In this post, I will include the description of the exercise:.

1. Cut out a series of shapes from black paper – squares, rectangles, circles and random shapes – in various sizes, from small to large.

2. Working with a square piece of white paper, place shapes of different sizes into the white space; place them on the white one at a time and move them around.

3. Try to find the point where the distinction between figure and ground becomes unclear.

In the examples above, I only accomplished #1 and #2. On each image, the figure is clearly the black area and the background is the white area.

Possible reasons:

1. placement – the black shapes are mostly placed in the middle
2. covered area – much more white than black
3. shapes – the black area is made up of recognizable shapes while the white areas are not
4. there is some order to the black shapes

In the examples above, the figure and ground seems more blurred in some cases. E.g.: 1st row 1st photo – it is a bit difficult for me to tell which is which.

When the black shapes are well separated and recognizable, they remain the foreground even if there is more black than white (e.g.: 1st row 3rd photo). However, when the shapes are similarly undefined in both areas (e.g.: 2nd row 2nd photo) then then line between the two is blurred. Also, I don’t have a picture example of this one, but I thought that if the square was made up 4 equal smaller squares with black and white alternating as on a checkerboard, it would also be hard to tell which is the foreground or background, it would rather resemble a pattern.

2. When there is about equal amount of abstract shapes of black and white and the black shapes are moved to the edges, it is much harder to tell which is the foreground or the background.

When the white parts make up recognizable shapes (or our brain associates the shapes with something), then the white area becomes the foreground.