PSYCHO-ANALYTIC SYSTEMS EPOCTICS This is a formal domain lying between logic and applied theory. It is the study of formal properties emerging from the relation of base to height to shape to impression. It may be seen as part of the psychology of aesthetics. The shape of a thing is considered flexible, while the base and the height are considered to be the functors of theory. The feeling or impression of the thing depends on the shape. So, for example, In this figure, Very small shapes of a certain type may be 'too subtle' e.g. too subtle to perceive or comprehend, or make an impression. At a particular size, the shapes begin to add up to make impressions. The overall impression, however, is often one of multiple shapes combined into one shape. Thus, the big shape (C) is unattainable: it is really a composite of smaller shapes. One way to view Epoctics is that it is the science of the hierarchy of shapes. But it is really more specialized than that. Epoctics sees shapes in terms of dots, and may relate through Gestalt theory to concepts of completeness and compositionality. Through the importance of Gestalt theory, it becomes a domain of psychology, and also through its insistence on measurable aesthetic properties. BACK TO SYSTEMS |
