Plane and Form

Planes: flat surfaces extending in length and width. Planes are often shallow in depth and can be made of many different materials, and can be opaque, translucent, textured, or smooth. These are examples of planes because they are flat surfaces made of various materials that make up structures. Although windows are see-through and mirrors reflect, they are still great examples of planes.

Geometric Forms: have length, width, depth, weight and solidity. Examples of these are circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, etc. These geometric forms are all readily recognized as certain shapes: the lamp is a sphere, while the pillars, smoke stacks, and candle are all cylinders.

Natural Forms: are found in nature as they were originally made. Examples of natural forms are trees, bushes, and rocks because nature made all three of them, they were not man-made. Although the shape may have been altered by a human, the actual form of a shrub or rock is not man-made. The rocks found in the ocean are shaped by another form of nature: water.

Abstract Forms: demonstrate qualities of an actual form but has been altered in some way. Great examples of this are replicas of animal or plant forms made out of different materials. The artists of these pieces are trying to render the presence of a certain thing, but do so using an interesting material. The idea came from the artists' mind, not from its natural existence. All of these examples are recognizable as owls, flowers, a tree branch and a giraffe; however, they are not in their natural form.

Dynamic Form: demonstrate movement, energy and imply activity. One of my examples is a friend's room that doesn't really have much order to it. Both of the roommates have their own style and objects. Some rooms in my sorority house are perfectly proportional on each side with matching bed spreads, picture formations and object organization. As you can see, they did not go for this look by adding a mirror to only one side of the room, having different picture placement and different bed spreads. My other example is a waterfall because it implies motion and energy.

Static Form: appear to be in a still and resting position. They offer a sense of calm and power because of their permanence. They are very specifically laid out to avoid confusion, look more formal, or be more practical. The Parlor Room is the most formal room in my sorority house and has a symmetrical lay out with matching furniture on each side. I think this achieves the formal feel it was designed for. Our dining room is also laid out statically in order to make it more functional so everyone has a place to sit. If the furniture was to be moved around it wouldn't give us the most amount of space possible, making it less comfortable to eat in there.

Non-Objective Form: usually doesn't represent anything recognizable until we get the title of the structure, and then maybe we can recognize something more abstract. I chose a light structure that my friend has hanging in her room because I'm not sure what it was made to look like. I also chose some earrings that I have that don't represent any form in particular. I think these structures were designed for people to take an interest in their meaning and form.