To my question 'What is Form?' posted back in November 2011 - the very first question, which started this whole process of inquiry going - an insight, taken from 'What is Art? Conversation with Joseph Beuys' (what a discovery! It was like a coming-home):
"... Another exercise addressed the experience of form: from the forest we fetched arm-length sticks, perhaps forty of them, sat down - as the room itself necessitated - in an oval, and started to lay these sticks down, one after another, in the enclosed floor area created by our group. Each time another stick was added we tried to observe carefully whether anything changed in our feelings and experience, and what direction this change took. From time to time each person sat in a different place. This made it possible to see that the way in which this person perceived the detailed relationships between things was by no measn independent of his or her physical position. Rather, it was always connected with the way in which the emergent form related to each person, who, in turn, became a kind of axis of symmetry in relation to the plane in front of him/her. There arose a right-left relationship, a distant-close, or above-below relationship. The more precisely we observed, the more clearly we felt the strong and differentiated way in whch the developing composition affected us. Once almost all the sticks had ben used, and the composition came to its conclusion, we tried to see which of the sticks had most influence on the form or composition, and which could perhaps be dispensed with. We therefore continuted the exercise by continually trying out different things: taking one or other stick away whilst carefully noting whether the quality of the composition was reduced or even enhanced. This was a stimulating exercise, for much that had been positioned in the finished form perhaps somewhat unthinkingly and arbitrarily, and had only apparent importance, triggered a general sense of relief as it was withdrawn again. ...
... When is what we have created satisfactory, and for what reason?"
