Use Negative Space to Outline Problems

All of us are very fortunate in having a brain that has remarkable powers to solve problems. The process of thinking is essentially a process of asking questions and generating answers. Our brains will tirelessly seek out answers to questions until we find the answer or choose to stop asking the question. A major difficulty for us though is that we often ask questions to which no answer exists or else we ask questions that don’t solve our problems well because we have not described the problem with sufficient accuracy to come up with sufficiently precise answers/solutions.

On a conscious level, we form a mental model of the world that is mostly based upon verbal description. Unfortunately, our verbal descriptions often prove insufficiently inaccurate to describe our reality precisely. These descriptions often include assumptions and generalisations that prevent a highly accurate description of a situation. As a result, we create inaccurate solutions to our inaccurately described problems. Finding a resolution to this can prove very difficult because we use that same, inexact process of verbal description for further correcting ourselves. We adjust and adjust but it never feels quite right because our solutions do not provide the relief that we seek. Sometimes we need a different process, and a different point of reference, to define our problems with much greater accuracy.

The Use of Negative Space to Draw Accurately

When drawing a still-life composition the hand and the eye often end up creating what we think it should look like, based upon our existing knowledge and assumptions, rather than what we see in reality. After outlining something we can often see that it doesn’t look right but correction proves difficult because we use the same method of observation and working that created the initial problem. Our desire to make it look as we think it should look, rather than how it actually looks interfere with the correction process.

To solve the problem within the realm of drawing it often proves very beneficial to observe the negative space. This refers to the shape of the spaces created in between the objects drawn. Normally we don’t pay attention to these spaces. They end up as the result of the process but when the process itself does not provide the result that we want then we can use the consequences of the process to refine the result.

If you sit down and draw a still life sketch of different items you automatically create negative space between them. This happens as you reinterpret 3D forms onto a 2D surface. Now imagine for a moment that what you observe does not have a 3D form but only a 2D form. Now look at the shapes between the objects. These will seem like strange and abstract forms as we normally take no notice of them. Because of their strange nature we can often draw them more accurately than the forms that we think know so well. Because of their unusual and alien nature we take much greater care to describe those forms. Our prior familiarity with the objects in the composition makes us initially draw what we think it should look like rather than drawing a totally dispassionate observation of line and relationship. Using the negative space helps us to correct our false interpretation. The negative space and its unusual shape show the reality and we can correct our initial sketch to give a much greater level of accuracy when compared against reality.

Reading Across to Reality

We can do the same thing with our own interpretation of real world events and especially of our own performance. We can consider reality, with all of its infinite qualities as the 3D form that we want to render onto paper and our verbal description of that reality becomes our 2D interpretation. It represents an aspect of reality from a certain point of view and set of conditions and renders it into a form that we can deal with.

Thus, when we struggle to get answers to our problems we can attempt to define the problem further by considering the things that we do not describe. At the extreme, such a task could require us to continually consider all things known to us and then to eliminate the bits that do not involve the problem and this would prove wholly unfeasible. Instead we can immediately go in closer with the detail.

Much like with the sketch which interprets a real 3D situation into an abstract 2D representation, we have already described in words our abstract interpretation of a real life situation. We have probably already attempted to adjust our thinking and actions to get better results but we still feel unsatisfied with those results. At this point we feel frustrated because we cannot get the results that we want. This happens because we have still not accurately described the reality sufficiently enough to come up with an accurate understanding that leads to an effective answer.

A Personal Example

If we repeat questioning process and get no better result then at this point we need to get a different frame of reference to see if it reveals to us things about the problem that we couldn’t perceive before. In this case we can use the concept of negative space. By virtue of describing what does not exist, we can more accurately define the boundaries of what does exist. This all sounds very esoteric and the kind of thing that you would expect to read in the I-Ching so let me give an example to illustrate.

When I decided to create a blog I knew that my previous habits of procrastination and indulgence in all manner of distractions would derail my efforts and bring on eventual failure just like almost every other proactive venture I had ever started upon. I knew that I had to deal with this problem once and for all. I started off by setting out to do things as before but when I found myself rebelling and seeking to turn away and indulge in distractions I took careful note of my thoughts, feelings and behaviours (and then I got with indulging in distractions!). Initially I assumed that my procrastination was due to character weakness and that all I needed was motivation, self-discipline and will power. This was the standard, common wisdom about the problem. However, no matter how much I got motivated, how self-disciplined I attempted to be or how determined I got myself to feel, I kept on procrastinating. I began to feel that I was ‘broken’ and couldn’t be fixed. Making reference to the conventional wisdom was like me trying to force my vision of “how things should be” onto reality. I was not describing the problem accurately and so I could never come up with a solution that totally eradicated the problem.

However, eventually, through recording my thoughts and through having the bravery to say “Maybe the conventional wisdom is wrong” I got to hear the voice of the real and true reaction and at the point of procrastination it said “I can’t do this” or “I don’t know what to do” or “I don’t know what would be a good decision here” and so I got a more accurate description of the problem by taking account of what it was not. It was not actually a problem of lack of character, discipline or will power. It was a problem of seeking to do things that I found impossible to do in the moment that I wanted to do them. As soon as I realised I changed my problem solving techniques. I stopped my procrastination by taking great care to make what I wanted to do possible and by focusing intensively on impasses when I discovered them.

My prior, inaccurate method of description that attempted to force an incorrect interpretation of reality onto reality meant that I could never accurately portray the problem. Instead, by asking myself “What am I not describing here?” I could open myself up to hear the message that said “I can’t do this right now. I want to do something else instead.” And so I could home in on accurately describing the real problem.

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