Shun'ichi Sugano: "The Principle of Directivity" Compact Edition

How do our perception and cognition work when we sense time and motion from still images?

Shunichi Sugawara, a cognitive designer known for works such as "Observation Practice," has published two books, "The Principle of Directedness" and "Designing Gaze." These books focus on the perceptual phenomenon of "completion" in humans, where we actively sense movement even from static information like flipbooks. They explore "the generation of directedness," the phenomenon where viewers imagine movement from a single piece of static information, and present a collection of examples that explore the conditions for this phenomenon and the expressive possibilities that arise from it.

"The Principle of Directedness" re-examines things we encounter daily and unconsciously interpret as movement, such as a "line" where directedness is created by designing a start and end point, "arrows" with strong directedness and the conditions for their generation, "gazes" that create non-existent lines in space, and "sentences" that exhibit directedness as a sequence of meaningful characters. It's an eye-opening book that delves into the wonder of how people can receive complex information from abstracted lines and shapes, and provides examples of how this is utilized in urban settings. Its slightly larger smartphone-like size also makes it a rare and unique book. It is published by UMISHIBAURA, the personal label of editor Chika Goto, who carves out art, design, and film with her unique perspective.