Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie
Image: wallyg | Flickr

An amazing artist is Piet Mondrian, who is known for painting Broadway Boogie Woogie. This painting is quite remarkable and one of its defining qualities is its ability to convey motion to its viewers. As if to deconstruct music, this painting makes use of color, pattern, geometry and sizing.

Consequently, Piet Mondrian has made an excellent and tangible example for us to better understand why we perceive motion when looking at his work. Much can be explained by delving into neuroscience.

Why We Perceive Motion in the Painting

In her book, Vision and Art (affiliate link), Harvard neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone explains why this painting appears to “move or jitter”. She explains that the yellow and gray squares are “close to equiluminant” and they are set against an off-white background.” (1)

You see, the luminance in color plays a special role in human perception. As Livingstone notes, the part of our visual process responsible for determining the location and motion of an object cannot perceive objects where their colors have “the same luminance” — they are equiluminant. (1)

Color present showing that you can see yellow and gray squares

Image: profzucker | Flickr

Color removed in photoshop, showing that you cannot see yellow and gray squares

Image: profzucker | Flickr

Since the gray and yellow squares in Broadway Boogie Woogie have the same luminance, our visual system cannot distinguish their location or motion. Hence, they seem to move about. This concept was first illustrated in the book Vision and Art, but I have manipulated some photographs to convey this concept to you. (1)

As you can see, great artists’ paintings often “work” because they tap into certain aspects of the way we interpret information. By understanding such explanations, we can better interpret what works in existing masterpieces. In turn, we can learn a lot about how to design better for our future.

As architects we should be concerned with how and why occupants perceive as they move through our spaces. Delving deeper, and scientifically into what guides them and stops them, what they remember and later forget and what they want to see again.

Such probing questions will help you to understand how to design better because you will get to the root of why an architecture “works” — functionally and aesthetically.

Big questions with focused answers impact our understanding of how a culture and an individual uses space. Ultimately, we will also better comprehend why and how our architecture will be explained to others.

These are all keys to building for function and beauty.

Just for Fun

Just for fun, you can see a more modern interpretation of the impact Mondrian has with this painting. Take a look at the following video and see how someone just had to create an animation to bring what they perceive as motion into another form.

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(1) Livingstone, Margaret.Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. New York: Harry N. Abrahams, Inc. 2002

© 2008-2010 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman