Philosophies of Parquetry – Part Two – The Power of Misalignment
Misalignment – the incorrect arrangement or position of something in relation to something else ~ Oxford Dictionary
Many aspects of our lives require alignment – schedules, vertebrae, even the tires on your car. As a species, we tend to like things in order, even those of us who are not the best at creating it. Doctors focus on health and function, engineers focus on structure and symptoms, physicists focus on matter and energy – alignment in some form running through it all.
It’s been theorized many times that without darkness there would be no light, without pain there would be no pleasure, and without sound there is no silence.
It may also be true that without misalignment, alignment would not matter, depending on your perspective. Understanding the spatial differences between the two may have more value than simply understanding the two positions are not the same.
Level Two – Square Central and Parallel – Blocks Non-Contiguous
At first glance, this activity is the same as when the blocks are arranged in a contiguous fashion, with the one obvious exception. The challenge in assuming the benefits of the activity ends there can be a bit dangerous, because in reality, the this is a perfect opportunity to build an awareness of both positive and negative space.
As we discussed in how to set things up in Level One, a plexiglass sheet can be used. The Vision Therapist can create an initial pattern using the chosen blocks on their piece of plexiglass, ensuring a square is used as the “anchor”, and is parallel to the edges of the table. The other shapes chosen should be placed in such a way that the edges touch the square along the entire side of both blocks. The placement is called ‘contiguous’. See the picture above for a visual.
To be clear, positive space is often the subject of a work of art such as a person, landscape, or object, such as the blocks. Negative space is a term used in art to describe the space surrounding a subject.
As we ask our patients replicate our pattern, they are responsible for understand the location, orientation, and contact points of each block, they must now also account for the qualities and quantities of each block that are not. In other words, if half of the hypotenuse of our triangle is not in contact with another block, and their replication only indicates a third to be free standing, we want to work with them to understand the difference. Although in this level of the exercise the negative space is open-ended (unlike future levels where negative space is more contained), having an awareness of how and the negative space exists, as well as how much there is in each area surrounding the blocks.
Remember to employ a Socratic Method as you work through this with your patients. Questions might include:
What do you think of your effort?
How did you know where to place your shapes?
What can you tell me about the space around your pattern?
If we were to try again, would your approach change? How?
Stay tuned for Level Three…
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I always find vision therapy discussions thought provoking. Reading this article brings up several lines of thinking that have been significant for me. First is the concept of coherence and beyond that, leading to the concept of syntropy which I consider to be the much under-appreciated process in opposition to entropy. These notions now dominate my thinking about they dynamics of health and disease in my Clinical Theory of Everything which we apply to the prevention and rehabilitation of otherwise irreversible blinding eye diseases as well as other degenerative and aging-related challenges. Second, the concept of negative space brings up thoughts about the significance of Context, such as peripheral awareness in Vision Therapy which can make such a difference between the transformative integration of new visual, inter-sensory, and cognitive skills versus stress related adaptations in the training of splinter skills with simultaneous loss of the overall flexibility of adaptability. In the contemplation of the significance of Context in the modeling of my clinical observations over the years, I have found fascinating examples of both field dependency as well as field independent observations. In my Clinical Theory, I now include a five-fold conceptual model as a framework for modeling generally. The levels are: Context, Container, Contents, Connections, and Communication. One of the most profound influences on the development of this mode of analysis was my study of Systems Dynamics with Professor Meadows at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering where I learned computer modeling of complex dynamic feedback systems. In healing and fostering the development of the human visual system, we are interfacing with the dominant self-regulating control system of consciousness, of human behavior, and of what I call the Photo-Energetic Regulatory System of physiology. I can imagine no higher or more profound calling in the realms of health care. Vision Therapy was responsible for transforming me from a C student in 2nd grade to a straight A student thereafter. Keep up the good work on your mission to bring more light into the world!