What is Psychosocial Hermeneutics?

If we view the history of art from a distant vantage, so that we consider a succession of movements and eras or circumstance of creation, that history is just exactly a history of style change. Comprising explorations of the rich material nature of space and complex mental process which is adaptable to

change; the following essay seeks to draw your attention to the relevance of the particularities of spaces and psychosocial reaction of people to them, ultimately to enrich the human experience within the designed space.

Human species has always been compliant to their environment. Therefore it is affable for us to survive in advancing spaces. The theory of evolution by natural selection was first formulated in Charles Darwin’s book, “On the origin of species.” in 1859; natural selection is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of change in heritable, physical or behavioral traits. This change allows us to adapt to our surrounding.

This metamorphosis in human beings is not just heritable, physical or behavioural but also psychosocial. When the environment we live in is subjected to change, our mind inevitably is accustomed to that change. It is similar in the case with designed spaces. This idea brings me to a question; how often do you pass a building and wonder, what will it look like in another hundred years? Will it still look the same? Will it be transformed into another building? Or will it crumple down to the ground? I am curious to find out what the answer will be. Spatial design has had numerous definition over the years. The identity of spatial design has been in coherence with the lifestyle of mankind. Designed spaces directly rely on the psychological factor of the society. We aim to habituate Vourselves in psychologically designed spaces.

This response of the human mindset has driven us to evolve to a smart style of design; The Minimalist Style.

Minimalism is often related to modernisation. Although we have never considered the possibility that, the concept of reducing may have surfaced through human curiosity. Human mind works in various ways. For instance, who among us has not had the urge to know what’s over the next hill? What child has not been drawn to explore beyond the familiar streets of their neighbourhood? We all have something in common, the curiosity to gain knowledge of the infinite possibilities that world offers us.

What is ‘style’ anyway? It is hard to define. The best way to answer this question is, if you have a lion’s head on the night stand, the sofa, the bed, the chair and on almost every object in the room, then that is style, style is simply what we perceive. Here I relate to a quote by Gautama Buddha, “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” We have discovered an efficient way to break away from conventional designed spaces to more sustainable ones without sacrificing elegance, flexibility or functionality.

FLEXIBLE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN MIND AND MATTER

Human mind has a unique ability to interpret objects that have been observed. This ability to interpret has escorted us through different time and eras of design. Most commonly acknowledged ones being classical era of design, contemporary design and the modern style. But the 20th century has progressed to yet another new design style; ‘The Minimalist Style.’ The advancement of minimalism has emerged from the human psychosocial behavior. People enact fascinatingly to changing spaces. Not just the space but also the objects that affect our mind. In his book ‘Psychosocial Narratives’ (2008) Anthony Dunne, mentions “how design responds to the psychosocial and behavioral dimensions of electronics can be found at the edge of anonymous design.” For instance, a remote control watch addressing an unlikely psychological obsession speaks of a need to control one’s home and their surroundings. The digital era has made our lifestyle comfortable in every possible way. As the prime individual user of space, we tend to alter our environment according to our benefit. The psychological aspect plays a major role in reinforcing our ideas and concepts in the society.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ORNAMENT

In his book Ornament and Crime, Adolf Loos mentions, “Lack of ornamentation does not mean lack of attractiveness, but is a new attraction and rouses the public from its lethargy.” The idea of reducing the classical ornamental elements to simple lines has merely been developed form experimentation. Earlier by style people meant ornamentation. We have witnessed this in all the classical styles. But in the present generation we have gone beyond ornamentation and have attained undecorated simplicity.

Classical ornament brings order into the shaping of our object of everyday use, directs us and our forms, and creates, despite ethnographic and linguistic differences, a common fund of forms and aesthetic concepts. Now people have reached a point where ornamentation is no longer a source of pleasure. For instance, woman today prefer mono coloured elegant dresses instead of the extravagantly decorated gowns. Therefore this clearly suggests that the concept of reduction ideology has been deduced from the original classical ornament style.

Let us recall a few facts of cultural history. The less advanced a nation, more extravagant its ornamentation, its decoration. For example, the Red Indian covers his every object, every arrow over and over with decoration. The Indian says, ‘this woman is beautiful because she wears gold rings in her nose and years.’ But a culturally advanced person will say, ‘this woman is beautiful because she wears no rings in her nose and ears.’ The goal towards which the whole of mankind is striving is to see beauty in form alone, and not to make it dependent on ornament and decoration.

PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE

In the book Constructing Places: Aesthetics in a place, the philosopher Arnold Berleant states, “People are embedded in their world- their life, to use an important term from phenomenology. A constant exchange takes place between organism and environment, and these are so intimately bound up with each other that our conceptual discrimination serve only heuristic purpose and often mislead us.” Hence we mayunderstand that the construction of human life is an integration of a particular person and his or her environment. How do we define space? We often say that our surrounding is our space. But does surrounding mean the walls that are around us or the roof that we are standing under? Space in general has a very wide explanation. Space can be outlined by different people relying on their perception.

Perception is fundamental to our experience of the world, and this means aesthetics is very much grounded in our being. Nevertheless perception cannot be understood by examining just a single sense, instead it usually depends on using more than one sense at a time. In his book, the eye of the skin: Architecture and the senses, Pallasama Juhani has mentioned about multisensory experiences. He give an example of the experience of a person in a forest and how all our senses react to that environment. Similarly, when we are subjected to an intentionally designed space, our perception of the place is solely guided by our senses.

TRANSVERSALITY: IDENTITY FUSED FROM FRAGMENTS

In architecture and interior design, the term minimalist means simplicity and moderation, with spacious flat surface that evoke serenity and industrial or simple materials. Minimalist in architecture emphasize the things that are essential and functional. Elementary geometric forms without ornament or decoration into the character. Referring to the opinion of Carlos Rego, it can be said of minimalist architecture began to grow in the early 20th century known as the modern century, the century which enlivened many advances as a result of the industrial revolution. Another central tenet is the importance of light and its effect on interior spaces and on the people experiencing the space. Natural light has always been a scarce commodity inside houses. These days, houses are designed to capture it and enhance it to the fullest. In an interview Eva Jiricna says “ I love light in all its forms and shades, and as a consequence of this love affair I am fascinated by glass: It is the material which controls it, enhances it, changes it and makes it possible for us to do with light whatever we want to do.”

Lightness, transparency and truth to materials are the hallmarks of her design approach. Minimalist decor allows more emphasis on textures. Forms are as pure as possible and defined by geometric design. Functionality and its relationship with surroundings are paramount. Minimalist designs commonly use colour schemes that are in combination with white along with stark contrast colours such as red or black. Designers choose furniture with pure lines, made with unprocessed materials. Concrete, glass and metal play an important role in the design of these spaces.

COHABITATION

In his book Eisenman inside out: cardboard architecture (1963- 1988) Peter Eisenman connotes “The making of form can, for instance, be considered as a problem of logical consistency, as a consequence of the logical structure inherent in any formal relationship.” For instance consider the form of a museum. A museum as a structure offers very little in the way of specific functional requirements which can act as either a suggestion for or limitation to formal development. This may account for the fact that many of the museums have been created in building originally designed for other purposes. Equally, since it is difficult to define a precise form from the functional requirements, the form of a museum is often realised as a much idealised shape. Physical coherence is another trait that can convey a sense of place. A high degree of architectural similarity or compatibility may create the sense of distinctive place. This may occur especially in the case when the building designed contrasts with its surrounding areas. When we transcend from one place to another the form of the place may also have a psychological effect regarding the experience of the space. This may be simply the completely intangible event of a change of mood that occurs as we move into a different environment; be it natural, designed or momentarily constructed.

MINIMAL GESTURES

Artistic style is equally significant for the interpretation of artworks. Knowing which choices an artist makes are stylistic choices helps determine which aspect of work carry meaning and are thus subject to reasonable interpretation. Donald Judds work justifies the form of minimal art.

As Bergson wrote, “A thousand incidents arise, which seem to be cut off from those which precede them, and to be disconnected from those which follow. Discontinuous thought they appear, however, in point of fact they stand out against the continuity of the background on which they are designed, and to which indeed they owe the intervals that separate them; they are the beats of the drum which breaks forth here and there in the symphony.” Our attention fixes on them because they interest it more, but each of them is borne by the fluidity mass of our whole psychical existence.

In the essay defining art and art worlds by Stephen Devies he mentions a classic statement provided by Beardsley (1982, 299) “An art work is either an arrangement of conditions intended to be capable of affording an aesthetic experience with marked aesthetic character, or (incidentally) an arrangement belonging to a class or type of arrangement that I typically intended to have this capacity.”

ELEMENTAL RELATIONSHIPS

The above theory of reducing the ornamental style to a simplistic minimalist style can be achieved in various aspects of our everyday life. One such example is of the meander pattern from the Greek style of art. Over the years this pattern has been studied by experts. The original complex meander patterns were developed in the Greek empire, but the art did not fade away. Instead the ornament has been evolved over the years and is still used in different forms. This form is developed from the human psychological aspect, since it depicts the flow of river in all its styles. It is observed by historian that the meander pattern originated by the observation of the flow of the river by our ancestors.

CONCLUSION

The concept that there is virtue in stripping away, that simplicity can be beautiful, and give rise to its own special kind of complexity, is one that feels as old as the world itself – but it’s relatively new. In the book constructing places: aesthetics in a place, the philosopher Arnold Berleant states, “Physical characteristics alone do not define a place. There is a human factor to these features, weather this connection cones through actions, practice, or institutions or through simple presence of conscious.” Minimalist style of design has not just surface in the field of architecture or interior design but also in fields of arts, music, fashion and lifestyle. Since it abundantly relies on human psychology, this style has particularly evolved into our day to day lifestyle rather than just being a hypothetical phenomenon. Finally, humans have, since the earliest civilizations, built monuments. We want to leave something behind to show the next generation, or the generations after that, what we did with our time here. This is the impulse behind cathedrals and pyramids, art galleries and museums. And minimalist art style is another addition to our achievements of the modern era.