In places like New York many items can be found lying on the ground. Any and everything can be seen by simply taking a walk. People may be on there way to work but decide to stop at Wendy’s for breakfast. However the order may be taking too long. As the person rushes to finish the food he drops his napkins, cup, and throws the bag that it came in into grass.
There are three ambiguous and three stable images. The ambiguous images have things in the background that draw attention to it. For example, ambiguous image has a shot of the ground and grass in it to distract the viewer from paying attention to the bag only.
All the things that you see on the ground and you don’t really know where they came from or even how they even got there. All these artifacts seen in the ground all have their own story, like a piece of gum on the ground could have been the one a famous actor or songwriter was chewing. A leaf that was on your front door could be a leaf that landed on the White House lawn a few days ago. We see these things and don’t really pay any mind to them because they are just so small but sometimes they are larger in value then we think.
Everywhere you go in New York, you will encounter many things. A fellow worker rushes to the car and spills coffee in the busy early morning leaving stains on the stable ground. Got in the car and it wasn’t working due to a gas leak. The car is out of gas! The worker rushes to the train and finally arrives. While changing to his construction work clothes, specks of dusts falls and made its way to the ground. Finally, all dressed and ready to work, he measures the ground and spray painted it ready for construction.
The first three photos are ambiguous because it is unclear of what created the stains, it could be anything that created them. The first stable picture is geometric, the rest of the photos are stable. The last three photos are stable because the photos clearly show the object/figure is. The first stable photo shows inside a building’s speck of dust. The last two photos clearly show they are from a spray paint onto the ground.
New York City streets are filled with many things, from green bottle caps left by a person who didn’t screw it on their beverage very well, to old flavorless gum spat from the mouth of a person, to different dried stains and spills left by coffee, water, juice, sodas, and even gross liquid leaking out trash bags sitting on the streets waiting to be hurled into the back of garbage truck, or to the bird poop left by a group of pigeons trying to tag a fellow New Yorker.
The first three images at the top are examples of an Ambiguous figure/ground relationship and the three at the bottom are examples of a Stable figure/ground relationship. The three images at the top represent ambiguous figure/ground relationships because of the how the elements simultaneously come out to look as though they are both the figure and the ground. This leaves the viewer with no option but to depict what they think is the figure or ground in the image. The three images at the bottom are examples of Stable figure/ground relationships because of how the elements in the image clearly point out what the figure is and what the ground is. The positive space in the image dominates the negative space, giving a clear view of the figure and the ground. The image containing the green cap is an example of a geometric shape. This is because the shape is sharp and precise, also it has a perfectly proportioned circle. The rest of the images are examples of organic shapes. Unlike the image containing the green cap, they contain shapes with more of a natural flowing look.
It’s like everywhere you go to either step, spill, or trip on something. In the morning had accidentally stepped on a puddle of water now noticing the water slowly drying off on the sidewalk. Walking to class had tripped on part of the floor, seems like a tile had been removed for a good while, even dirt was evident on it, to top it off the coffee spill all over the floor just great. What could I do? I had no paper and the nearest bathroom had been closed for cleaning. Now I’ll be going through the day with less coffee and more guilt for leaving a mess. On the way back home felt slightly better, I had almost stepped on six newly dropped pieces of gum, and the garbage can is only a few feet away, continuing to walk I notice a leaf fall from the nearby tree but near the leaf showed a funny figure of what seemed like a person riding a Segway, that earned a laugh, that is until I notice what seemed like some yarn that must have fallen off someone’s sweater. However, it looked like a person sulking and dragging its feet making the mood drop.
All seemed figures in the pictures seem to be organic shapes, with the first three being Ambiguous figure due to there being no definitive image which mixes in with what could be the background or what would be the foreground. The bottom three stable figures because you can easily Identify the gum, the figure and the piece of fabric on the ground. This Along with placing myself in a someone else’s shoes to come up with the story and writing in first person point of view.
Some people come to new york to see the big building, and others come to see the urban style of new york. if you really pay attention while walking you can find beauty in random things in the city.
The first three pictures has an ambiguous ground figure relationship, an ambiguous ground figure relationship is when it can be hard to see the subject from the background.
The last three has a stable ground figure relation because you can clearly see the difference between the subject and the background.
It seems very straight forward that these images above are old dried flatten gums sticked on the street everywhere and it’s nothing new for New Yorkers. Back in the early 2000s and earlier, people would throw their gum all over the street floors instead of a garbage bin provided on every corners because most of them were lazy or no garbage we available. Therefore, time to time the gum gets dried, dirty and flatten as people kept stepping on it without realizing and these gums will be stuck on the same spot forever. In the other hand, some artist can think of something to redesign the image into something else never seen before. And of course the dried sticky flatted gum gives a organic shape as if it was a black & white made stetch hand . This three images that look very similar are consider a Stable Figure.
The other three picture on the second row are consider a Ambiguous figure because the small figure that interrupts the outside image gives a organic shape and it every figure are always different. It could be a old peeling wall, a left over sticker stain on a wooden door or a cracked floor.
When you’re in New York everyone is always running to get to their destinations so stains, as well as the dropped accessories, can be proof of this hustle. The student came out of Starbucks and after trying to put down their books, they spilled the coffee. They then later proceeded to buy a replacement refreshment such as a soda. However, after looking at the time the student began to panic and broke the can top. Giving up on the broken lid they threw it on the floor out of frustration and it exploded. While rushing to class they dropped their bracelet and after taking a turn to City Tech the keychain fell off their bag because it got caught onto the trashcan’s design.
The first photo is geometric and the rest are organic shapes. The first three photos are ambiguous because there is almost an equal amount of positive and negative space. For example, the first image has an equal amount of blue to black and the two stains are almost equal in different shades of gray causing our eyes to go back and forth. The last three are stable because there are clear off color objects from the gray concrete. The can top, bracelet, and occasional gum stand out from the concrete and catch your attention.
