, feel tired, you compress information one more time… and scatter, and get back attention 1.1 way from your surroundings.

In short, compress the information and collect 2.1, 2.2 way, when attention “get blunt” perform 1.1 and “compress” information gathered.

2.3 c Leave a observation

As mentioned in 2,3 b sometimes you need leave collected information for a while and do not work with it. It could happen you need to leave information for some days, weeks or until you will get some missing piece of information which was necessary to proceed further.

As described in ” How to interpret works of art, interior design, architecture, part 1”, progress in the direction of yawning, like you want to yawn…

and laughter.. and.. somewhere along the way the idea of ‘​​anything’ might come or open up.. you will realize it “opened up”. It is another category of thought or idea. It is made of different substance or non-substance. This is a different idea than the usual our thoughts, running in and out or around our heads. More specifically to say, it is an experience of thought or to ”live a thought”.

How to concentrate your efforts read and study ”How to interpret works of art, interior design, architecture, 3”.

Practice anywhere and any time.