Behrens Video Archive

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  Art, Design, and Gestalt Theory: The Film Version

  Roy R. Behrens

  What is Gestalt Theory? When did it begin, and why? How did it develop? And more to the point, why is it widely considered to be of direct relevance to a diverse array of other areas, such as art, architecture, and design? This 40-minute video talk is a richly illustrated overview of the emergence of Gestalt Psychology in Germany in the decade prior to World War I. It talks about its origins in motion perception, its applications to camouflage, its look-alike connections with Ancient Chinese cosmology, including Taoism, and its pertinence to the visual arts, graphic design, and building design, including the Dessau Bauhaus, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others. This video was written, produced and narrated by author, designer, and design historian Roy R. Behrens, who taught graphic design and design history at American art schools and universities for more than 45 years. In 1998, he published a widely-read essay titled "Art, Design and Gestalt Theory." Now, almost 25 years later, it still enjoys an exceptional online reading and download rate. This video talk revisits the same subject, in an extended, more detailed, and enlivened form.

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  Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage: Rhyme and Reason in Art and Design

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is a richly illustrated video talk about how similarity grouping, proximity grouping, and other perceptual organizing principles (also known as unit-forming factors) are commonly used in visual art, graphic design, and camouflage. It details how these are also used in literature, including poetry and children's rhymes, to arrive at esthetic arrangements. Part 4 of a series of 4.

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  Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is a 30-minute illustrated talk about the interconnections between Modernism in art and literature, World War I, and women's suffrage. It talks about the ways in which those three components were also closely connected to the development of camouflage studies, both zoological and military. Part 2 of a series of 4. Written, produced and narrated by UNI Emeritus Professor Roy R. Behrens (©2021)

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  Bauhaus, Gestalt Theory, and Problem-Solving: Thinking Outside the Box

  Roy R. Behrens

  This video talk is about creative problem-solving in relation to the research of German psychologist Karl Duncker (1903-1940), who is commonly credited with originating the term "functional fixedness." It talks about Duncker's difficult life (subject to depression, he died by suicide at age 37) in the context of his research of problem-solving, his contributions to Gestalt psychology, and various speculations about his indirect influence on teaching strategies at the Dessau Bauhaus, the famous school of art and design. Also discussed are the conceptual connections between his ideas and the practices of Friedrich Froebel (who originated kindergarten), traditional Japanese architecture, and American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Written, produced and narrated by UNI Emeritus Professor Roy R. Behrens (©2022).

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  Book Art: Walter Hamady's Books, Collages and Assemblages

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is a twenty-minute video talk about the life and work of American artist Walter SH Hamady (1940-2019), who was an internationally-known book artist, letterpress printer, papermaker, collagist and assemblagist. He was also well-known as a teacher of book arts and papermaking at the University of Wisconsin at Madison for more than thirty years.

  As founder and proprietor of The Perishable Press Limited and the Shadwell Papermill, over a span of four decades, Hamady published 131 handmade limited edition books, in addition to various pamphlets, broadsides and ephemera. The things he made—whether printed works, collages, or box-like assemblages—were invariably inventive. His work is admired and widely known.

  Among numerous honors, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and three research awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. On thirteen occasions, his handmade books were chosen by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as among the AIGA Fifty Books of the Year, and, in one case, twice in the same year. His work is in collections throughout the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Newberry Library, Grolier Club, National Gallery of Art, and a lengthy list of others.

  This video was designed, produced, and narrated by Hamady's longtime friend and fellow artist, graphic designer Roy R. Behrens, UNI Emeritus Art Professor, with whom he corresponded frequently for more than a decade.

  As Behrens recalls, “Having earlier taught in Milwaukee for ten years, I had become aware of Hamady’s work in the 1970s. Because of his liking for Ballast Quarterly Review (a small magazine I founded in 1985), he and I began to exchange spirited letters (along with a mix of enclosures), once or twice or more a month. This led to collaborations of one kind or another, eventually resulting in exhibitions, published essays, and an archive of his artist’s books. I saved everything, even all the envelopes and mailing containers, in part because they were always addressed to mutilations of my name, such as Corps du Roy, Rhoidamoto, Trompe L’Roi at Labbast, Royatolla, and so on. This continued for more than a decade, perhaps to the mailman’s amusement.”

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  Cook: The Man Who Taught Gertrude Stein to Drive

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is a sixty-minute voice-over film biography of the life of William Edwards Cook (1881-1959), an American expatriate artist, who grew up in Iowa, but spent his adult life in Europe, living in Paris, Rome, and Majorca. More specifically, it is a detailed account of the nearly life-long friendship of Cook with the American writer Gertrude Stein. It is based on her frequent adulation of him in her writings, as well as on the contents of 250 pages of their unpublished correspondence. Cook was never a well-known artist, but he did acquire some renown for two other reasons: In 1907, he was the first American artist to be allowed to paint a portrait of Pope Pius X. Later, in 1926, he used his inheritance to commission the then-unknown Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier to design an early Modernist home (the "first true cubist house") in Boulogne-sur-Seine, which is still intact, and widely known as Maison Cook or Villa Cook.

  The friendship of Gertrude Stein and William Edwards Cook (including the roles of their partners, Alice B. Toklas and Jeanne Moallic Cook) was first documented in COOK BOOK: Gertrude Stein, William Cook and Le Corbusier (Bobolink Books, 2005). This video talk corrects, updates, and adds to the information in that book.

  This film project (as well as the earlier book) was made possible by the earlier work of such Stein scholars as Ulla Dydo, Bruce Kellner, and Rosalind Moad, as well as the Stein / Cook correspondence in the collection of the Beinecke Library at Yale University.

  In 2005, when the book was released, Ulla Dydo (the pre-eminent expert on Stein, and author of The Language that Rises) praised it in the following way: "This book jumps out at my eyes, my ears. It comes from everywhere, never drags those even blocks of print that dull the mind. Look at it, read it, let it tease you: It's researched with all the care that keeps its sense of humor and its visual and voice delights. Travel with it, leave home, go and explore the many ways for a book to be a house for living."

  The distinguished critic Guy Davenport wrote: "This is as good as topnotch Behrens gets!"

  This film is not without humor, and at times it shares surprises. It may prove of particular value to viewers who are interested in American literature, Modernism, art, expatriates, Paris, Majorca, the American Midwest, Iowa, art history, the training of artists, Cubism, Picasso, Le Corbusier, LGBT, and gender identity issues. Written, produced and narrated by UNI Emeritus Professor Roy R. Behrens (©2022).

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  Dazzle Camouflage Interview: What Is It and How Did It Work?

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is a series of excerpts from a fast-paced interview with American writer, designer, and camouflage historian Roy R. Behrens. Filmed in London in 2017 in connection with the centenary of World War I, it addresses a series of questions about WWI camouflage, and particularly "high difference" ship camouflage, commonly known as “dazzle." For more information on Behrens’ research, see http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BALLAST/

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  Dreams of Fields: Salvador Dali’s Encounter with Corn

  Roy R. Behrens

  Surrealism (founded by the French poet André Breton) came out of a merger of Dada with psychoanalysis. This video tells the story of an actual meeting between Sigmund Freud and the Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dali. It also provides an amusing account of a little-known visiting lecture by Dali in 1952 to the University of Northern Iowa, known then as Iowa State Teachers College, in Cedar Falls. It is based on contemporaneous news accounts and first-hand eyewitness reports. Written, produced and narrated by Roy R. Behrens (©2022).

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  How to Win Kings and Influence Cabbages: The Process by Which Creativity Works

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is a richly illustrated thirty-minute video talk about the nature of creativity in humor, science and the arts. Written, produced and narrated by Roy R. Behrens, UNI Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Scholar, it places particular emphasis on the concept of bisociation, as originally described in The Act of Creation, by Hungarian-born British writer Arthur Koestler (1965). It is especially well-suited for classroom presentations, assigned online viewing, and in settings that encourage interdisciplinary STEM- or STEAM-based learning.

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  Nature, Art, and Camouflage: Duplicitous Uses of Color

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is an illustrated overview of four kinds of camouflage (blending, countershading, mimicry, and disruption), with examples of their common occurrence in nature, as well as their adoption as wartime deception strategies. A central aspect of the film is the involvement of artists, designers, and architects, in studies of both military and natural camouflage. Part 1 of a series of 4. Written, produced and narrated by UNI Emeritus Professor Roy R. Behrens (©2022).

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  On Saying Something and Saying It Well: A Talk by Poet Joseph Langland

  Roy R. Behrens

  In 1976, I was asked to design a paperbound edition of Joseph Langland’s The Sacrifice Poems for the North American Review at the University of Northern Iowa. I was a young designer / teacher, and, after all these years, I remain very pleased with the cover, but I am no longer happy with the page layout.

  Soon after I designed that book, I moved to a teaching position at another university, and moved elsewhere ten years after that. But I rejoined the UNI faculty in 1990, where I taught graphic design and illustration, including book design. More than a decade later, Joseph Langland retired from teaching and he too moved back to Iowa. In 2004, near the end of his life, Langland talked to a class of my design students at the University of Northern Iowa about the role of rhythmic sound and the music of the voice in the recitation of meaningful verse.

  I think it would be fair to say that my students were astonished by Langland’s presentation that day. They were surprised, even taken aback, because whenever Langland read his poems, it was more that he “performed” them—and in fact he often ”sang” the lines. The session was filmed, and haas recently been edited.

  Joseph Langland also talked about his past, not knowing that his life would end a few years later. He recalled how he was drawn to literature at a very young age, and thereafter used poetry as a way to understand his life, such as growing up on a family farm, his rich Norwegian heritage, the death of his younger brother, and his lingering memories as an officer in the US Army infantry in Europe during World War II.

  His talk took place on Veterans Day, on November 11, 2004.

  —Roy R. Behrens (2022)

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  Part 1 / Ames and Anamorphosis: The Man Who Made Distorted Rooms

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is the first part of a three-part series of video talks that overview the life of American artist, scientist, and psychologist Adelbert Ames II (1880-1955).

  Ames was primarily known for having devised about twenty-five laboratory set-ups, collectively referred to as the Ames Demonstrations in Perception.

  This first part focuses on his life, the demonstrations, and the circumstances that prompted him to construct them. Perhaps the most familiar of these are the Ames Distorted Room, the Rotating Trapezoid Window, and the Chair Demonstration.

  Featured prominently in this segment is his connection with British-American social scientist Gregory Bateson, whom he met in 1947. It also surveys his connections among members of his prominent New England family, among them US Civil War Generals Benjamin Butler and Adelbert Ames I, suffragist Blanche Ames Ames, botanist Oakes Ames, inventor and politican Butler Ames, and writer George Plimpton.

  This series is a consequence of long-term research by Roy R. Behrens, UNI emeritus professor, who replicated and exhibited some of the Ames Demonstrations at UNI in the early 1970s, and began to research Ames’ life. In 1994, he was invited to lecture on the subject at Dartmouth College, where Ames’ work had been conducted. Written, produced and narrated by Roy R. Behrens (©2022).

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  Part 2 / Ames and Anamorphosis: The Man Who Made Distorted Rooms

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is the second part of a three-part series of video talks that overview the life of American artist, scientist, and psychologist Adelbert Ames II (1880-1955).

  Ames was primarily known for having devised about twenty-five laboratory set-ups, collectively referred to as the Ames Demonstrations in Perception.

  This part focuses on Ames’ use of anamorphic perspective (called anamorphosis) or "forced perspective" in his demonstrations, most evidently in the Ames Distorted Room, the Architect’s Room, the Chair Demonstration, and the Rotating Trapezoid Window. It is shown that there was frequent use of the same techniques in historic artworks and in the research of optics and perspective, far in advance of the Ames Demonstrations.

  This series is a consequence of long-term research by Roy R. Behrens, UNI emeritus professor, who replicated and exhibited some of the Ames Demonstrations at UNI in the early 1970s, and began to research Ames’ life. In 1994, he was invited to lecture on the subject at Dartmouth College, where Ames’ work had been conducted. Written, produced and narrated by Roy R. Behrens (©2022).

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  Part 3 / Ames and Anamorphosis: The Man Who Made Distorted Rooms

  Roy R. Behrens

  This is the concluding part of a three-part series of video talks that overview the life of American artist, scientist, and psychologist Adelbert Ames II (1880-1955).

  Ames was primarily known for having devised about twenty-five laboratory set-ups, collectively referred to as the Ames Demonstrations in Perception.

  This part is a discussion of Ames’ influence on others, among them psychologists, filmmakers, and artists, especially in his targeted use of use of anamorphosis (or "forced perspective”) in his well-known demonstrations. For example, it is shown that there were connections between Ames’ research, Vorticism, and avant-garde filmmaking (Ballet Mecanique), as well as with popular culture, such as cinematic special effects and roadside tourist attractions.

  This segment ends by looking at the recent works of three contemporary visual artists, who, in one way or another, make astonishing use of perspective. They are Jan Beutener (Amsterdam), Richard Koenig (Kalamazoo, Michigan), and Patrick Hughes (London).

  This series is a consequence of long-term research by Roy R. Behrens, UNI emeritus professor, who replicated and exhibited some of the Ames Demonstrations at UNI in the early 1970s, and began to research Ames’ life. In 1994, he was invited to lecture on the subject at Dartmouth College, where Ames’ work had been conducted. Written, produced and narrated by Roy R. Behrens (©2022).

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  Solving Problems in Design

  Roy R. Behrens

  In May 2022, a nationwide invitational exhibition titled Evolving Graphic Design was curated by graphic design professor Yeohyun Ahn at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The exhibition ended in late June with a hybrid symposium (both online and in-person), featuring short presentations by various participants. UNI emeritus professor Roy R. Behrens exhibited a series of insect-themed montages (co-created with David Versluis in 2012-2013), and a selection of components from his extensive archive of camouflage artifacts. This video, which premiered at the symposium, is his retrospective look on using classroom problems while teaching courses in graphic design for more than 45 years. Written, produced and narrated by UNI Emeritus Professor Roy R. Behrens (©2022).

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  To Find Is Not to Seek: Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage

  Roy R. Behrens

  In the first half of the 20th century, Gestalt psychologists researched the inherent tendencies of human vision, including such components as unit-forming factors, closure, and hidden or embedded figures (also sometimes known as camouflaged figures). This is a video talk about some of those organizing tendencies, with particular emphasis on their use in the design of WWI-era ship camouflage. Part 3 of 4. Written, produced and narrated by UNI Emeritus Professor Roy R. Behrens (©2022).