THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA DOI number 10.2478/tco-2020-0009 Particularity and Proliferation of Stroboscopic Elements in the Visual, Performing and Cinematographic Arts Răzvan-Constantin CARATĂNASE Răzvan-Petrișor DRAGOȘ Abstract: In the work "Art and Visual Perception. A Psychology of the Author's Creative Vision” by Rudolf Arnheim, following some researches/studies of Gestalt psychology applied in the field of visual arts and/or cinematography, the author states: "It is unlikely that any stroboscopic "short-circuit" will occur as long as objects appear on the screen at a sufficient distance from each other." An observer-spectator only pays attention to what he/she receives. A speedy stream indicates unity. It is precisely for that reason that the vehement and effective ways are indispensable in order to render indisputably the intermittency-discontinuity. The stroboscopic dynamics overlooks the physical source of the visual tangible material. In that case, the visual identity does not start to be problematic as long as an element-object keeps staying in the same place without any inversion or transposition of its appearance - for example: the video camera that does not change its position but registers the building. For the same reason, we have the actor/actress who crosses the screen keeping his/her con-similarity (just walking down the path) without substantially changing his/her size or shape. The nature of the issues only appears under visual circumstances when they invoke/guide where it does not exist or vice Lecturer PhD, Faculty of Arts, Ovidius University, Constanța PhD student, Assistent Profesor, Faculty of Arts, Ovidius University, Constanța 135 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA versa. Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964): "In order to perform the movement, static painting must resort to symbols and conventions. It did not go beyond fixing a single "moment" in the sequence of moments that make up a movement; all other "moments" before and beyond the fixed movement are left to the imagination and fantasy of the spectator." Key words: visual arts; performing/cinematographic arts; effect; dynamics. Regardless of how it is perceived, the movement is basically stroboscopic. In the argumentation of the dissertation, we will analyse some significant examples recorded by Rudolf Arnheim (1904-2007). Through a simple exercise of imagination, we can illustrate a bird flying through our visual field and thus its physical race is perpetual. What can be noticed from the flight of the bird results from a succession of records/registrations in the register of single/private receivers or even in the register of "receiving fields". However, we will emphasize a significant issue of the nervous system, namely, when the bird comes from the right side the receptors on the left side of the retina will be firstly excited, and the last ones to be excited will be the receptors on the right side. Therefore, the nervous system does nothing but create the impression of continuous displacement, including the coupling of these temporary/transient excitations, concluding that no one is experiencing an immutable transformation. Reputed psychologist Hans-Lukas Teuber (1916-1977) asserts what happens in case of certain brain injuries, exemplifying the case of a motorcycle moving at high speed, the illusion of wheel intersection is created, each of them producing an immovable sensation. "Regardless of whether the integration is performed at the retinal or cortical level, it 136 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA remains the basic fact that the reception of mobility derives from a succession of mobile impressions." In fact, when we refer to the physical phenomenon we can say that it is sporadic-syncopated-variable, we will only have one-degree fluctuation, but not a norm-postulate fluctuation. The most obvious and accurate example is that of the motion picture: the receptacle has more than twenty frames per second and thus the perpetual movement is created. The same principle remains validated also in the light display advertising boards: when the bulbs are turned on and off successively, they release the mobile image of a letter, of a form (geometrically framed) or even of a human figure, although from the objective point of view the movement does not occur. The first experiments in the stroboscopic dynamics register were conducted by Austrian-Hungarian psychologist Max Wertheimer (1880- 1943). He researched the consequences-the perceptual impressions generated by the consecutive lightning of two luminous objects (for example: two luminous lines in the dark similar to the ones made by the road, sea or air traffic lights (the signalling lights). It is worth mentioning that if the two stimuli are close to each other (in space) or if they are lit up immediately or very shortly after each other, the sensation of simultaneity is created. However, if the two objects are considerably distant in time or in space, we will notice two distinct objects appearing one after the other. Anyway, under favourable circumstances, we surely will identify an only element moving from the first onto the second position. Another example is that even the vertical line is perceived as an inclined one “achieving” its horizontal position, the one who observes the movement is actually subject to a real illusion process since from the physical point of view it is just a consecutive segment made up of immovable impulses. Wertheimer abundantly demonstrates that this operation assumes that the two immovable stimuli have created (in our brain) an integrated action of uninterrupted movement. He deduced that in such circumstances "the two stimuli, occurring at a small distance in space and time, lead to a kind of physiological circuit, through which the excitation is transmitted from the first point to the second." In this 137 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA case, the psychological equipollent belonging to this presumptive cerebral approach is precisely the recorded-perceived displacement. Wertheimer's extensive research led William George Horner (1786- 1837) to make a few remarks about an invented toy - meaning a series of phases representing the gradual/progressive stages in the kinetics of a particular object – such as for example a jumping horse - were inserted into a drum and watched successively through the respective slots while the cylinder was rotated. This device was called „Dedaleum”, and in addition other similar devices were created that eventually converted to the cinema. The aggregation of images from such a mechanism is often assigned only to the hope/triggering of the retinal excitation to last for a short time, after being exercised and thus, the fusion occurs in a fluentis fluxus. A „monteur de films” knows that in certain contexts, the sequence of four frames (about 1/6 of a second) can be considered distinct/isolated from the previous one. The nature of Wertheimer's experiments indicates that fusion does not take precedence, but the creation of the fluid/logical form over time. Here the canons of the structural arrangement can be invoked. Why do the stimuli join each other following the two luminous (in the dark) forms within a homogeneous flow of stimulation? For answering that question we will bring to the debate that this phenomenon firstly (in the first phase) occurs only when the coexistence of the two forms are relatively and approximately close to each other and we note that the similarity of location elaborates a visual junction between adjacent objects-complements. In the second phase, we can highlight the fact that the two stimuli are individually located in an empty space/empty field. The stimuli have relatively identical functions within the system/assembly and thus we can state that affinity correlates the elements in the respective space and assume that it has the same meaning in time. Through another exercise of imagination let’s have another example: a falling ball and its positions while falling. If the temporal dimension is removed, we will understand very clearly that the object/element follows the logical-cursive form, which brings together all components of the 138 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA immovable profiles; it can be said that it facilitates the preservation of the identity of the movable element in time. We will briefly review the experiments conducted by psychologist Albert Michotte (1881-1965). The research relating to the "tunnel effect" has shown that the perceptual identity factor can be preserved even when the displacement path is stagnant - when an object in our field of vision vanishes by entering a certain tunnel or even passing behind a wall. Under favourable circumstances of time and space, the receiver sees the same object continuously moving on the homogeneous path, although partially veiled, a heterogeneous experimentation in relation to the simple comprehension or assumption of the event that the object that will come out after surpassing the obstacle will have the same shape it initially had. The shape-dynamics mutual influence was investigated by Wolfgang Metzger (1899-1979), who had set out to find out when the paths of the two (or even more) moving objects intersect each other. "At the meeting point, each object can be seen either by changing its direction and marking itself, or by continuing its course consistently and passing to the other side." Anyway, it has been argued by the sum of experiments that the end is less firm when objects exert their movement in a strictly symmetrical mode. In this context, most observers perceive the elements-objects in an inversion of the path at the point of confluence and at the same time it remains positioned in the respective part of the frame. This aspect insinuates that both in the sphere of dynamics and in that of immobile conformations, the symmetrical element develops a circumscription along its entire length, which otherwise aspires to obstruct the crossings, even in the part where the perenniality of the route would be advantageous to them.