Gestalt Principles & Fallout

We've got some new plans for a couple of YouTube series!  These plans will show up on the website soon, but the first & foremost film is going to be another background story (see Fallout: Nuka Break, Fallout: Population 1, & Fallout: Deprivation for examples) based off of the FPS RPG series Fallout.  Being based in the desert, our version will more closely follow the most recent game Fallout: New Vegas.  In anticipation of this project, this post will analyze the classic Fallout photo below (mainly because it's required for a class at Dixie State College) with the Gestalt Principles.

The Washington DC coast Wanderer/Vault Dweller & Dogmeat from Fallout 3
(all rights reserved to Bethesda Softworks)

For those that don't know, the Gestalt Principles contain the categories similarity, proximity, pragnanz, continuity, and closure.  Here's quick definitions I thought up:

• Similarity = Making objects in the image pair together (when the mind matches things together)
• Proximity = Making objects in the image group together (the mind doesn't seem to like empty space)
• Pragnanz = Making objects in the image into it's simplest form (what the mind relates image to)
• Continuity = Making objects in the image flow together (the mind dislikes sudden interruptions)
• Closure = Making objects in the image complete, when parts aren't featured/apparent (when the mind pieces "the puzzle" together)

In this particular picture, the first that caught my eye was closure.  I thought that though we can't quite tell what is in the distance, and can't see far behind the figures, one can guess what's there.  I thought of more road (maybe curved, maybe straight), more dying/dead plants, a few more ruined homes/telephone lines/etc.

I like how it flows with continuity (in my mind), it's all heading one way, pretty much straight ahead.  One will easily determine that the man & his dog are heading for the classic sunset scene told of in old cowboy movies.

The only thing I can think of for the pragnanz category is how the picture could remind you of a screen capture (if you've seen it) from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.  Looking back, that is probably where the Fallout series got it's inspiration.

Now for proximity, there's the houses grouped on either side and the telephone poles are all on one side.

Similarity is easy for this picture.  You have about half the picture a mirror-like image of the other half. There's broken-down houses on either side, there's a branched tree on either side in the distance, and though the telephone poles are different from stripped trees, they are placed similarly.

One simple, interesting notice: These categories were first listed in reversal alphabetic.