"Point and Line to Plane" by Wassily Kandinsky
Joanna Drucker starts off her book Graphesis with an exploration into "Image, Interpretation, and Interface".
In this reading, I was particularly tickled by the following question: Can we imagine a "pure" theory of graphical notation and behavior"?
To investigate, I dove into further research into Wassily Kandinsky's Point and and Line to Plane (1926), referenced on page 35 following Kandinsky's 1910 essay Concerning the Spiritual in Art.
The video below illustrates three major points that stood out to me:
• The movement from point and line to plane focuses on the behavior of circles, rectangles and triangles
• According to Kandinsky, angles can insinuate sounds! A "sharp and highly active" for acute, "coldest and most controlled" for right angles, "weak and passive" for obtuse
• Drama can be created through tension of pure forms and their positions. For example, Kandinsky offers that as elements move closer to the boundaries, they become more tense and more "free" towards the center of the plane