Exploring Innovative Thinking of Bergson’s Philosophy and Modern Art via Computer-Aided Design—A Case Study with Three Works as Examples ^†

Abstract

The innovative thinking of artists highlights the influence of Bergson’s philosophy on modern art, and the perception of the relationship of the inner essence of “mind and matter” through observing and experiencing daily life helps artists design works according to the artists’ conception. The innovative thinking of learners is based on the creation of art, namely duration, movement, timeliness, and dynamics. We integrated the emotions of creators as the links of the creation of works with the “aesthetic duration” of the viewer, the “movement” rhythm of visual transformation of different “timeliness” provided by the workspace to evoke the “dynamics” of the viewers’ internal thoughts. In this article, the creative thinking of three works, namely Growth, Fisherman, and Virtuality and Reality, was analyzed for learners to discuss how the creators designed their works to connect and reflect their creative thinking and creation with the help of emotion. The results of this analysis of creative thinking helped students understand the process of artistic creation and have the creative characteristics of Bergerson’s philosophy. The emotional elements of the creator need to be integrated to evoke the deepest feelings and help viewers feel the beauty of works to the maximum.

1. Introduction

A few years ago, the book titled “Bergson Style of Modern Painting—Creation and Realization” by You Zhaoliang, an associate professor at the Taipei University of Nursing and Health, was published, and it reflected Bergson’s thoughts [1]. There are similar thoughts about past and present artistic creations. We analyzed Bergson’s thoughts by connecting the innovative thinking of artistic creation with works of academic thought. The trend of thought of Henri Bergson (1896–1941), which was popular in France in the early 20th century, focused on the process of consciousness duration in the way of “intuition” and the analysis of the relationship between “mind and matter”. Bergson’s philosophy has a social status and cultural significance that cannot be ignored for modern art and exerts great impacts on modern art schools. He regarded the world as a process of constant change and creation. The world is full of vigor and vitality. The essence of life is “change”. Through thinking in life, we can understand the meaning and new values of human life. When drawing, artists are stimulated by external objects, have a feeling, and then display their innovative thinking by drawing.

People usually observe things in an “intuitive” way, without any intention, then look at things “rationally” and take an objective view through many external factors to explore the truth through creative practice. In the history of Western art, from Impressionism to Fauvism, Henri Matisse (1869–1954), and from Cubism to Futurism, there are different ways of painting and thinking. This research was conducted to reveal the internal essence of life things, observe the paintings from different angles, and reflect on the inner feelings. We discussed the creative thinking of artistic creation with the relation between “mind and matter” in Bergson’s philosophy in this article.

2. Literature Review

Rudolf Arnheim (1904–2007), an art and visual psychologist, mentioned that an artistic image is not only the product of perception but also the product of evocation, where the self-reproduction of the form is sought from a stimulus and food. We use the original material of the stimulus projected on the retina to organize and the established media to create an appropriate form to reproduce that perception [2]. The artist’s innovative thinking has a feeling about the depicted objects. They take a step back when observing to make the vision broader, obtain a suitable vision, display the essence of the images, and reach the natural connotation. This is the artist’s respect for the visual and aesthetic thinking.

Zhu Guangqian, a contemporary esthetician, said that “beauty is something in the objective aspect whose nature and form are suitable for the subjective ideology and can be blended together to become a complete image.”; that is to say, only when people’s subjective feelings, consciousness, and objects are combined to possess the unity of subjectivity and objectivity in the “state of consciousness”; that is, emotions and thoughts can be produced within it [3]. The beauty of art is the reaction triggered via a certain emotion, which depends on visual observation.

Li Zehou, a Chinese philosopher, mentioned that art must be created as a structural gestalt through materials to arouse similar reactions in the body and mind of the viewer, not just to only make the audience understand its meaning through the theme and content. The viewer only looks at the subject, but the expert directly understands the meaning of the work from the body structure, resonating the same feeling in the body and mind [3]. The mirror refraction effect is added to the work to explore the mutual refraction between people and things in the mirror. Through observing, the viewer’s heart is captured and their feelings are affected.

The three Chinese and Western estheticians mentioned above put forward the same argument as Bergson’s. If one wants to express the beauty of things, he/she needs to start from a subjective and objective perspective with feelings. Things change over time, which is not seen with eyes, but they are indeed changing. The creative thinking of the three works was used to verify the profound influence of Bergson’s philosophy on artistic creation in this study.

3. Connection between Bergson’s Philosophy and Modern Artistic Thinking

At the beginning of the Bergson trend, it exerted little influence on the art. Western art was guided by Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) in his later years. Later, with the continuation of various art schools, a Bergson style of “time revolution” with great changes and creativity enriched the entire modern art performance.

3.1. Duration of Fauvism

Matisse put forward the idea of “duration” based on Bergson’s philosophy. Matisse was once a traditional painter and had studied the style of the impressionists. Later, he launched a revolution with a number impressionist artists. He abandoned the overly detailed realism and instead painted the impression of the object he grasped. Matisse said that no matter what color is used for harmony or contrast, it moves people. When he worked, he always paid attention to the first fresh and superficial feeling. In the past, he was satisfied when he achieved his goal. He secretly wondered whether he observed more deeply. Even if he was satisfied with his paintings, the picture gave him vague aspects. He recorded those fleeting feelings. Not only could he not show his current feelings, but the next day he no longer recognized what they were. The feeling no longer exists because the thoughts have changed over time. As a result, there is a need to rely on the precipitation of thoughts to sort it out.

Matthews also mentioned in his painting theory that he felt the cohesion to interpret his paintings. The “feeling condensation” is a dense feeling as time goes by. In addition to not making it fleeting, there is also a need to grasp this feeling and keep it in mind, just as the condensation of various instant impressions following precipitation. Matisse especially emphasized that “feeling is different”, and distinguished “superficial” and “fleeting” feelings. In contrast, he put forward the relative vocabulary of “feeling cohesion” to judge. The “inner thinking” is guided by the “visual sense”, and the deep feelings of the soul are revealed in the picture through creation.

3.2. Movement and Timeliness of Cubism

The works of “multiple viewpoints” of Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881–1973) and Georges Braque (1882–1960), the great masters of Cubism, represent an artist’s cognitive attitude and record the changing process of objects in time and space, which showed the spiritual connotation of Bergson’s philosophy. Bergson said “I saw a static object, observed it in the same direction and angle, and at the same time. The “vision” I got is not what I just saw. The “vision” has changed. The external things change over time, let alone people have emotional thinking. I will not say much about what will change in it.”. In the early development of Cubism, cubists tried to contact Bergson, who had a high status at that time. Although it was not accepted by Bergson, cubists were enthusiastic about Bergson’s philosophy.

Cubists explored the moving process of object observation. They also introduced the factors of “movement” and “time” into “space”. Bergson said, “When I see a moving object moving to a certain point, there is no doubt that I imagine it can stop. Even if it does not stop, I still tend to think that its process is like a temporary and infinite rest, because it takes at least a little time to think. It is my imagination that is resting, while the moving object is always moving”.

Cubism established a new milestone for modern painting. As time goes on, artists must have a unique spiritual sentiment and reconstruct the “reproduction” of objects in their works, which is the innovative thinking that has been discussed in this paper.

3.3. Dynamics and Continuity of Futurism

In the Declaration of Futurism, Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) advocated “showing universal dynamism, because everything is changing”. Boccini deeply explored the “characteristics of perception” and combined the concept of “movement” and the “simultaneous juxtaposition” image of viewing objects. Human consciousness and the image are continuously changing, so there are no clear boundaries.

To some extent, the cubist thinking of “movement and timeliness” created futurism. Both of them expressed time and space in the same picture. Futurism projected real feelings into the picture, which made the images form a dynamic tension. Under the dynamic tension, the outline of the object becomes vaguer, which also induces the familiar dynamic sense. Futurism attempted to express the “continuous reality” of the object in creative thinking, as reality itself is dynamic and continuous.

At that time, there was a fashion in Europe for people to express their actions through snapshots and segmented images. Boccioni believed that this technique was just a vulgar and incompetent act. He believed that a symbol must be pursued and represented in a single form. Therefore, he especially pursued Bergson’s “continuity”, which replaced this concept of “segmentation” with “continuity”. Anheim said “A person’s observation of certain things at a specific moment was easily affected by what he has seen, thought about, or learned before. Experience may be beneficial or harmful to his current observation”. Only after visual perception is internalized can works of art be truly successful.

4. Bergson’s Philosophy and The Practice of Innovative Thinking in Three Works

In this study, Bergson’s philosophical theory and the literature were analyzed through the above Chinese and Western estheticians’ thoughts; the “mind and matter” were explored with the thinking method. Experience and data collection were implemented to assess the innovative thinking and material application.

In 2008, a series of works of “mirror image” were published. “Image” and “mirror refraction” were used to interweave images to present the inner image with rational expression. For the experience, Bergson said “Experience tells us that the life of the soul must be the combination and correlation of conscious life and physical life, and experience is like this.”. In the creation of the “series of mirror images”, we raised the question of “what is true” in an anti-traditional and anti-logical way of thinking. For example (Figure 1), the work of Growth has been presented from three viewing angles. It illustrates the growth and transformation of life and the unpredictable world through images. It is constantly changing, but its future is hard to predict.

4.1. Growth

The front view of Growth (Figure 1) is a strip photo of a daughter when she was two years old. These photos comprise thousands of growth records from her birth until she was two years old. The growth of children is the ardent expectation of every family, and the care and love of parents are hidden in the stripes. However, the environment is changing.

On the right side of Growth (Figure 2), a black-and-white ultrasound picture of a fetus is shown. Thanks to modern technology, we can uncover a picture that cannot be seen via the naked eye. As the world changes, we cannot see it with our eyes, but it is transforming. On the left side of Growth (Figure 3), a normal image is presented. The strip disappears, making the picture appear clearer. When observing closely, the emotional cohesion of the creator and the visual impact of the viewer are uncovered.

4.2. Fisherman

Wu Kang divides memory into two forms in Bergson’s philosophy, namely habitual memory (learning memory) and image recall memory (natural recall) [4]. The first memory is termed “habit”. It has a fixed time pattern and a mechanical structure, depending on natural habits. Fisherman, which is the text, belongs to “habitual memory”. “Memory of recall” was drawn from the text of “Fisherman”. In countless memories, each memory denotes a moment of truth in life, occupying the time extension, as it is the result of numerous thoughts from childhood to the present.

Observed from the front, the Fisherman (Figure 4) is the interlaced picture composed of the text of the Fisherman and the black and white orchid shape similar to a billowing flower bud extending outward. The color image has been interwoven with the black-and-white image, showing the communication between the present and the past. The text “Fisherman” plays the key role of “traction” on time in the work, which illustrates a kind of concern for the father who has been fishing outside for many years.

On the left side of Fisherman (Figure 5), it is a work of a seemingly ordinary orchid, which denotes the surging waves with the shape of the flower bud, constantly extending outwards. There is no so-called pure art as the art that contains the emotional content of people, and the construction and reconfirmation of human psychological feelings. On the right side of Fisherman (Figure 6), the orchids in the picture are removed from the color, showing that childhood memories have become fragments that are no longer clear. These works retrieve memories. Although the characters in the picture are childhood memories, many images in the past extend their activities and flow into the current reality perception through the structure of the human nervous system.

4.3. Virtuality and Reality

The factor of time is included in the painting of traditional space art to express the representation of objects via continuous planes. The binary contrast of “past and present”, “static and moving”, and “space and time” are incorporated into the picture, making the means of expression of art more diversified and richer.

The mirror stainless steel in the picture allows for the viewer’s image and picture to be mutually interwoven into what Futurism calls “intuitive common feelings”. “Virtuality and Reality” allows for different views of appreciation. Through the interaction between the work and the viewer, only when the viewer walks as they observe the work, “intuitive empathy” with the creator can be felt.

Observed from the front, “Virtuality and Reality” (Figure 7) depicts the interlaced and disordered picture between the virtual and the real. The viewer observes the picture from a multi-perspective perspective from left to right. Depending on people’s keen observation, the emotion is conveyed through art. It is a kind of interaction between the means of artistic creation and attracting the viewer. On the left side of “Virtuality and Reality” (Figure 8 and Figure 9), the scenery at first sight is an important source of creation. The deeper meaning can be retrieved to improve the perception of things that cannot be seen via the naked eye in your feelings and thoughts. Only by constructing and confirming human psychological feelings can you highlight the more profound spirit.

5. Conclusions

The beginning of the 20th century was a major turning point in art. Whether it was Fauvism, Cubism, or Futurism, they were all inherited from Cezanne and started by criticizing Impressionism. They shared a common element, which was the study of the difference in “time”. Artistic creation was defined as the “continuity” in Bergson’s philosophy, constantly seeking innovation and change in the creation. The mission of innovative thinking is the common spiritual connotation of philosophy and art. The philosophical worldview under the Chinese cultural tradition is a “continuity of existence”, which is different from the “fragmentation of existence”. The concept of continuity of existence refers to the unity of the three aspects of “heaven and man, object and self, and person and self” [5]. The ancients said that “when you read a hundred times, you can see the meaning of the book”. Only by diversified innovative thinking can the source of creation keep emerging.