The Pyschology of Shape

The workings of the brain are a mystery, and for me art helps explore that mystery. In the psychology of shapes, I used acrylics to test some theories about stereotype formation. I've long noted that stereotypes are fluid, and tend to change according to the context. For example, if I were asked to define a stereotypical American, the stereotype would change depending upon whether I was in a context discussing war, technology, ambition, global politics, flag waving, or national identities. It would also change depend upon whether I was comparing Americans to the Chinese, Japanese, French, or Australians. As the stereotype changes according to the context, it is difficult to create a singular image in my mind that represents an all-encompassing "American" stereotype. The fluidity of stereotypes, and their ability to be constructed to fit a context made me speculate that perhaps the brain assembles them from individual parts like ingredients being assembled to fill a restaurant order. In effect, the brain doesn't record stereotypes at all; it merely records the method of assembly, and the type of parts, so that a stereotype can be produced to fit a specific need. Furthermore, the stereotypes are not assembled in visual form. They are more likely to be assembled in an emotional or abstract form with no physical structure to them. For example, I don't have a stereotypical picture of any social group. I have streotypical attributes in a specific context that exist in non-visual forms.

Although the exact method of memory recording is a mystery to neuroscientists, I had theory that memories about stereotypes might all be assembled from shapes and colours. In regards my belief in shapes, I had noted a psychological test that is able to define people's personalities on the basis of the shapes that they choose to identify with. The test involves showing people pictures of squares, circles, rectangles, triangles, and squiggly lines, and then asking them to choose one that represents their personality. Each shape has a list of personality attributes associated with them, and these are told to the subjects after they have made their selection. These tests are said to be around 80 per cent accurate, and from my own experiments with them as a teacher, I concur that people generally conform to my predictions about their desired shape. In regards to colours, some tests have found that how people rank colours in order of preference reflects their personality. Again, the tests appear to be quite accurate.

To use acrylics to test my theories about stereotype formation, I played around with lines and colours until an image started to emerge. Once an image started to form, I pushed it into a certain direction until it had some meaning that I could relate to the world. Finally, I settled on a name that reflected the image. The end product was a kind of visual image of the feelings of a non-contexual stereotype.