Singapore Web DesignerWabi Sabi — Zen Principles of Aesthetics Chapter 2: YUGEN (Sans Focal Point) » AEN—Designer & Consultant

This is the second chapter of my Wabi Sabi series. It has been a long while since chapter 1. To compensate the lack of updates, I’m writing a long one for Yugen 幽玄.

When it comes to art and design, one will find it taboo to lack any form of focus or center of interest in an art piece, installation or any form of art or design to be interpreted visually. A focal point, for example in a painting is usually an outstanding subject, a distinct area of colors, a visual area separated from the rest by means of lines/color/shape/weight or even a single important object in a sea of negative space, also known as emphasis by isolation. A focal point draws your attention to the most important element.

Look at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Most will be drawn towards the slightly special flower in the center. It looks different and stands out. The entire vase of flowers as a subject can also be considered a focal area albeit with less emphasis. Which one are you looking at?

A trip to most online graphic design forums reveals in forumers a tendency to critic designs based on the presence or lack of a focal point. Perhaps it has become a golden rule or a fail-proof method to ensure your designs turn out right. Why is the focal so important? I try to not know why it is important but instead I hope to prove otherwise, that a focal point can be absent from something good to look at or to think about.

Sappho and Alcaeus by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (image from Art Renewal)

There is no apparent focal point in this painting. The person on the right playing the Kithara admired his audience on the left appears to be the most important subject. Yet, the two girls among the audience are beautiful, immersed and highly detailed take away much of the attention. Where is the focal point? I feel the focal point is not to be seen but thought in the mind. The main focus about this painting is the story it depicts, the scene of a fortunate audience immersing in the performance of a talented musician.

The key to achieving visual interest has nothing to do with opticals in actual fact. Our eyes are just muscled control apertures. Light enters the lenses and images are then produced within our brains. We are actually seeing with our minds. When we dream, our eyes are shut and yet we can observed vivid images and even live in our dreams like our eyes are open.

What’s deeper than a focal point? A mental area.

What’s a mental area? It can be as small as a bullet point or as big as the universe. Yugen roughly means “Suggest and not reveal layers of meaning hidden within. Invisible to the casual eye and avoiding the obvious”. That is to touch someone, you have to set the mind thinking and not so much of the eye seeing.

Yugen by Hiroko Sato

Let me give a very good example that has no focal point and requires an enlightened mind.

Ryoan-ji (Shinjitai: 竜安寺, Kyujitai: 龍安寺, Ryoan-ji The Temple of the Peaceful Dragon) is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. Belonging to the Myoshinji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism, the temple is one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

To many, the temple’s name is synonymous with the temple’s famous karesansui (dry landscape) rock garden, thought to have been built in the late 1400s. The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder.

Ryoan-ji

Every rock in the garden tells a story and each story coalesces into a bigger meaning. This meaning is profound and invisible to the eye. You can only see the 15th rock in your mind. More at the Ryoan-ji site.

So next time you see a design without a focal point, use your mind and you might be enlightened.

Video of Ryoan-ji

LINKS
Art Renewal
Hiroko Sato
Ryoan-ji
Also check out Wabibito � the Wabi Sabi Shop