Gestalt: An Artist's Dream

Tim McCreight, the author of Design Language, wrote: Our need for wholeness is so great we assemble elements into as large a unit as possible. We will see a row of dots as a dotted line rather than a collection of small marks (1996). This is just one example of the Gestalt theory. It has gained world recognition and has become pArt of an Artists formal study. Surprisingly, *Gestalt* is not the name of the person who discovered the series of visual perceptions which are now recognized as design laws; instead, the word *Gestalt* means form or shape.

The Gestalt theory originated with Wertheimer, and he believed the human brain predictably organizes and groups forms and shapes by grouping them in certain ways. Gestalt theory includes: the law of similarity, the law of proximity, the law of continuation, and the law of common fate according to Paul MArtin Lester, the author of the book Visual Communication.

Gestalt psychologists continued Wertheimers work which beg an back in the 1920s. Artists want to know how the mind sees and organizes visual information. Improved understanding of how designs and patterns are viewed as a whole and not strictly by the pArts is helpful to Artists, because they can use these laws as guidelines as they work.

Due to the Gestalt theory, an Artist has a better idea as to how much or how little information should be in their graphic designs and Artwork. Not only this, but the knowledge of the Gestalt theory allows Artists and designers to know where they can take visual liberties as they design. Gestalt theory shows how the human mind completes the missing pArts and details by grouping, connecting, and separating the varying shapes and forms.

No doubt about it, the Gestalt theory is fascinating. To learn more about it, take time to read information about the law of similarity, the law of proximity, the law of continuation, and the law of common fate. (revised 2/15/2006)

Debbie Jensen, Grap hic Designer and Photographer http://www.debjensendesigns.com

Author:: Debbie Jensen
Keywords:: Gestalt, Gestalt's theory, graphic designers, visual communications, Art, Articles, debbie jensen,
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Money Can Not Buy You Happiness

I am sure there will be many people who read this article and will think I am rather mad. Quite frankly I do not care. In this article I write about what in my humble opinion are the most importants things in Life, Health and Happiness.

All that most of my friends talk about is Money:

What car do you drive?

How much is your house worth?

How much do you earn?

How much did your suit cost?

Where are you going on holiday this year?

I find all of this very boring and think that they are rather sad. They seem to be in some sort of competition and they are basically obsessed about Money.

I will give you an example of one such friend, his name is John. He never seems to talk about anything else and is always looking into get rich quick schemes. He is also in a lottery s yndicate, of which there are about fifty members. Each member pays around ten pounds in per week. John likes to go out socialising on a Saturday night, however soon gets itchy feet at the time of the lottery draw. A few minutes later he will go to the toilet where he will then phone his girlfriend. He takes with him to the toilet a piece of paper with his numbers on and a little pen. After his girlfriend has told him which numbers were drawn, John will then then spend around twenty minutes checking his numbers, and then re-checking to see if he has any winning lines.

Eventually he returns to the group who seem very keen (apart from me) to find out how much he has won/lost. To date he has only won small amounts, however is convinced that one day he will become a millionaire. He will then start talking about the lottery, asking other people what they would buy if they were lucky enough to ever win. At this point I become very bored and start to wish I had stayed at home and watched the football.

For me the two most important things in Life are Health and Happiness. These are two things which Money can not buy. A few years ago, my dad was taken ill. He was in a real bad way and had to spend around five months in hospital. Him being ill was a huge shock to me as he was only fifty-seven. I feared the worst, even though I was trying my hardest to think and stay positive. I remember thinking, if I gave those doctors everything I own in the world, it still would not help him. I felt powerless and at that moment realised that Money is only paper.

Happiness is the same, I remember at the age of twenty-one having lots of Money and had been surprised that I was depressed at the same time. At other times I have had next to no Money and have been extremely happy.

Stephe n Hill has a number of websites including:

http://www.eye-treatments.co.uk

http://www.arthritis-specialist.com

http://www.lasik-laser-treatment.com

Author:: Steve Hill
Keywords:: Happiness, Money, Health, Life
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Elite Bloodlines Must Be Stopped Said the Conspiracy Theorist

Many folks complain about the ruling elite and label them as scoundrels and led by pure greed. Personally I take offense to this notion, fore I myself indeed have such names in my own family. And to those who label our family names in such a negative way I would like to address you now and offer you another point of view.

Dear Sir, I truly wish you would understand the truth in all this, it appears you are set in your ways and do not wish to change your perspective even for a second to see the world thru another view or step outside the cave of shackles and flickering flame, which you yourself in your personal anger and accepted belief system created for yourself. You have left me know choice to show you the errors in your ways in your guerilla style personal and slanderous attacks against my good names. And all these negative words against my ancestry simply so you can knock us off the mountain and then what? Crumble civilization, repeat the follies of man and then install yourself as the leader or your human grouping. Let me ask you, what experience do you have in running the world? Do you think you can really do a better job? Please state your qualifications and that is my challenge for you today. The simple ability to complain, make excuse and label another unfit to lead is not a qualification to run the human race. We have too many historical examples to prove that fact.

For those who continually accuse the elite bloodlines of all their personal problems and create conspiracy theories to justify their positions and for all those who argue this issue and label elite bloodlines as bad, well; I hereby declare your comments baseless, undeserving of consideration and completely fruitless for the forward progression of the species. Good day fine Sir.

Lance Winslow

Author:: Lance Winslow
Keywords:: Elite Bloodlines, Must Be Stopped, Conspiracy Theorist
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William James Free Will and Role of Chance

William James is one of the most prominent philosophers of America of 19-20th cc. He made a great contribution into the development of a philosophical thought of his time. He also widely uses his experience of psychologist in his works on philosophy. In his works he mainly speaks about thinking and knowledge which he treats as instruments in the struggle to live that may be the result of his psychological practice. Also one of the most important themes of his works is pragmatism. He generalized the pragmatism of Charles Sanders Peirce by asserting that the meaning of any idea must be analyzed in terms of the succession of experiential consequences it leads to the idea that truth and error depend solely on these consequences. He applied pragmatism to the analysis of change and chance, freedom, variety, pluralism, and novelty. Pragmatism was also the basis for his polemic against monism, the block universe, the idealistic doctrine of internal relations, and all views that pr esented reality as a static whole. He was also a leader of the psychological movement of functionalism.

But I think that the most interesting part of his work is his views on free will and the role of chance in our life. In his famous essay The Dilemma of Determinism James rejects determinism on the ground that people do not have any free choices in the life. So James appeal to direct experience to provide evidence of existence of free choice. He estimates that feeling that all of us have such as regret or sorrow do not make any sense unless there is some free will. And James believes that people experience regret or sorrow only because they could have done otherwise. He thinks that if determinism were true, then people could never have done otherwise and, consequently, he comes to the conclusion that they wouldnt have any reason to feel this regret or sorrow. In the work The Dilemma of Determinism William James says the following about determinism: What does dete rminism profess? It professes that those parts of the universe already laid down absolutely appoint and decree what the other parts shall be. The future has no ambiguous possibilities hidden in its womb the whole is in each and every part, and welds it with the rest into an absolute unity, an iron block, in which there can be no equivocation or shadow of turning. So from these words we may judge about his views on the role of chance. This quotation makes obvious the fact that we and everything around us are predetermined, fated. Consequently, people do not have any independent choice in their life. Then the philosopher says that: The only deterministic escape from pessimism is everywhere to abandon the judgment of regret But does not this immediately bring us into a curious logical predicament? Our determinism leads us to call our judgments of regret wrong, because they are pessimistic in implying that what is impossible yet ought to be. But how then about the judgments of r egret themselves? If they are wrong, other judgments, judgments of approval presumably, ought to be in their place. But as they are necessitated, nothing else can be in their place; and the universe is just what is was before,- namely, a place in which what ought to be appears impossible. We have got one foot out of the pessimistic bog, but the other one sinks all the deeper. We have rescued our actions from the bonds of evil, but our judgments are now held fast. When murders and treacheries cease to be sins, regrets are theoretic absurdities and errors. The theoretic and the active life thus play a kind of see-saw with each other on the ground of evil. The rise of either sends the other down. Murder and treachery cannot be good without regret being bad: regret cannot be good without treachery and murder being bad. Both, however, are supposed to have been foredoomed; so something must be fatally unreasonable, absurd, and wrong in the world. It means that the author wants to underline that in empiricism and pluralism he saw the only possible way out from our confinement in fatalistic universe that seems to be absurd.

Thus, William James defines truth as verification and in such a way he rejects the idea that any unverifiable theory or idea, such as determinism, for example, can be true. Despite the fact that he gives such a pragmatic definition of truth we shouldnt consider that the distinction between truth and verification cannot be associated with the deliberate neglect of realist epistemology because traditionally he get used to be an epistemological realist. Moreover, he made it clear that he understood well and cordially supported the correspondence theory of truth. A bit later he told the following about the truth-building and reality: The pragmatist calls satisfactions indispensable for truth-building, but I have everywhere called them insufficient unless reality also be incidentally led to. If the reality assumed were cancelled f rom the pragmatists universe of discourse, he would straightway give the name of falsehoods to the beliefs remaining in spite of all their satisfactoriness. For him, as for his critic, there can be no truth if there is nothing to be true about I remain an epistemological realist Realities are not true, they are; and beliefs are true of them. But at the same time a few years earlier William James told about the power of facts and the difference between verification and truth in his saying: Truth supposes a standard outside of the thinker to which he must conform.

His pragmatic theory of truth explains us why he is so insistent on the necessity of existence of free choices and freedom for people and I think that it is the most probable explanation of his eagerness in freedom because for him the quest of truth is of paramount importance and here he says that people have a definite choice or its better to say they have two ways: either we must know the truth or we must av oid errors. Judging by his works it is not difficult to guess that to know the truth is of primary importance for him and he thinks that normally people should chose this rather than the possibility to avoid errors.

On reflecting about the factors which influence our opinion or which even form it he comes to the idea that there are some options between our opinions and depending on different circumstances they may be either inevitable or they may be determined by our choice. That is, not only do our emotions affect our thoughts but also there are some options to our opinions where this emotional influence is to be seen as unavoidable and a determining factor in our choices. If one has any doubts as to this idea the only thing he needs is just recollect the facts that have been already mentioned in my work. I speak about two factors of our human nature which influence our opinions they are the intension to avoid errors and the quest to find the truth.

The ability to sacrifice one for the other is normal since the option between acquiring and losing the truth is not temporary. This is the kind of thing that happens daily in science and in human everyday life in general. For, as James points out, the necessity to act is seldom so urgent that even a controversial or doubtful choice to act on is better than no choice at all. Here decisions are made for practical reasons allowing one to get onto the next order of business. In the situations in which a hypothesis is trivial and hardly ever living, the choice between believing a truth rather than a false is seldom forced. So again we see that the necessity of existence of fee choices is of paramount importance for people and they could really help them to avoid mistakes which are not well accepted by William James.

Thus, we can see that as I have already said the existence of free choices is highly important for James despite the fact that the fate, the chance is one of the most inf luential factors in humans life. But anyway even nowadays we cannot help from admiring the great work of the great philosopher. At the end of my work I want to recite the words of this man which to my mind express one of the principal idea of his essay The Dilemma of Determinism and may be of his philosophy as well: Our determinism leads us to call our judgments of regret wrong, because they are pessimistic in implying that what is impossible yet ought to be. But how then about the judgments of regret themselves? If they are wrong, other judgments, judgments of approval presumably, ought to be in their place. But as they are necessitated, nothing else can be in their place; and the universe is just what it was before - namely, a place in which what ought to be appears impossible.

Aaron is a professional freelance writer at custom essays writing service: Research papers & custom essays Now he is a technical writer, advertising copywriter, & website copywriter for Custo m Essay Network.

Author:: Aaron Schwartz
Keywords:: William James - free will and role of chance
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Simple Words

The Words, the thoughts, the processes go on and on.

As simple as it may seem to me I tend to feel that all Words have their own meaning and not always the dictionary form.

A simple word takes the form of many other Words as each individual person who hears it puts it through a transformation process.

A doctor can take a word and change it into a disease. A carpenter can take a word and change it into a tool.

Is it that no one is Listening or is it that each person listens only to what they know currently?

Debates take a turn at each word that is change and looked at in a different way by the person Listening. According to our knowledge we can take a prayer and turn it into a blatant statement of hatred or immoral intrusion.

We can take a statement that spews hate and turn it into a humanitarian effort.

The Words that tell, the Words that say, the Words that we hear and acknowledge everyday make us what we are if we allow them to .

It is the definition as we see it and nothing more. Depending on how stubborn a person is the prayer, the hatred can be anything.

A long line of definitions and the end of any Thesaurus will change the meaning according to the word you pick hate can become love and loving can become despising. This is the way a persons mind can work and in the end it all blends into the way a person listens.

If all you know is hatred, it is not hard to imagine what love could be. Still depending on the Words that you know it can turn itself into a field of flowers or the face of a monster.

Every word has a meaning and that meaning can be twisted and turned into so many different forms that it can take forever to get through if the person Listening does not understand your meaning and what it means to you.

Human Beliefs are a large part of the basis of the definitions that are out there. What could be simple and what is simple can, and at times can become c omplex and confusing.

Confusion occurs when a word we learned as a child takes a different form and we are unaccustomed to it being used in that way. Simple can be so much better but the world is complex and if the ones that hold the knowledge contained in a Thesaurus use it, the world can and will become the definition of what they believe in if only because no one can truly understand what is happening.

It will get to the point where not only will people not understand what is happening because they do not understand the use of the wording. But the other people will not understand because they have evolved to a place where simplicity means nothing.

It is everywhere and few see it.

It is in Politics, they make wrongs right, according to the wording of laws and bills. It is in corporations as they justify the wrongs or the lies that they come upon every day. It is in the very fabric of the Religions that will change what they need to according to what they want to believe in.

Simple, look it up!

Julie Pierce has worked in the retail sector for more than thirty years. She has been a union member of the UCFW Union and the afl-cio more than once and has worked for more than one large retailer during the course of her career. She attended Gulf Coast Community College, Panama City Beach, Florida, in the nineties in the pursuit of a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications.

Some of her work has been published during the eighties and nineties in various editorial pages of newspapers in the state of New Jersey and Florida. She also did some work as a community reporter for a weekly newspaper in Panama City Florida. Other work includes an article in the Gulls Cry, the Gulf Coast Community College newspaper.

She is the wi fe of TSgt William F. Pierce Jr. (retired) USAF and the mother of three children and one grandchild.

Her experience with Walmart has taken her into three different regions and six districts within the company. In over a six-year period has worked in ten Walmart stores for twelve Walmart Store Managers.

Author:: Julie Pierce
KeyWords:: Words, Belief, Talking, Listening, Communicating, Philosophy, Writing, Politics, Religion
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If Humans Left Earth Would Chimps Evolve to Take Over the Earth?

Some have asked if humans left the planet would apes and chimpanzees take over like we have in 30,000 years or so? Probably not, why bother, they have everything they need and are content, happy, carefree, no-stress, top of their food chain, few enemies [besides them selves and their cousins mankind killing them that they cannot deal with.

No need to leave the tree line or cover. Unless there was a super environmental change such as an ice age, global warming or volcanoes or such, but if man split from Chimpanzees 1-million years ago, Chimpanzees had their chances to adapt and move beyond, but did not desire or need too you see?

So, for those who ask this question they do so in error. Like wise a any higher order species at the top of their food chain may or may not adapt if their environment does not change.

Mankind constantly does as he keeps changing his environment and even one study recently showed brain cavity expansion of a measurable amount in onl y 650 years, which is 30 generations or so and that is indeed impressive from evolutionary standpoints. Although 650 is a long time in human terms 30 generations is not in the evolutionary process. Even insects take a while to get these things done, although we know from experimentation of course it is readily possible under controllable and observable, repeatable conditions. Perhaps you might consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Author:: Lance Winslow
Keywords:: Humans Left Earth, Chimps Evolve to Take Over the Earth
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A Story of a Rose an Artist and History

The year was 2700 AD, and the technological advances of mankind were impressive. By now, 99% of disease had been eliminated, and the average life span was around 150 years. Innovating and exciting new fields of science had been opened and subdivided. Art found new and creative ways to be expressed. The ways of the people became not necessarily simple, but all directed towards fulfilling the passion of the heArt, the creativitiy of the mind.

Bastello walked with his/her lover Rols, gently trotting across the otherwise untouched cobblestone. As they passed by a housing unit, they hear some shouting. It was their friend Casva. Hey, Bastello! Rols! I've got something you want to see!

We're comin'! Bastello hollered. Technology had become molded with biology in this era, and many bodies included implants that helped boost immunity, strength, and other basic functioning.

What do you have for us, Casva? Rols asked once the two were inside the housing u nit of their comrade.

My newest creation, s/he replied, Are you looking?

The flower? Bastello asked, What about it?

I've been tweaking the genes of it for the past few weeks, Casva sad, I bought a gene manipulation kit at the hobby store. With all the effort I've put into it, I think I've been able to create the most beautiful flower ever. A look at the scene right now would reveal a flower, a computer attached to the flower, and a solar panel similarly attached to the flower. This solar panel allows me to get more energy to the flower faster, Casva says, Sure, sure, it's not natural like other hobbyists like, but hey, it gets it faster to the best pArt.

So, what do you have to show us? Rols asked, It's a flower. It's not even open. It's very much closed.

Okay, watch this, Casva replies. S/He turns to his/her computer and presses a few keys, and then flips three switches attached to the solar panel.

With all that, the flower bloomed. It was a rose, but not any ordinary rose. The petals stArted to shift in color, twisting and turning into oranges, purples, greens, blues, yellows, the colors moving in and out much like waves would smash in the ocean. The psychedelic colors of the flower molded, morphed, grew, rose, shrunk, and receded. But, just as they had managed to be amazed entirely by this one spectacle of the flower, something else happened. It stArted to turn. The head of the flower was turning at at utmostly slow pace, adding to the immense beauty of the plant, allowing others to afford a greater appreciation of its colors. And, then something strange happened... All throughout the room, a sound could be heard. A very gentle and increasing hum could be heard coming from the center of the flower. It almost sounded like a choral voice. Very light. Very gentle. Very delicate. This flower, whose colors were changing and morphing constantly, its head slowly turning, and now, the perfect v oice of a human resonating from it... In one more minute, all these functions would stop, and it would close again.

Wow, that was amazing, Bastello said, I mean, I've seen some flowers do some crazy things, but that was absolutely brilliant.

Seven thousand lines of altered genes, my friend, Casva said, tapping his/her computer, There are billions I have yet to tap in to.

I have not seen anything so beautiful in all my years, Rols said.

Yeap, Casva replied, It takes 12 hours of the solar panel being charged just to get two minutes. I'm trying to reduce that time without harming the abilities of the plant.

You know, Casva, Bastello said, Several hundred years ago, toiling with things like genetics was considered a social violation. It was considered heresy, playing as god, to do what you've done.

Oh, I know, Casva replied, And only a few hundred years earlier than that, it was considered heresy to paint a picture of something that didn't include angels or god. So many paintings were burned, so many libraries were leveled. And, if we also want to dig into the past, you'll remember that what doctors did was considered heretical, because everyone thought that god planned for them a death date -- and prolonging that date was considered heresy.

Yeah, you think people would learn to live and let live, Rols said, If it doesn't bother you, don't fuck with it.

I don't think it's that, precisely, Casva said, as he unplugged a few wires from his/her computer, and then looking up to his/her comrades, Actually, I think it's learning what bothers you and what doesn't bother you. The Nazis could actually argue that, by letting the Jews live in peace, they were being bothered. Homophobes of the early 20th century argued that by allowing Homosexuals to live in peace, they were being bothered. You wouldn't think it at first, but the 'sanctity of marriage' has just about the same foundation as the 'sanctity of the white race.' Most of the time, it is the persecutor whose Psychology is, in fact, not much more grown from when he was perhaps three or four years ago. It is the fault of the persecutor to harbor the sick ideas of oppression -- not the fault of the oppressed to fight back. http://www.punkerslut.com

For Life,

Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has been writing essays and poetry on social issues which have caught his attention for several years. His website http://www.punkerslut.com provides a complete list of all of these writings. His life experience includes homelessness, squating in New Orleans and LA, dropping out of high school, getting expelled from college for subversive activities, and a myriad of other revolutionary actions.

Author:: Andy Carloff
Keywords:: History,Philosophy,Psychology,Art,Liberal,Intelligence,Creativity,Intelligence,genetic engineering
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