Fall 2017 | COMD1100_LC08 | Prof. Spevack

Urban Artifacts: Phase 1

Obvious figure/ground

A rectangular shaped object laying  on the concrete ground. It might have belonged to a part of a construction packaged that was thrown away because it was no longer needed. Do to its bright color contrasting the background it can be called an obvious figure ground object because of its irregularity with the background.

Obvious figure/ground

The cap of a dry erase marker isolated from the rest of its marker. This marker cap was probably kicked by a passer by without notice. It had rolled a far distance thus becoming isolated.This is also has an obvious figure ground relationship with its background because of the imbalance of color in the picture.

Obvious figure/ground

A bottle cap edged on the corner of the picture. Looks similar to a crater on the moon but to contrasting to be one. This bottle cap has also had a similar history to the marker cap but looking closely you can see that it has been through worse. It has probably been run over a couple of times and scratched on the concrete for it to have such scratch marks on itself. this is an obvious figure ground relationship because it can be clearly seen that it stands out from its background.

Ambiguous figure/ground

This brick wall has been here for a very long time that its paint has started to ware off.  Throughout the years it has lived through rainy days, thunderstorms , and heated weather causing it pain to chip. this is an ambiguous figure-ground relationship because the white stripes perfectly contrast the color of the bricks developing a 50-50 percent in color even if it may not look it. Especially since some of the darker color is chipping of leaving the lighter color in its place.

Ambiguous figure/ground

This is an ambiguous figure ground relationship because there is a balance of color between the figure and its background. This footprint probably came to be when a construction worker accidentally stepped on the wet contrete and did not know.Thus when it dried it had harden leaving the mark of a shoe.

Ambiguous figure/ground

This washer bolt is engraved onto the concrete floor unable to venture out into the open world. This has been here because while a construction was going on this might have fallen from a tool box onto the wet contrete. this is an ambiguous figure ground because the figure blends in with its background making it difficult to decipher where the object actually is.

2 Comments

  1. Gabriel Morales

    the photos are very clear and concise! i really like the first one a lot

    • Dayana.B

      Thank you : )

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