Chapter14.Parte Interna: Building Visual Tension

Chapter 14. Parte Interna: Building Visual Tension

Parte Interna

© 2005 Daniel Giordan

The simplistic duality of the Punto design (refer to Chapter 9, "Punto") has been blown apart in Parte Interna. The place to sit and get your bearings has been veiled and obscured, and we're forced to visually make our way through the layers and objects in an effort to find our own equilibrium.

Not only has the visual space gotten more complex, the design also features similar textured and tonal areas that resonate with each other. The white of the sun cast through the windows echoes the white of the grassy area on the lower right. The gray of the drips echoes the gray of the texture on the left side. And the black asserts itself strongly, from the tree trunk silhouettes to the ambiguous center, to the dark shadows on the right, behind the bench. These tones are woven together and play off each other quite well. There are textural references as well: The texture of the wall behind the bench echoes the texture of the drips as well as the cloudy tree texture in the upper right.

As your eye makes its way through the composition, it's constantly pulled from one area to the next. It goes left to right, but it also goes front to back, creating a visual tension that never quite resolves itself. The title Parte Interna means "inner part," and it refers to the way the image pulls viewers into itself and engages them in the act of looking, seeing, and exploring.