perception

«The view of various lines I am drawing on this blackboard calls forth just as many different feelings: the view of a broken or a continuous line produces certain effect on the nervous system itself. We get agreeable or disagreeable impressions from the lines perceived with our eyes. If we begin investigating the effect of these impressions on our ability to feel, with will come to being selective: one line tires us, the other line pleases; this system of non-interconnected lines excites us, and that rhythmic system calms us down; very soon you will see that selection goes spontaneously, and certain preferences get established, in them one would inevitably come to a conclusion that artists permanently select those lines and shapes which satisfy our senses. In this sphere of lines and shapes satisfying our senses, we again get proof of the omnipotence of harmony. What are the moments of aesthetic effect in architecture? The ones perceived with our eyes. What does our eye perceive? Surfaces, shapes, lines. So, the point is that from all parts of an architectural piece it is necessary to create a unity arising aesthetic excitation, a unity of shapes making it, spiritualizing it, attributing to it the relations and proportions between their parts which give our senses the impression of orderliness.» (Le Corbusier, 1924)